HS Triangles

It's a rainy day here.  A great day to start a new project.  After a couple of long days teaching this weekend I had my evenings to sit and design.  My new project has a number of half square triangles in it.  Below are some pictures of the method I decided to use to make them today.

I chose my two fabrics, cut them into 8" squares and drew an X on the lighter fabric diagonally twice.  These will become cutting lines but first I need to sew 1/4" on either side of both lines.

Here are the drawn lines and my sewing lines.  As you can tell I have not perfected my picture taking ability.

I will now cut the block through the center of the diagonal lines both ways and then cut apart on the solid diagonal lines.  This will produce 8 HS triangles.  They may or may not need to be trimmed to size.

I was making 3 1/2" unfinished triangles so I cut my squares at 8 inches to get the size I needed. 6" squares will produce 2 1/2" unfinished squares, 7" squares = 3" unfinished,  and so on.....

Friends from college are coming over to watch the basketball finals, Michigan U vs Louisville tonight.  As you can imagine the city of Ann Arbor is pretty excited.  I think I'll make a quick and easy dessert to have on hand.  

Cherry Dump Cake

Spread two cans of cherry pie filling into a 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle a yellow cake mix on top of the cherries.  Drizzle 2 sticks of butter over cake mix and sprinkle chopped nuts on the top.  Bake at 350 for an hour.

May your day be filled with laughter and love,

Dee

Serendipitous Opportunities

I had the opportunity to visit USArtQuest in Grass Lake, MI yesterday.  What a fun and inspiring place.  Once a month they hold an open studio where you can join other artists and spend the day creating and learning.  It was fun to learn an easy way to dye my own fabric and use mica for embellishment on my quilts.  I'll definitely be back.  My brain is full of ideas.

Today was spent preparing for the four classes I'm teaching the next two days.  The picture below is one of the UFO's that needed finishing for one of the classes. The ladies in Quilt Club will be so glad to see it has borders on it finally.

Enjoy the spring days and may you finish a few projects you need too and be inspired to start some new ones.

Dee

I am a flitter...

When working on a project I usually like to have at least two in process so that I can go back and forth between them as I create.  It's hard for me to stay focused on only one project at a time and generally I am dreaming or planning for my next creation while working on the one I am doing.

Today was definitely one of those days.  I had to get a quilt completed to mail tomorrow and I had made a few mistakes and wanted to flit to something else but had to force myself to keep working.  I am happy to say the quilt is completed and I have cleaned up the studio and put everything away from the project, vacuumed the floor, wound my bobbins, cleaned my machine and changed the needle for the next project.  Do you flit from project to project or do you focus on one at a time?  How do you manage to keep your focus?

Have you been sewing and made a mistake and wanted to erase what you have done instead of picking it out?  Well now you can-check out the new stitch eraser app that Alex Anderson demonstrated on her Website, thequiltshow.com or at this address:  http://www.youtube.com/watc.  This is amazing!!!!!!!!!

Spring is teasing us here in MI.  We had a beautiful 50 degree weather Easter Sunday and today it is cold, windy and snow.  I hope that your day is filled with sunshine, love and laughter.

Blessings,
Dee