This weekend has been lovely with fresh snow, an adorable new restaurant at which to study, and a delicious new banana bread recipe. With the snow drifting down outside and the beautiful winter sun I just want to curl up with a good book and a cozy quilt. More than curling up, though, I was excited to have time to lay out and piece a new quilt. Last weekend I decided to try a half-square triangle quilt, which I learned is affectionately called an HST quilt. I cut my squares 5.25" wide, traced a line diagonally across the middle (during physical chemistry, I might add), and sewed a quarter inch seam on either side of the pencil line. It was so simple to just cut squares, and with each one I sewed, I made two blocks! Plus, working on a quilt during the week was fun and a nice change of pace from so many chemistry labs.
Today I finally was able to lay out the quilt. I pinned my batting to the wall as a makeshift design board and put up all the pieces. Initially I laid it out just like the Broken Dishes Farmer's Wife Quilt block. However, it seemed a tad boring, so I twisted some of the squares around to change the little triangles into parallelograms. Now it has interesting geometric movement and is, in Susie's words, "mesmerizing." I like it. This coming week I will continue to piece it, and once the backing fabric comes, begin free-motion quilting. Right now I'm leaning towards free-motion quilting in a geometric almond pattern, like this quilt over at Sew Katie Did. The simple straight quilting of Crafty Blossom's HST quilts intrigues me as well. We shall see!
{Check out some progress on the Broken Dishes quilt