For the Island Batik Ambassadors “Try It” Challenge, I’m pleased to share a technique for making half-square triangles (HSTs). I wish I had thought of it, but all of the credit goes to Beth Helfter of EvaPaige Quilt Designs. I honestly cannot recall how our quilting paths first crossed, but we are both former members of the Quiltmaker Magazine “Scrap Squad” and both of us have more or less built our design careers around scrap quilts.
The blue star block is in the book. The gold block is not.
The most common way of making HST units is to begin with two squares, draw a diagonal line on one, sew 1/4″ on both sides of the line then cut on the drawn line. This gives you a pair of identical HSTs. But Beth wanted each HST in her project to be unique. She could have just cut all of the squares diagonally and mixed them up, but then she’d be dealing with all of those bias edges. Her solution is nothing short of genius. She calls it Accordion-Sewn HSTs. She even wrote a book about it!
Because this is Beth’s technique, and because it’s one that’s easier to understand if you see it done, I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch her tutorial videos:
I was intrigued, so I ordered the book and whipped up a quick star block. That’s all it took, and I was hooked…and looking for other scrap blocks I could use the accordion technique on. The first one I came up with was the “O, Scrap!” block.
I should note that all of the scrap fabrics used in this post are Island Batik prints.
I really like that blue star block from Beth’s book, but I don’t like the big “blank” space you get when you set the blocks side-by-side. I decided to try to add dark triangles in the corners. The challenge with this block, which I called “O, My Stars”, was figuring out how to stack my squares so I’d wind up with the specific combinations I needed.
I have big plans for that block, so I cut a mess of my Island Batik scraps into 4.5″ squares with my AccuQuilt Go! die cutter. It’s going to be an ongoing scrap project for a while, though, because I got another bright idea.
I had most of a 10″ stack of the Island Batik “Lavendula” collection left over from my February miniature quilt project, so I cut all of those squares into 5″ squares and made a modern-style lap-size quilt .
I made three 16″ “Oh, Scrap!” blocks. I considered renaming the larger block “The Big O”, but chickened out. Beth would’ve done it. I also made two extra side strips. I sewed the blocks and extra strips into one long row, then added a 16.5″ wide strip across the top and a 40.5″ wide strip on the bottom. The result will be a 56″ x 72″ scrap quilt. The binding will be either teal (more likely) or purple.
All fabrics in this post were supplied by Island Batik Ambassador sponsors. The project is sewn with Aurifil thread, and the batting is Hobbs Heirloom Cotton blend. AccuQuilt has GO! dies for both the 4.5″ and 5″ squares I used in this project.
Have I convinced you to try the Accordion HST technique? You’ll want to order your very own copy of Oompah! or the technique sheet from EvaPage Quilt Designs. You may want to check out her Facebook page as well. Do me a favor and tell Beth you heard about it here on Seams Like a Plan. Pretty please?
Back in February, a big box arrived on my front porch. Inside was a wonderful collection of 
I had been toying with a simple quilt pattern for a basic class on the 
My quilt required two 4.5″ strips of each of the twenty fabrics. I paired the prints up. Each set of four strips would make two blocks in the finished quilt. One block would have a dark star on a light background, and the other block would have a light star on a dark background.
To make each set of blocks, I began by cutting six 4.5″ diamonds from a dark strip and six from a light strip.
I cut twelve 4.5″ triangles from the other dark strip, and twelve from the light strip.
The light triangles will go with the dark diamonds, and the dark triangles go with the light diamonds.
Call this what you will, I have to admit it’s one of my favorite designs yet. It’s a modern-style quilt, inspired by folk lore. Here in northern Montana, on our coldest winter days, ice crystals will form in the air, and the sunlight playing off of these crystals sometimes makes it appear that there are two smaller suns flanking the real sun. These reflections are called “Sun Dogs.”
I won’t be telling you how to make this quilt in this post, because the pattern is included in the latest issue of 
This week the United States celebrate Independence Day, our neighbors celebrate Canada Day, and the Island Batik Ambassadors celebrate the release of the Freedom collection with a
Our April Island Batik Challenge was to create a baby quilt using the AccuQuilt. I added an additional layer of complication by challenging myself to come up with a pattern that would use every die in the Qube®. After a few weeks of coming up with ideas that could use most of them, I stumbled across a design that has been in my sketchbook for at least a decade that is perfect. It’s a 44″ square medallion-style quilt that would be perfect for a baby, or a wallhanging…and it calls for all eight shape dies, and the 2.5″ strip die.
Designing quilts is my dream job, but for 40 years now, I’ve made my living as a radio announcer. So, when I’m involved in an interview, I’m usually the one asking the questions. Last week, the table turned (little deejay pun there), and I was interviewed by Pat Sloan for the American Patchwork and Quilting podcast. Mine will be the third interview.
The March challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was “Vintage Reimagined.” We were asked to design a project inspired by a vintage quilt.
The quilt I chose as inspiration is a top pieced decades ago by Tilda Adamson, the grandmother of my friend Art Adamson.
For my project, I used the Island Batik “Twilight Chic” collection. I had a stack of 40 10″ squares, plus 2 yards each of a dark blue and wheat-gold coordinate, all supplied by Island Batik.
Several years ago, an online quilters group I belong to got into a discussion about other activities we enjoy. Cooking, travel, writing and photography were mentioned quite often, but it turned out nearly all of us had two things in common – we have pets (mostly cats and/or dogs), and we are avid readers. Most of us also had a sizable library of quilting books.
Here, my “Dust off a Quilt Book” blog hop post segues into my “Magnificent Mini” challenge blog post for Island Batik fabric, Aurifil threads and Hobbs batting. They supplied the materials for this project.
I had quite a bit of fabric left over from my 2018 “stash” of Island Batik Fabrics, including this stack of 10″ squares from the Lavendula collection. I chose a navy blue from the “foundations” collection to go with it. I decided my center would be 9″ x 9″ (finished size), and the individual squares would be 1″ finished. My borders would finish 3″ wide.
My first year as an Ambassador for Island Batik fabrics wrapped last Friday with the posting of my “Many Glacier” quilt, made for the “Icicle” collection, which should be in your local quilt shop about now. When I signed up for the program, I had no idea what to expect, but wave the promise of two shipments of 
I didn’t even know about AccuQuilt when I wrote the book, which describes my simple system for cutting up the scraps (anything smaller than a quarter-yard) from my quilting projects into custom pre-cuts, and 80 blocks that can be made in two sizes each from those pre-cuts.
My fellow Ambassadors are opening their boxes now, too. Visit their blogs to see the goodies they got. We’ll be posting our first projects for 2019 soon, too. Our theme is “Magnificent Mini Quilts”. Mine will be up on February 18, the first day of the Dust Off an Old Book Blog Hop, being organized by one of the Island Batik Ambassadors. Mine is one of the first quilt books I ever bought. I think you’ll enjoy it.
This is the time of year when folks here in north central Montana dream of getting away to warmer places, but not me…not today, anyway. Today I will wrap winter up in a cozy warm quilt made with Island Batik’s new “Icicle” collection, which should be arriving at your local quilt shop right about now.
Many Glacier is my final quilt for the 2018 Island Batik Ambassadors program, and it just may be my favorite. In addition to the fabulous (and generous) “Icicle” collection of fabrics provided by 
Seams Like a Plan 