Wrangling HST's

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HST stands for half-square triangles, which in my decade of sewing have remain conspicuously absent from the routine. I don't like sewing triangles; I can't control them. They have their own agendas and.... Anyway, in Jodi Godfrey's latest delightful pattern, HSTs and other angular manners of machine sewing figure heavily. I was reading over the clearly written instructions yesterday, when suddenly I found myself cutting squares, drawing a line down the centers of the light fabrics, then....

Well, those pictured above are what I curated before it was time to eat dinner. I spent a good while rummaging through my stash for appropriately unbusy low volume fabrics, of which I don't have many. Then it was a matter of choosing darker prints, then chain-piecing, pressing, and finally trimming to size. The trimming was the biggest hassle, well, right after finding low volume scraps. A few times I nearly walked away, then I'd gaze at my monitor, where the pattern waited, teased, inspired! Yes, I could sew triangles, they're not scary, nor are they so unwieldy I can't tame them. I'll make a few blocks where points aren't required to be precise, allowing for a blurring of edges that in the long run no one will notice but me.

Isn't it funny what bugs each of us? Triangles literately are the bane of my sewing existence, unless they are EPP'ed, in which case I'll hand-stitch angles all day long, or until my shoulder hollers uncle. Improv triangles are fine, floating around a design that doesn't care if corners meet correctly. Last year I bought into an online class wholly concerned with sewing triangles. I collected each lesson, filed them away, then acted as though another part of myself had considered such a ridiculous notion. I don't even know what to call that element of myself; Wishful Thinking Me. Wishful Thinking Me really wanted to learn how to master sewing triangles. The rest of me said, "NO THANKS!"

Both Future and Past Me chortle. I'm not going to analyze their humor, merely give thanks that some brave portion of my soul has decided to stop being a freaking chicken about this. Triangles are just, well, three-sided shapes. A Churn Dash or Greek Cross block is highly possible, likely even? A Shoo Fly block maybe.... So many machine-pieced, triangle-happy vintage blocks make up Jodi's gorgeous design, and while five are triangle-free, maybe I'll add a few more to my interpretation. Perhaps I'll find the small papers in the EPP blocks too diminutive for my liking. Until I receive the papers, all I can do is play around with the machine-pieced blocks, and, well....

Triangles aren't my best friends, but at least now they're not so overwhelming. Thanks be to God for that, amen!


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