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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

HST hints

When making HST can be a time consuming process, especially if you need lots of them for whatever you're making.  I've been looking for ways to make this faster while working on the snails blocks.


For some time, I would lay out extra triangles on top of a fabric strip like this.  Then sew down both sides of the strip and trim the HST's to size.







This time though, I tried the same basic thing with 2 squares.  First I made sure that the red square was big enough to get the size I needed out of it (2" finished - 4.5" square).

Then stitched around all four edges as shown (and yes, I don't necessarily match thread colors when I sew.....lol).
Next up was trimming the HST's to the size needed.   Love trimming before pressing because I only have to make two cuts instead of four.
And this is what I had once I trimmed all 4 HST's.  The center 'X' is what was waste.

Now the downside of these ways of making the HST's is that you have bias edges on the block.  But for me the time savings and ease of doing it this way makes that worthwhile dealing with.

Gratitudes -

1. Only 2 more infusions are scheduled

2. I'm not having to pay anything for the infusions - a good thing when they are billed at $23,000 each! (And that's cheap compared to what was billed in WY when I had to have the same treatment)

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for finally writing about >"HST hints" <Loved it!

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  2. There is a way to create 8 HSTs at a time with no bias on the edge...check out Blossom Heart Quilts here: http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/2015/05/hst-tutorial-eight-at-a-time/ I remember taking squares, cutting them in half and sewing them back together to make 1 HST at a time!! I have learned a few things in my 10 year quilting journey!!

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  3. And if you make 8, the sides are not on the bias. =) I still like doing two at a time, though. It's a tiny bit slower, but I've done so many, it doesn't take much time anyway.

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