Half Square Triangle Quilt

 

I finished my half square triangle quilt!

As I shared with you in this post, I was fortunate enough to attend Sewing Summit a couple of weeks ago. 

One of the classes that I took was the Half Square Triangle Quilt Top class with Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter.  It was a really fun class and perfect for someone who is very new to quilting like me. 

Amy had us cut our squares before arriving at Sewing Summit which was great because we could get right into sewing.

Between the class time and the two open sew times I went to, I was able to finish my quilt top while at Sewing Summit.

Once I returned home, I knew that I wanted to finish the quilt as soon as possible so that it wouldn’t get pushed to the back burner. 

I pieced together my quilt back and prepared my quilt top for quilting by drawing accurate quilt lines on it.  I am so glad that I did this because I REALLY had to wrestle it through the very small throat space on my little Brother sewing machine.  Only 5 1/2” of throat space, ugh!  It would have been very difficult to keep my quilt lines straight without having the markings.

Originally I quilted lines 1” apart but it really wasn’t the look I wanted.  I decided to add an additional line of quilting between each line so that they would be 1/2'” apart. 

This was what I was looking for.  I like how the texture really looks different between the white and and the color pieces.

I used my scraps to make the quilt back a little more interesting.

Out out of pure luck, the quilt lines lined up perfectly!

Of course I didn’t plan ahead and pick out a fabric for the binding but I think that this one works pretty well.

I am pleased with it and proud of myself for completing it.

Overall, I enjoyed piecing the quilt top best and I even enjoyed sewing on the binding.  The actual quilting of the the quilt, I found rather difficult.  Mostly because I need a machine with a little more power and a lot more throat space.  I am beginning to understand why paying for someone to long arm quilt it for you is so appealing.

On Saturday, I attended my first Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  The RIMQG will be officially joining the MQG next month which is exciting!  Anyway, it was fun to meet some ladies who have the same interest as me and I was even brave enough to share my little quilt.  Which is saying something after seeing some of the beautiful quilts that were shown at the meeting.  Go check them out here.

If you have never made a quilt before, the Half Square Triangle Quilt is a good place to start.  There are many tutorials out there. Here is a good one by Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  Amy Smart of Diary of A Quilter has an entire Beginning Quilting Series.

Happy Sewing,

Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap

 

I'm participating in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap!  This is my first swap ever so I am pretty excited!  I didn't sign up during the first round which ended up having about 160 people in it.  Of course I immediately regretted not joining in on the fun.  Fortunately for me and about 15 other ladies, Kristi opened up the sign ups for the swap to a few more people last night on Instagram.  I'm so glad that I have the chance to participate!  This should be fun.  For my info click on the button!