Half Square Triangle: Fussy Cut DIY Template

Fussy Half-Square Triangle

This morning I popped out of bed with an idea of a quilt I wanted to cut up. It was 6:30. I had today off. Why the rush? Most of the fabrics I wanted to use were pre washed, but three important pieces were not. And I don't have laundry in my building. And it was 16 degrees outside.


Too the bathtub I went!

To the Tub

I tossed in half-yards of some Lizzy House, Amy Butler and Sandy Gervais. Woolite. Warmish water (to help with the pre-shrink).

No dryer? No problem! The radiators were on and toasty warm. A fan helped circulate the air. About 90 minutes later, I was in business.

Dryer Dilemma: Solved!

I was ready to cut. And cut. And cut.

Peach and Pink Palette

When I got to the Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet, I knew I wanted to be verrrry careful. For this quilt I've challenged myself to tackle the half square triangle block. For most sewers, it's pretty basic. I'm intimidated by the bias sewing and a bunch of other jazz.  And I want to control exactly what appears on the triangle when the seams are sewn and pressed. Because you lose a half inch of the square, diagonally down the middle, when you sew it up, it's not as easy as imagining the square folded in half to get what you want.

"I need a custom ruler," I think to myself.

Well of course, I'll just make one!

Do It Yourself

First I traced out a 5 inch square on some template plastic. Then I drew dotted lines down the diagonal center, both directions. I wanted to know what part of the image would be lost by the center seam, to I drew a line 1/4 of an inch from the center line on either side.

Seam Allowances

I then drew a 1/4 inch boarder around the whole square--so I know exactly what fabric will be lost in the other seams.  I traced out my template with water soluble fabric marker like this:

Tracing the Square

See how the solid red diagonal line goes through the center of the flower? That's what I wanted. The top left triangle, when matched with a solid, will press open and look like a sun rising. That does mean the bottom right triangle will look different when pressed open, but that's ok. I'll save it for another project.

Bordering Brilliant!

So now my half yard of "vintage paisley" looks like Swiss cheese--if Swiss cheese was orderly and had sharp cube shaped bubbles. But it worked! Stay tuned.

XO Terez

This Heart's On Fire

Flaming Heart {Right Side, Test Print}

Spent a lovely afternoon crafting with the girls in the studio. Between the four of us we completed: *one knit hat (CS's first, congrats!), three origami and one kiragami lessons (thank you, LA!), numerous paper boxes, balloons and hearts, one amazing Banana Bread (this needs capital treatment) courtesy the KimKitch and blogged here, Mamacat's famous cheddar and bacon dip with veggies and chips, one bag of heart gel candies and one complete (well, nearly) carving from yours truly:

Heart On Fire Rough Cut

This is an amalgamation of a couple of different doily cuts from various sizes and a bit of imagination. I'm thinking about carving a keyhole in it but I might leave it as is and clean up the flames and the center heart. Ooooh I love it, though. These photos misrepresent its size--it's about eight inches across, 6 inches high:

I've learned that during the gray-snowy-slushy-back-side-of-winter, my brain craves red. Good thing Valentine's Day is right there in the middle of the home stretch to spring!

XO Terez

My First Vera (Bradley)

Whoopsie Daisy!

 When I visited Boston for the first time in 2002 I couldn't figure out the quilted bag craze. It was October, and cold, and many very fashionable women on the T were clutching quilted cotton bags to their shoulders. To me they looked like bandanas and very 80s. Gasp!

But time marched on, I move here, and the patterns evolved. My favorite roommate of all time, KV, moved in and brought with her some beautiful lunch bags, purses and wallets. "What are  those?" I asked. "Vera Bradley!" she replied.

Vera Bradley Folkloric Pattern (pardon my whitebalance!)

 Vera B. (not to be confused with the amazing textile designer from the 50s-70s, Vera Neumann, creator of the first "signature scarf," a few of which I own) is an American company that creates handbags, accessories and home pieces. Founded in 1983 by Patricia Miller and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, they named the company Vera Bradley after Baekgarrd's mother, Vera.

Me and VB

 Now that I sew and am enamoured of fabric, I can't help but admire the Vera Bradley line even more. Mamacat and HH bestowed a Barnes and Noble gift card upon me this Christmas and when I saw this print in the store and was assured I could use the gift card toward it, destiny came calling:

Bag, Hat, Scarf, Gloves

Anyone who really knows me knows that I love: *pink *orange *green *cream *mandalas *hearts *Scandinavian inspired prints *handbags. As you can see from my Crafty-Valentining post, mandalas, especially heart ones, are my current inspirational fire.

Warding Away the Cold

Obviously this bag and I are a match made in design heaven. Even if it is a bit spring/summery and it is 26 degrees out with 3-5' snow drifts!

XO Terez

Crafty Valentine-ing

Valentine Mandala

The Norwegian Knitter joined me for a spot of Valentine Crafting before the windchill became to unbearable to make visiting impossible (or at least highly undesirable). We settled in at Chez Terez  and let ourselves become one with the chaotic-craft-plosion that is the back room. After a delightful brunch of chocolate and apricot croissants from Clear Flour (one upside about the cold weather: no line at the bakery!) we got to work.

Star/Heart

I finished doodling on the the 12" block of SafetyKut rubber and came of up with a few variations on hearts, points, bursts and stars. I love the Valentine Mandala (first photo)--it was taken from a section of a large doily I picked up yesterday. I also love the tiny Heartburst, from a different area on that same giant doily:

Heartburst

The Queen of Hearts wasn't such a bad task master:

Queen of Hearts tea towel by the Other Mother

And Alice was encouraging us to drink lots of warm liquids to keep up our energy, including an amazing elixir the Norwegian Knitter concocted from lemon, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger and honey to help kick the last of Super Head Cold 2011.

Drink Me

My carvings aren't quite all-the-way-finished but I couldn't wait to press out some test prints. Don't they look full of passion and heat in the afternoon sun on my hissing radiator?

Through the Looking Glass

Now the Chez Terez State of Affairs is in a much more Valentine State of Mind. I love it.

Chez Terez State of Affairs Valentine Style

Stay tuned I've got plenty of more love-ly tricks up my sleeve.

XO Terez

Chez Terez & Friends in all their magnificence recap~*

Chez Terez & Friends Lauren, Cindy, Kim and Anna {in spirit!}
at the end of the night!

I think I've basked enough in the Post Chez Terez & Friends Holiday Bazaar and Open Studio glow that I'm finally ready to share it with you. Readers who were able to be with us in person--here's some visual memories. Readers who were there in spirit, here's some highlights of our once-in-a-lifetime experience.

2:00 p.m. No one is here yet! Panic starts to set in. Will no one come? Will our amazing back room be all for naught? My mind starts to whirl and spin and then....Bam! Lightening strikes my brain. I wonder aloud: "What if me make a doorprize for our first guest?" Immediately everyone is in. We came up with this:

KimKitch biscotti, Chez Terez earrings, O-Snap bracelet,
Lauren Cards card and "You're #1!" declaration

Now jumping out of my skin with excitement I dance around the house with the bag...who will it be?:

Terez and doorprize

2:30: Knock, knock, knock!
It's Lisa A.! Hoooray! We couldn't have picked a more deserving guest {although all of our guests were so deserving!} if we tried. Lisa has been supportive of this project since Day One. Every time we write about it, she would comment with well wishes. She had been anticipating this event as long as we had. Congratualations, Lisa!

Lisa, our #1 guest!

3:00 p.m.: The floodgates open and we realized we need not have worried. We enjoyed a steady stream of visitors and friends for the next 5 hours:

Guests!

One snafu: the Christmas Mixed IPod was lost before the party started. Darn thing still hasn't turned up. I misplaced it right before the bash, so Rosemary and Bing stood in as a soundtrack:

Rosemary: gorgeous, classy and very  Chez Terez

The shops were spectacular:

The Kim Kitch

Kim transformed my old utility closet into a bakery wonderland.

Charmed, I'm sure

Cindy's O-Snap bracelets and hair accessories were charming.

Red.House prints

 Anna's prints were precious.

Lauren's Cards

 Lauren had quite the catalogue of cards.

Chez Terez Resparkle

Chez Terez made a spectacular showing.

I'm sorry I have to share one more Chez Terez--but this is my blog, afterall:

Chez Terez

And the Bless You Cozies! They flew out like hotcakes!

Bless You Tissue Cozies by Chez Terez

It was amazing. I'm still breathless by what a wonderful experience we had nearly a week later. It was so sad that night as the gals were breaking down their shops--it really did feel like elves (or at least fairygodsisters) had descended on the place. It would not have been possible without Anna, Cindy, Kim and Lauren. Nor would it have been possible without all of YOU. Your support and encouragement and excitement powered us through and has kept us uplifted and inspired in the days following.

We can't wait to see you at the next one.

With love,
Terez

PS Photos in this post brought to you by me, Kim and Cal.

Printing press: on a Chez Terez scale

Do It Yourself! [2000 PLUS stamp kit]

I can't pinpoint when my love of type and letters began.

I think it may have been when I learned to read the "Sam" books in Mr. Thompson's preschool class:

Sam the Lion from the Sam Books

Sam the Lion had a friend named Mat (one T!) the Mouse and another named Sis the Snake. [An aside: my baby brother is named Matt and his best friend is Sam and my brothers and nephews and niece all call me Sis. Go figure]. I just called Mamacat to ask her about the Sam Books and guess what? You can download them all online for free.

I digress.

I love print. I love printing. I love arranging letters and impressing them literally on the paper. Hence my love of typewriters: 

Olympia Deluxe typewriter from HH

And gold foiled gummed letters:

Gold foiled gummed letters

During my highschool hey-day I decided to start self publishing a Zine using my dad's blue Smith Corona, clip art and Kinkos called Aseret Pages. I wish, how I wish I would have saved a copy. I even listed in in Fact Sheet 5 for all you zine-sters out there.

This blog sort of takes the place of Aseret Pages, I suppose.  I love how easily I can share photos and ideas and call up Mamacat and ask her did she see my latest project but it is electronic and kind of ephemeral and not permanent like print. But that's ok. Because for my other insta-print needs I'd like to introduce you to:

2000 Plus DO-IT-YOURSELF TRADITIONAL STAMP KIT:

2000 Plus DO-IT-YOURSELF TRADITIONAL STAMP KIT

It comes with two stamp blocks: one for one line (perfect for a website or blog address) and one with five lines (perfect for a return address or mini message).

Blog stamp

I've started stamping my packages and envelopes with it and it is verrrrry satisfying.

Stamp with purpose!

And for longer messages there's always the Olympia Deluxe Pink Typewriter:

Longer messages

 XO Terez