Well-Lit Tiger HRTs

 

Cutting the pairs of rectangles for the rest of the HRTs for the Lupine mystery quilt.

I noticed the cool reflection of the underside of the new portable rechargeable light that I got for myself when it was on sale. That's reflecting on a print I just got from Ravi Zupa.

That's a lot of pairing and pinning, I think 15 sets. And I still have 5 more sets left to cut and pin. But at least I'm prepped for some more sewing tomorrow.

Lupine HRTs

 

Here are the HRTs that I've just finished today for the Lupine Mystery quilt. Only seven sets, with so many more to go. Back to cutting I go.

Back to HRTs

 

Back to actual sewing happening today! Finally! Woohoo! But of course I had to re-teach, re-view, and re-learn how to do the rest of the HRTs with the Bloc Loc Rulers that I cut out for the Lupine Mystery Quilt.

I referred back to the kinda tutorial I'd made for myself way back in June. This is a sort of update to that, with a big deal note to begin with: Both fabrics are right side up when you cut the pairs. Very Important for prints especially.

Flip one of the triangles, right sides together, offset the triangle tips, sew together.

Press seams to the purple.

Make sure you're using the B ruler with the B units, pay attention to which side the seam allowance is on. Trim on two sides.

Keeping the ruler locked onto the seam, spin ruler 180°, slide down to the final measurement of 2"w x 3.5"h.

Repeat with the A ruler and A units.

Okay, one set all done!

There it is, an actual thing that I sewed, and ironed and trimmed.

And then I cut and sewed a whole bunch more, but they haven't been pressed or trimmed yet.

Vintage HRTs

 

The other project I worked on at Sew Day was cutting out the pairs of purple and white rectangles that I need to do clue #4 of the Lupine Mystery.

There are so many "vintage" purples in here, a lot of which were the very first quilt fabrics I ever bought as I've always been a purple person. It was quite fun to use them all and remember "way back when" and to finally be using them again. The one in the lower left corner comes from at least two yard piece of fabric that I had probably bought to make myself shorts or some other piece of clothing. That never happened and I can probably use the rest of it for the backing for this quilt - memo to me.

The rectangles that you start out with are quite large compared to the finished block unit size. It's funny to see them together. I didn't remember to bring my rulers to Sew Day, so I came home with the two large stacks of the 23 more sets of rectangles to work with.

Prints Test

 

Moving on to the Prints Test to make sure I really know how to make these HRTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt. Both fabrics are right side up together, then cut on the diagonal.

The pairs flipped into position and paired with the correct A or B ruler

All sewn together, and doing the trimming.

Okay, now that I've got my brain wrapped around the process, it all worked very quickly. And the prints were no problem-o.

That's two out of 25 sets done. I definitely have some more cutting to do.

HRT But Not Like That

 I am moving on to Clue 4 of the Lupine Mystery quilt. And that means that I'm trying out a new tool, one of several special rulers that I have for making half rectangle triangles (HRTs but not the hormone replacement kind!). This Bloc-Loc one is actually a pair of rulers, one for each direction of the angle.  This makes the markings on the ruler so much easier to use for me. 

I really like how the Bloc-Loc channel grabs and holds the pressed over seam with the HST version that I've been using for a while now. Just to note: these Bloc-Loc rulers don't really work for pressed-open seams because the channel is cut to accommodate the three layers of fabric that is on one side of the seam versus the single layer on the other side.

Once I've made the trim on the first two sides, I just rotate the whole ruler with the block underneath it around and then slide it up the channel along the seam and trim the remaining two sides.

Repeat with the other ruler that has the angle going in the opposite direction and then I've got one set done. And then another, this goes pretty quickly once you get started.

 Still a few more left to sew, to finish up the rest of this set.

Next, I know that I need to make the next set with two prints that actually matter which side is "right side up" to make sure I really understand how to use these rulers.  It's so easy to turn over pieces when they're either these batiks or white on white prints that are "close enough" on both sides.