Half Square Triangles Sewn

A couple of days ago I started working in earnest on Joann Sets Sail. I took my collection of reds and creams and arranged each color group from dark to light. I needed five sets of red/cream combinations, each to yield an average of 32 half square triangles finishing at 3". Most of my fabrics were fat quarters, which were large enough to produce what was needed.

I began pairing fabrics together, the darkest red with the darkest cream, next darkest red and cream together, and so on. I decided that the darkest cream--an almost medium yellow-orange with brown polka dots--was going to be too much, so I opted to substitute in another lighter print for half of that set. I felt that was a win-win solution as the substituted fabric was a theme print, which I didn't want too much of, either. I took the remaining fabrics and fiddled with those until I had a collection I liked. (I wish I'd taken pictures.) I'm using mostly darker reds to go with the burgundy in the theme fabric, and I set the red-reds aside.

I used my Quiltime Triangle Paper to sew the 3" finished half square triangles. This paper makes fast work of sewing those pesky HSTs, and I need a lot of them for this project.

The first four sets went together pretty easily. The last set called for 36 half square triangles, 4 units more than a fat quarter can provide. I raided my scraps to find more dark reds to complete the set, and to provide solo triangles to complete the Ocean Waves blocks. I'll need more solo triangles, but I don't have much in the way of leftovers from the various fat quarters, so I may have to get into my scraps again. We'll see.

Next I need to cut apart the Triangle Paper, iron the units and trim the dog ears. I'll keep each set together (Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue), which is necessary for my Organized Chaos method. I should start working at the design wall tomorrow.