EASY PEASY HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES-MY FAVORITE WAYS

I love making quilt blocks and borders with HSTs, but I hate trimming them to size.
A few years ago I discovered Shortcut Sheets (no affiliation) for making lots (70) of HSTs at a time, already trimmed and ironed flat, with the dog ears removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91W0tUTFyg

Here are some of the things I've made this way-

 I usually use my ruler to check on whether the HSTs are exact.

 It takes a bit more time, but since the units are already pressed and trimmed, it's worth it. You don't need to make them all the same. By using different fabric in every other strip, you can get a scrappy look.

JOINING QUILT AS YOU GO BLOCKS INTO ROWS

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2019!
Yikes, it's been forever since my last post.

This is the quilt I made for my friend Gerry. I didn't want to break up the log cabin pattern with sashing, so I invented my own method to make it easy to sew on my home sewing machine.

 Here in the back of the quilt. I used my walking foot to stitch in the ditch. I just kept turning the blocks. I used a printed copy of clip art leaves and stitched them with free motion quilting.

 Putting the rows together. Double check that you have them in the right order. Fold back the back and batting, so you are only sewing on the blocks of the quilt top.       Then turn the quilt over, and join as in the first tutorial. You can join the rows using either hand stitching, or use a thread in the bobbin that really blends with the top.

    After I sewed all the blocks together, I trimmed the quilt square.

I wanted to add a half square triangle border. To add a quilt as you go (individually quilted border), You will quilt only the top and batting with the quilting pattern. You can mark it, or do it free motion; either way it's easy. Be sure to leave at least 1/2" unquilted on both edges, for joining.

 Trim the sides of the batting 1/4".

Now, cut a strip of backing 1" wider than the border piece, and sew it to the OUTSIDE EDGE of the border.  No binding! I have another quilt I'm making this way, and I'll take more pictures. This blog is really for me to remember and perfect how to do it.