When I took my first quilting class back in 2001, it was a 6 week "Sampler" class. The supply list said to pick a focus fabric and then pull in other prints to match and voila, you will have the right stuff for your new quilt. When I got to the first class, everyone had these stacks of beautiful florals, all co-ordinated, romantic and oh so pretty! I loved my choices, little prairie prints, bandana prints, calico's, but they were BROWN.
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The teacher said I needed some additional prints so up to the quilt store we go.....except they don't carry any browns. So I got the only thing they could justify to add to my group and it was a plaid. I didn't like it, but I went along....how could I not, I knew nothing and these women knew "everything". I never grew to love that plaid, but I still love browns. Maybe it's a subconcious love affair with chocolate, but there are no calories in fabric! It was several years later I phoned back to that store to ask the teacher something. I explained who I was and why I was calling and when it clicked; "I remember you, you're the one who quilts with BROWN! Fast forward 7 - 8 years and I'm trying to get a handle on my scraps. After reading
Bonnie Hunters website/blog with great interest, I am tackling my scrap bags and guess what, I'm still quilting with brown! So here is my latest project, all done without purchasing a piece of fabric, in fact, I didn't even cut into a full fat quarter and here I have a 54 x 54 top. This came to fruition based on trying out Bonnie's techniques. I am the quilter who never saved the corner triangles that got cut off, too tedious to make sense out of these scraps. Always one to learn a new way, I took her advise and sewed the double seam and saved the trimmings. She calls them bonus blocks. I now have a bag with 144 3 1/2" 1/2 sq triangles, ready for another project. And here is how you trim to perfect 1/2 sqs.
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There is a funky corner on the dark side of these 1/2 sq's due to the nature of the mother block they from and it makes things fast for lining up your ruler.
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Here is the same spot on the ruler, this matches on every block and makes for fast work with little thinking, it becomes "assembly line" work.
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This always matches up to the same spot, so it makes for a fast work. Check that the 45 degree line on the ruler is matching your block.
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Trim the right and top sides with the ruler in this position.
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Double check your measurements. All you need to look at is this point.
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Trim the second side and top and you should have a perfect 1/2 square triangle.
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Here is my stack of bonus blocks. I'm sold out on this method, I got a beautiful scrappy top pieced and at the same time I ended up with all these blocks. If I set them in a pinwheel pattern, added a plain setting square and put some borders around it, I'll have a second quilt with very little extra piecing.
Almost as good as chocolate!