Half Square Triangle Quilt Top…with so much Denim

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Have you seen the hashtag ‘side hustle?’ It’s for a mom kind of like me who runs a business on top of raising a family. It’s usually something to do for fun and enrichment on the side. It makes a bit of money here and there, but it usually means staying up late and hustling to get things done.

Me?

My little quilt blog is more like a side trot. There’s not much hustle to this business. Ha.

I tend to stick to my projects and see them through, but they take me a really really long time. This quilt? I think I bought the fabric for it last summer.

Slow and steady.

Needless to say, the top is finished!

What’s the best thing about this quilt?

Because I started this quilt, I learned how to sew eight half square triangles at the same time. I finished a half square triangle quilt last year for my mom for Christmas. While it didn’t feel like it took me forever, I clearly remember some of the monotony of cutting and trimming and cutting and trimming every single block for her quilt.

I still haven’t figured out how to avoid the trimming step. I’m not sure there’s a good way around that. Any new discoveries on that one?

I had two requirements for fabric for the ones.

Florals + Denim.

That’s it.

I hadn’t originally planned on using my current favorite Cotton + Steel floral (pictured above), but since I recently bought an extra yard to ensure I didn’t run out, I went ahead and cut into it. I love the way it mixes with the denim.

This purple / green / blue floral pictured above was a last minute addition. I wanted a bit more variety, and I had this sitting on my shelf. It’s from an older Bari J / Art Gallery Fabric line. My indecisive sister originally chose this fabric for her Christmas quilt last year. After a bit more discussion, she landed on an entirely different non-floral line of fabric. (You can see her quilt here. It’s way out in left field compared to where we started.)

It’s good to own a few fabrics out of my comfort zone. I like the addition of this fabric.

Are you familiar with Anna Maria Horner? She has some extremely vibrant lines and uses color extraordinarily well. I haven’t bought many of her fabrics, but some of them are absolutely gorgeous. (You can see a few others of her’s that I bought here.)

Her floral is the yellow one pictured above.

If you want to see another sewing blogger who uses vibrant colors SO WELL, be sure to go see Rachel at Stitched in Color. She uses deep colors and does it beautifully.

This purple. It’s my first ever Liberty of London purchase. I bought it at Field and Cloth. While I love the print, the texture of their fabric is a bit hard for me. It’s a finer and silkier fabric. While the texture is endearing, my feed dogs don’t like it. It’s almost like they have trouble grabbing the fabric.

I haven’t figured out the solution to that. Anyone else have trouble with your feed dogs not grabbing the fabric?

I sometimes have the same trouble with Art Gallery Fabric lines and with older vintage sheets.

Denim.

I am, by all definitions, a jeans girl. I wear jeans every day. I haven’t taken to yoga pants very well. I don’t wear sweat pants. We have a denim chesterfield couch. I digress…and this has nothing to do with quilting.

I like denim.

So I decided to try sewing with denim. This is Endless Paradise by Art Gallery Fabrics. While I would never choose this denim for a pair of jeans, it worked wonderfully for sewing. It has a small variance of shade like most denim does. And it was no different than working with quilting cotton.

Exactly what I wanted.