HST

I know that I said I was working on finishing up UFOs.  But my brother is coming to my house for Christmas.  He's one of those people that you can't buy anything for because he just buys what he wants when he wants to.

I cut strips 3" wide in yellow and misc white on white fabrics.  I marked them with 3" squares and one diagonal line.

Then I sewed 1/4" on either side of the line.

My dad used to always point out that you figure out the best way to do a project just as you are finishing up.  I was pretty pleased with myself when I figured out  about a quarter of the way in that I could line up several strips at a time and sew across all of them.

I found that it worked best to work on 2 sets at a time so I didn't have any thread tails (left one set on the machine while I positioned the other).  It would probably work even better if all the strips were the same length, but I was using stash fabrics.

I know that there are people who like getting into a rhythm with piecing.  I'm not one of them.  I hate piecing.

One thing I have learned, however is how critically important pressing is.  Time spent pressing at every stage of the sewing process saves me hours of angst and disappointment later.

I am also a trimmer.  My lack of patience at the machine can be fixed with a rotary cutter.   The formula for HST is 7/8" larger than your desired finished size.  For example, if you want a 2" finished square, you would start with a strip 2 7/8".  I add 1" and make my diagonal line stitching at a scant 1/4" so I have wiggle room for trimming to 2.5".

It's a little more waste, but worth my sanity.

I'm about half way finished with the trimming.

Here's a hint about what the finished product will look like.