Lupine HSTs Done-zo

I love when my iron pretty much matches what I'm ironing.

Trimming off the little dog-ears.

Before I cut out the remaining 8 sets, I added some True Grips to my Bonnie Hunter Essential Triangle Tool, and wow what a difference it made! Why didn't I think of this earlier??? I think I've gotten used to the great Quilters Select built-in grippiness of their rulers.

There's all of the middle size of the HSTs required for the Lupine Mystery quilt all laid out. I think I made one too many set, so one will likely not get used (on the front). 

It seems like that took me absolutely for....e.....ver to finish all of those, but, it's a total of 300 HSTs!

Middle Sized

 

I've moved onto the middle size of the HSTs required for the Lupine Mystery.

There's eighteen out of twenty-five sets done.

Biggest HSTs Done

 

I made the rest of the biggest size of HSTs for the Lupine Mystery.

I made a few sets two many as I got too into cutting them out. Guess the extras will be going on the back or something.

Wow! That's a lot of HSTs! I think these are looking pretty good. But I think that the two sets that are really quite purple compare to the others need to not be used.

They really did stick out. I think these will work out. Now on to making the middle size of HSTs, and these will be pink and purple.

Getting Bigger

 

I decided to switch over to making the much larger HSTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt. These are so much easier to work with, so much less fiddly than the small ones that I finished yesterday. I made these pretty quickly and now I need to cut out and sew the remaining eleven required..

Lupine Pink & White HSTs

 

Postponing the ironing and getting it all done before it got too hot in my workroom was definitely the right call.

There's all 25 sets of four of these almost teeny-tiny HSTs™! Now on to the other two sizes that I need to make.

Pink and White Proceeding

Back to finishing up what I'd started on Sew Day, the rest of the smallest HSTs that I need to make for the Lupine Mystery quilt. That will make the necessary 25 sets of 4 of this size HST. I got them all cut out and sewn together. Honestly, the sewing part of this process takes the least amount of time.

But now it's just too hot in my sewing room to iron all of these open, so I'm setting them aside until the hopefully much cooler morning.

It's so terribly **Dramatic**at my sewing machine in the late afternoon in the summer.

X-Plus Block

 I was struggling with the X-+ block for the BAMQ BOM, and it turned out that the template I printed out wasn't at full size. Soooo, no wonder it didn't fit! Started over with these directions for a 12.5" block. I almost 

I had to interrupt my studio assistant's nap time. And clean off the felt pressing pad. Usually I cover it up, but he always takes advantage if I forget to.

All pressed, including the bonus HST's. They're not teeny tiny but they will probably make it into the final quilt somehow.

All together now. Hey, I actually like this one! After all the hassling around because of my mistake in printing it really wasn't a hard block to do.

Note to self: Always check the size of the printing - not fit to print, but 100%

I may still do the giant (24" square) version.

Here's how all the blocks are looking together. Some of the "mistakes" from making this block are on the upper left, they may or may not make it into the quilt.  It certainly would make a very strong border if I continued those!

Pink Range

 

Switching back over to working on the Lupine Mystery quilt. It's been a while, I haven't worked on this since March! Concentrating on finishing quilts for deadlines and the UFO challenges. I started with cutting out a whole lot of strips yesterday. I brought the smaller pink and white strips with me to Sew Day today to get to work on one of the sizes of HSTs I'm supposed to make. 

Quite the range of pinks at work here. Hope it helps with the variation in the quilt overall.

These are all pressed and ready for trimming.

All trimmed up and ready to go home. Ten more sets of four, added to the two I'd already completed, that leaves ten more sets of four left to do of this size.

Community Giving HST's

 

I sewed twenty-six HSTs for a Community Giving quilt. We're working on another quilt at Sew Day today, but I'll be turning these in to the organizers, hopefully they'll remember which quilt they were for.

Checkerboard BOM

Here's my fabric pull for the BAMQ BOM that's running now through next year. I've chosen all prints in dark to light grays. Will I perhaps use some solids or even my hand-dyes? Perhaps. Will I put a little spot o' color in there? Maybe. Or maybe just maybe the quilting thread that I use will be all neon colors.

This was the first month's BOM block, a creation I came up with using HSTs. The idea was to make more than one of these, but altering the position/direction of at least one of the units that incorporates two HST blocks.

To test that idea out, I made another 12 HSTs

 out of the remainder of the 2.5" strips I'd used to make the first block. 

In this second version of it, which I also liked quite a lot. I really do find that HSTs are very very fun to play around with. See below to see how the two blocks look next to each other.

The new block this month is: Checkerboards. Which I am always drawn to (probably due to my late 70's Ska obsession). Making the checkerboard border in the Old Town Mystery quilt was very happy-making for me even though it took quite a while to accomplish. I truly love the look of it. So, here's my Checkerboard block for the BOM made out of 3" squares.
 

BAMQ BOM Begins & Home Chaos Reigns

It was down to the wire, but I got my first block done for the BAMQ BOM, this month was...HSTs. 

Yes, it's a bit odd, but the idea I had was to turn around one of the two-HST sections each time and it'll be a whole different looking block. Yes, these are two of my newly purchased Portland Trip fabrics, good noticing. They're going to be part of the BAMQ BOM quilt top I'll be making month by month in blacks and grays.

 I didn't get to go the meeting on Saturday where the new month's BOM was presented because of these two jokers. Oh yeah, someone (me, it was me) made the yearly vet visit with the double trouble crew. A two-cat appointment for a change. Sorry, Korben.

Sorry, LeeLoo. We had to dismantle her carrier to get her out so that the vet could check her out. Both of them yelled about not liking being in the car on the way there and on the way back. Thankfully it's only a once a year thing. But I do believe they were easier to handle together, especially with DH along as helper.

Then I got to go home and empty out the refrigerator (and freezer) to get this--DEFROSt IT! Yes, that's the warranty company's solution before investigating whether or not it needs repair (same symptoms as last year's debacle). I honestly thought this defrosting business was a thing of the distant past...I remember my mom doing this close to 60 years ago. Hope it works! I'm not happy with having to entirely discard the contents of my freezer once a year because it stops being freez-y enough. Boo, don't ever buy a GE if you can avoid it. They're on my Never Again list.

 

Starlight Path

On to making the next Patchwork Palooza block, this one is called Starlight Path. I don't know if I'll achieve any path making or twinkly starlight in my fabric choices or not. But either way I'm marking my solid with a white pencil and getting ready to make lots of HSTs

Now to trim all the HSTs down to size, handy-dandy 2.5" Bloc-Loc ruler comes out to help me out once again. Along with the little spinning cutting mat.

Playing around with arranging the HSTs and the squares.

I turned a couple of the square around and liked how their fabrics looked next to their neighbors.

There it is, the seventeenth block in the Patchwork Palooza quilt.

Palooza Twelve

 

As I mentioned on Saturday, I got all the ingredients cut out and labeled and together for the Patchwork Palooza blocks I missed out on making while I was traveling. The first block is entirely made up of HSTs, so I got out my Seams Easy ruler to mark the sewing lines. It works so well for me when I use it with a mechanical pencil.

And then when I was trimming up the HSTs I got out the 2.5" HST Bloc-Loc ruler, so handy and accurate!

And voilá, block 12 is completed.

Here's all twelve of the blocks in a very random placement.

Old Town Aftermath

 So, my teeny tiny HSTs obsession was well fed with the piecing of the Old Town quilt. And regular sized HSTs as well!

And extra Flying Geese, and triangles and strips of various widths. What will I do with them?  For certain, I promise I will not be making a back out of them. Maybe a matching pillow or something like that?

PrePalooza #9

 

This is a KaleidaCam version of the Patchwork Palooza blocks, it didn't make the cut for the monthly marker, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Getting to work on the ninth block for Patchwork Palooza.

Time for the ol' 8-at-a-time-HSTs method.

.

They turned out pretty well, thanks to the handy-dandy Bloc-Loc 2.5" HST ruler. But they don't get used in this block exactly like this...

They get used as the "skies"for Flying Geese.

The brown checkered fabric will be star points if I do this right. 

Executive decision made, I'll be sewing the rest of this block together tomorrow. I have to go crash out for a little while after getting my Covid shot today. I tried something different this time and did a fairly heavy weight workout, to try and help move the shot material around in my arm muscles. It worked well for the flu shot I got last week, no lump, no soreness, no fever like I usually get.