HRT's (Half-Rectangle Triangles) and Comfort Quilts

At my last Guild meeting, my buddy Marilyn and I gave a demo on how to make Half-Rectangle Triangles based on an HRT tutorial found on the blog "Buttons & Butterflies" by Heide Grohs.  Here is the process using construction paper instead of fabric.  You can make any size rectangle by starting with two rectangles cut 1/2" wider and 1/4" longer than the unfinished size of rectangle you want to end up with.

It was decided we would make light yellow and blue HRT's for our next meeting starting with 5" by 10" rectangles.  Here are the ones I made:

The previous month we were collecting striped 12.5 " unfinished star blocks made in any manner and we were one short, so I decided to make one using HRTs paired as the star legs.  I cut out four pairs of rectangles measuring 4.75" x 3" in order to end of with 4.5" x 2.5" star legs which paired together to make 4.5" squares.

And here is the finished star made with 4.5" squares of fabric.

I had a comfort quilt top which had been put together the last time our guild had a comfort quilt sew day and on Monday, I pieced a backing and got it loaded on my frame and finished quilting loops on it by lunch time.  After lunch, I got the binding on and put it in the washer.  It went together way more quickly than I imagined.  Here's a picture of it all finished.  The blocks are 6.5" unfinished so the quilt is approximately 42" x 60".  I didn't measure it after shrinkage.

And here's a close up to see the backing, binding and the loopy quilting.

Since I had some backing fabric left over, I decided to make another star block.  Plaid fabric is just fabric with stripes going in two directions right?  Double stripes.

Now, to get some more finished tops onto the frame and get them quilted as well!

Red and White Scandanavian Inspired Quilt

I made this quilt several years ago.  I made the centre by just looking at a picture of a cushion and sewing together a grid of  2.5" squares of red and white fabric.  Some of the red fabric and all of the white fabric were snowflake prints.  It turned out so well, I went looking for some Scandinavian sweater inspired motives to make a frame around the reindeer and I came across this tutorial http://thecraftyquilter.com/2014/11/nordic-mini-quilt-along-row-1/.   I made my pieces 50% bigger than the pattern called for and then I added a border of larger red squares.

I bound it in a red and white striped fabric and backed it with a red and white checked flannel fabric so it was nice and snuggly.

Of course, it wouldn't have been all coordinated without quilting it with an allover snowflake pattern!

A Star Striped Star!

I wasn't even trying to be this accurate with the stripes, but sometimes symmetry just works out.  This is a 12.5" unfinished block.

I love how the centre stripe in the top and bottom hour glass blocks point at each other in the middle.  I was going to sew the centre square with the stripes running vertically instead of horizontally, but the stripes matched up so well with the side hour glass blocks, I had to put them running the same way.  Was it a fluke, or could I produce this again?

Cardinal Red Star Quilt - A finished flimsy!

I started this quilt last fall but put it aside in order to work on Christmas sewing.  Today I attached the final borders of half-size stars.  The large stars finish at 12" and the small stars finish at 6".  I will probably add another narrow border of the plain background fabric before quilting it so the binding doesn't cover up any star points.

The lighting is not good, so here is a close up of one star so you can see the Cardinal fabric and the red snowflake fabric.

At the January Mayflower Quilters' Guild meeting our President announced a challenge for our June year end meeting.  She wants everyone to bring in Star Quilts, so my goal is to have this quilt finished for that meeting.  I'm linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!