Tag Archives: half square triangles

Charms from the 90’s

If you have ever participated in charm square exchanges, then you know that you should expect surprises.

I participated in 4 inch charm square swaps back in the 90’s.

Some aren’t even quilter’s cotton. And some were cut with scissors and barely resemble a square.

I am sure that you have used your swap squares years ago, but I still have loads of these.

90's Charm Squares

I am not fond of most of this fabric, so I am going to take Bonnie Hunter’s suggestion and cut fabric that I don’t like into smaller pieces.

90's Charm Squares

I decided to pair a light and a dark to make half-square triangles. I am not squaring blocks first.

90's Charm Squares

After pressing and then squaring, I am ending up with 3.5 inch squares (and one 3.25 inch square that will go into the parts department).

31 blocks made so far.

90's Charm Squares

I have no plan for the setting as yet. That should be the fun part, since there are so many ways to set this type of block.

Have fun and carry on!

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt – Part 3

For Bonnie Hunter’s Orca Bay mystery quilt – Part 1, click here.
For Bonnie Hunter’s Orca Bay mystery quilt – Part 2, click here.                               

This isn’t WIP Wednesday, but I finished Part 3!  Yay!!!!

The clue?  Make 350 (1.5″ finished) half-squared triangles (HST).  Whoa!  That’s alot!  But, as mentioned in Part 2, Linda Franz and her Inklingo make this clue easy peasy to accomplish.

I am showing printing on both a light fabric and a muslin fabric just for comparison.  You can easily see the printing (on the wrong side of the fabric, by the way) on both of these fabrics.

I cut the fabric 8.5″ x 11″…the same as copy paper (only because my dinosaur printer doesn’t do custom sizes) and I still get little waste.  In fact, I get 30 HSTs per printing.  Cool!  This is a real timesaver!

Sew on the diagonal dash lines.

Cut apart on the solid lines.

Almost finished already!

Pressed open and trimmed!  YeeeHawww!  That was easy!

Cute little guys, aren’t they?