Half Square Triangles: Finishing plus the Next Series

Happy Thursday.
We did the final video of our Half Square Triangles today on Facebook Live and Esther was able to show off her finished quilt. In the last week she put together all the remaining blocks, assembled the top, quilted it and bound it by hand!
In my opinion the resulting quilt is beautiful, and it is going to look great in her bedroom.
In the video today, Esther pointed out her borders, which she made with extra Half Square Triangle Units randomly sewn into length of the borders, to create a unique and very fun border.
Just as a little note, she made 20 blocks, and used 2" sashing and corner stones. Her outer border is 4.5" squares.
She bound her quilt in a bias stripe and it turned out so pretty.
Esther also introduced the next series that she will be doing. We will be working with the Log Cabin Rulers from Creative Grids for the next series.
 It will start next week Thursday, May 7, and we will once again do the videos on Facebook Live at 1pm. We love the interaction in these videos and hope that you will continue to ask questions and comment on them.
For the Log Cabin Blocks it is really hard to give fabric requirements as it really depends on the size of block and quilt that you will be making. But for an idea, for the 8" Log Cabin Block you can make one block with 1 -- 2"x40" strip of a light fabric and 1-- 2"x40" strip of a dark fabric. Obviously you will probably want more than just two fabrics per block but that should give you a rough idea. So if you want to make a quilt that measures 56"x64" that would be an 56 blocks total, so you would need 56 strips of light and 56 strips of dark plus your center squares which are cut at 2.5".
Esther has one quilt with lights and darks on the go as well as one that has no set dark and light sections but it just colorful and fun. So do whatever suits you.
You will also need the ruler in the size you prefer. It is available in a 4", 6" and 8" finished size and there is also one that does both the 6" and 12". The 6" and 8" have been the most popular size, although I love using my 4" to make minis.
You can purchase the rulers here.
Have a great weekend. I will be spending mine celebrating my baby's 2nd Birthday! Honestly I cannot believe he is going to 2 tomorrow. He is such a fun little dude, and keeps all of us in stitches with his antics. He is quite good at getting anyone to do his bidding, and though he gets into a lot of trouble his smile is too cute for anyone to be upset with him.
Kayla

What are we working on?

Hello everyone. Today I want to share with you some projects that we have been working on. 

As you may have seen last week, Esther just finished up a large assortment of table runners. She is also nearly finished her Half Square Triangle Sampler using Early Bird by Bonnie and Camille. Esther is also working on a project for herself. She is using Art Gallery Fabrics and the Meadowland Quilt Pattern by Then Came June. I am loving the green fabric she is using for the background! Aside from this she is working on finishing up some older projects that have been in the works for quite some time. 

Carrie spent some time secret sewing and surprised me with a quilt that she had made for me! She used Summer Sweet by Sherri and Chelsi, my favorite designer duo, and used a pattern by Chelsi called Star Crossed, because I am a huge fan of star quilts. 

She is also participating in a quilt along. The pattern name is Homecoming and is by Lo and Behold Stitchery, she couldn't decide which fabric combination she liked better so she is making two! 

I have a couple things on the go currently. I am quilting along on the Hearts At Home Quilt (I am using Breeze by Zen Chic), and have half my blocks finished for that one. I am also working on my Summer Sweet Gelato Quilt which we have kits available for in our shop. 

I started a new project using Daisy Mae by Poppie Cotton on the weekend, and since I am doing a Facebook Live video tomorrow on the Stripology Ruler from Creative Grids, I should make a couple sample blocks tonight.

 Are you getting any quilting done right now, or are you finding yourself busy with other things?

Kayla

Half Square Triangles: Block Layouts

Happy Thursday! This week has finally felt like spring for several days in a row rather than just a single day, and I am loving it. My boys have been outside for the majority of the week, and we even had a couple fires in the evenings. 

At the shop it has been really busy. We spend the morning packaging up orders that came through overnight and answering phone calls. The afternoon is spent putting orders outside, packaging more orders and tidying up. Carrie has been going to post office every day to ship out orders too. So thank you everyone for your continued support. 

Esther and I plan to do groceries tomorrow morning for the Food Bank from the Giving Back promotion, we had a lot of orders come through so thank you again!

Today on our Facebook Live Esther showed off some different Block Layouts using 16 half square triangles in each block. It really is unbelievable how many different ways you can arrange the units. 

A lot of the blocks she made today are from Sherri at A Quilting Life who did a Mystery Block of The Month in 2019. Here is a link if you would like to download all those patterns (2019 Mystery BOM A Quilting Life). 

If you send an email to esther@chickenfeedquilts.com she can also provide you with another layout sheet of blocks. 

A great tip to ensure that you all the units facing the correct direction is to take a step back and look at it, or to take a photo on your phone and look at it that way. 

Esther also mentioned sashing in the video. Since her blocks are measuring 16.5" unfinished she cut her sashing strips at 2.5"x16.5", and put one strip between each block. She will also make sashing rows to go between each row of blocks, in these rows she will use 5 sashing strips each measuring 2.5"x16.5" and put a cornerstone (2.5" square) between each strip. These cornerstones will help greatly when sewing the rows together as they give you the ability to nest seams, which will help all your blocks line up nicely in your quilt when it is finished. 

Have fun making your blocks and tag us in your photos so we can see them too. 

Esther hopes to have her quilt top finished for next weeks video!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kayla

Blog Takeover: Esther

Hello, Kayla has the night off from writing the blog, well almost off, she needs to edit all my mistakes.

What have you been doing during Covid-19 and all the social distancing rules?  I understand the need for the social distancing but am really being to dislike the question ‘is that proper social distancing’.

I know many of you have been busy sewing masks for yourselves, family, friends, medical professionals, others at your work, etc. I’m sure I missed lots. And others are busy with scrub bags and caps for medical professionals. Right now 1/2 the battle is finding elastic, interfacing or twill tape, I thought when this started we had a great selection of these items but many sold out very quickly.

That being said I did something a bit different.
Table toppers!It started when I thought of a very sweet older couple who love visiting, getting out and that came to a very fast halt and they are ‘Stuck at home’. I decided to make them a  table topper to add some spring to their home. One table turned into 27, I had so much fun making all of these toppers and used many great patterns. I would love to make more but decided to get these delivered to doorsteps first.

This morning I stopped over at my local garden center  Coaldale Nurseries and found they had some beautiful bedding plants in bloom so I plan on adding a plant to every topper I deliver.

What are your pans for this week? It looks like spring has arrived and I wrote this from the comfort of my deck....how I love warm weather and sunshine
      
Esther veurink

Half Square Triangle: Making the units

Happy Thursday, and what beautiful weather today! I for one decided to let my boys skip out on the majority of schoolwork today and had them play outside instead. All of us loved the change, and the sunshine and fresh air felt so good! Were you able to get outside at all?
Esther and I also filmed the next section of the Half Square Triangle Series. We did it live on Facebook, and the video has been posted to our feed so it is still available to watch on our page, Chicken Feed Quilts.
Basically Esther went over how to construct the Half Square Triangle Unit and showed a couple layouts as well.
If you prefer learning by reading and pictures rather than video, here are some written instructions.
The first step is to draw 2 diagonal lines on the wrong side of your background square. 
Next stack a print and a background square right sides together ans sew a 1/4" on each side of both lines, so you should have 4 stitch lines total that run across the diagonal. I sewed these ones in red so you can see the stitching.







After the lines are sewn you cut the square in half in both directions at the 5" mark, and cut on each diagonal as well.
Next step is to trim using the 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler from  Creative Grids. The markings on the ruler are for finished sizes, in this case we are making 4" finished blocks, so we will find the dashed line by the 4" marking and place that on top of our stitch line, than trim both sides.





Press the direction you prefer and you should have a really nice looking 4.5" unfinished Half Square Triangle Unit.
This method will give you a total of 8 half square triangle units from the two 10" squares (one print and one background)
If you happen to have Charm Squares instead of Layer Cakes you can draw 1 diagonal line and sew on both sides and cut only on the drawn line and this will give you the same 4" finished HST, you will get 2 from 2 5" squares (one print and one background)
Have fun making Half Square Triangles, next week we will do some layout work and see the many different ways these units can be laid out to make a wide variety of blocks.
Have a great weekend,
Kayla

Curbside Pickup

Happy Monday. How are you doing today? I must admit the snow we got here Friday night was kind of a downer for me but the sunshine today is sure improving my mood! I am so looking forward to having lunch outside on the patio again.
Today I wanted to share with you about our curbside pickup program that we are currently offering.
At the moment we cannot allow customers into our shop, which is really hard for us and I am sure for you too. We sure miss interacting with all of you, hearing your stories, and laughing with you at the good and sharing your grief in the bad news.
While we cannot currently share this way we can still provide you with the fabric and notions needed to keep on quilting.
Our online shop is open 24/7 so you can shop at anytime that works best for you, and you can do it wherever you like, you can even do it in your pjs,  convenient right?
You can view our online shop here.
Our fabric is organized into collections just like our shop is. This means that all the fabrics under that collection name were designed to work well together. I will go into more detail next week about why we organize our shop this way. 
Choose what you like or what you need, there are lots of kits, yardage, and precuts available as well as backings, and don't forget about thread, needles, blades, cutters or rulers.
When you are finished go to your cart. At the bottom of this page it will say shipping, you need to enter the province you are from before any options will pop up.
If you are local we provide Store pickup.
Just choose that option and place your order. Store pickup is free. Once your order is placed, you need to wait for the order status to change to "ready for pickup". Once it says this you can drive (or walk) on over to our shop. When you arrive (not when you are leaving your house) call us at 403 345-4048. We will ask for the name on the order, and maybe even what you purchased, we have been packaging up a lot of orders and believe it or not there are some names that are very popular, and we get multiple packages with the same first name.
After this phone call we will put your package outside in a tote on a table. This table is located on the east side of the shop. When we go back inside you are welcome to come grab your order from the tote. Please double check the name on the bag to ensure it is the correct order, sometimes we get multiple calls at the same time.
If we don't answer the first time you will need to try calling again.

If you are from out of town we can ship your order to you. We ship out nearly every day and we use Canada Post, so if you only have a Postal Box there is no worries about not getting your package. We offer free shipping on orders that are over $100 before any taxes are applied.

From every online order of $50 or more placed this week (April 13-18) we will be donating $10 to the Coaldale Food Bank. This counts for both store pickup and shipped orders.

Thursday I will share with you the first layout options for the Half Square Triangle Quilt.

The fabric in the first photo is a brand new collection by Stacy Iest Hsu called Sunday Picnic. Find it under Fabric> Moda> Stacy Iest Hsu> Sunday Picnic

Thank you again for your support!
Kayla

Half Square Triangle: Intro

Happy Thursday, and it's the last day before a long weekend so even better. Do you have any special plans for Easter with your family? Our's will be a little different than usual as we usually attend worhsip services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and have a couple large family dinners. Instead we will be doing church from home via live feed and having some much smaller dinners.  I must say I am very thankful for technology right now that allows for so much video contact with others.
Speaking of videos we did a live video at our store and introduced a new video series that we will doing via Facebook Live.
She is going to be walking us through a Half Square Triangle Sampler Quilt. Every Thursday at 1pm for the next few weeks she will show you a few different layout options to make a couple new blocks. And show you how to use the Creative Grids 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler.
To participate you will need some fabric. For this quilt along we are suggesting layer cakes, 1 of a collection and than a background one or a 2nd printed one. Now background layer cakes can be a little more difficult to find, and so one option is to just by 3meters of your background fabric and cut it into 10" squares.
Esther is using Early Bird by Bonnie and Camille, as described in her video she had a fat quarter bundle at home so she cut her 10" squares from this, and she cut her 10" background squares from a piece of yardage.
You will also need the 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler, a regular ruler, rotary cutter, mat, sewing machine, marking pen, and a ruler for marking.
A new video will be posted at 1pm on Facebook and you can tune in to watch and ask questions as we all sew together. There will be prizes available to win so make sure you tune in and say Hi so we know your watching.
As mentioned in the video the Half Square Triangle is not a new block or technique by any means but many people still shy away from them. Hopefully through these next few weeks you can gain some confidence and either learn or refresh yourselves on this fun unit that is the base of so many different patterns!
I know many of you have the Creative Grids 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler as we have sold hundreds of them during various shows, and demos, but for those of you that don't here is a link to where you can get one.
 Remember our shop is closed this weekend so there is no Curbside Pickup available until next week again.
Also next week we have a little Give Back Program happening, for every online order of $50 or more placed through our website we will donate $10 of groceries to the Coaldale Food Bank. The dates for this are April 13-18.
 Have a great Easter Weekend!
Kayla

Follow Your Heart: Maui, Savannah Strings and Finishing

Happy Monday! How was your weekend, ours was quiet in a good way. Today I am going to share the last two blocks in the Follow Your Heart Quilt Along as well as the finishing instructions. It sounds like a lot but both blocks are not a lot of work, and once they are done we just have to put the whole quilt top together.
First Block: Maui. The instructions for the block begin on page 33. I did everything exactly as the pattern. Be sure to keep all the edges straight in Step A and B so you don't get wavy geese, and end up losing points. I used my Folded Corner Clipper Ruler for these steps and that kept mine nice and straight. Adding the background triangles in Step F is done the same way as in the Spaghetti Junction block, my photo at the right shows how the background fabric should line up on the triangle, both edges are aligned neatly. I trimmed the top edge of my block first to endure I had a nice 1/4" seam allowance  and than trimmed the sides and bottom. After sewing all 6 units together,  there are two little borders to add to the left and right side of the block to finish it off.







Savannah Strings on page 35 is a really quick one to make. Be sure to choose a fabric that has good contrast with you background fabric for the shaft of the arrow, as you don't want that skinny strip getting lost in the block. Follow the cutting instructions in Step B carefully to get the correct shapes, and don't miss the trimming in Step H. This one gets a bottom border to make it complete.
Now we get to put all our blocks together to finish our quilt top!  The nice thing on this one is there is very little extra pieces that need to be added in to finish out top. There is one strip that is added in Step C, (don't miss this little step, because your 2 segments will not fit together in Step I, ask me how I know) For the rest it is just putting the blocks together in order, and if you look at the pictures it will show you the orientation of each block. The pictures also show which way to press the seams, and most of them go to a "border" strip on each block so it presses really nice.
I love how this quilt came together and cannot wait to see yours finished! Thanks for quilting along with me. Mine is currently at the quilt shop waiting for me to choose backing and get it quilted, so as soon as it is all finished I will share a photo of it. 
 Kayla

New Fabric

Happy Thursday, it has been a hectic week at the shop. We ran a sale on Facebook both Monday and Tuesday Morning. This was actually a lot of work, we had to take the photos, edit them to add the price and how many were available. Next they had to get uploaded to Facebook at exactly 10:00am, I promise there was a couple trial runs on my personal page to see how long it took to upload the photos. Afterwards we had to go through and sort all the purchases into names, get invoices made and sent out and then get them ready for pickup or packaged to ship. It went fairly smooth without a lot of hiccups so that was great, and we sold everything that was listed so that was amazing! Thank you again to everyone that joined in on the fun. 

We are planning another one for next week so be sure to login to Facebook on Monday morning at 10:00am to see what's up for grabs this time around. 

In between all of the work for the sale, we have been getting lots of online and phone orders and we have been busy getting those packed up too. 

In addition to that we are still receiving boxes of fabric and we have been getting those unpacked and adding the new items to the website as quick as we can. I think next week we will do another box opening if Carrie hasn't got to them all yet. 

Bonnie and Camille's new collection At Home is up on the website and available for purchase. There is two colorways for this one and we have the full line of both. You can purchase it here 

Abby Rose by Robin Pickens is also ready to go on the website. This one is so springy! You can purchase yardage here 

For both of these collections we have not yet had time to make the precuts but will get to it as soon as we get accustomed to this different way of doing sales and service. 

Also new is Tiger Fly by Sarah Watts for Ruby Star Society. We only ordered the panels and bolts needed to make the two quilts pictured, and already Esther and myself have both called dibs on making one each. Esther is doing the lattice one called Delilah, 

and I will be starting this one tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed. 

The kits are not quite completed but as soon as they are their status on the website will change from coming soon to available!

Painted Meadow also by Robin Pickens came into the shop right around Christmas and has been selling quickly but I want to share with you what the fun table runner Jenn made with it, and even better she made Kits so you can make one too. I made a quilt for my Mom with the fabric too, I used the Dwell 2 pattern by Thimble Blossoms which you can purchase on our website and a Layer Cake of the Painted Meadow and some background fabric. Painted Meadow is available by clicking here. 

Have a great weekend!

Kayla