Organizing HST units for a quilt
 

I’m planning on making a quilt with hst units. It will require over 2,000 units. I’m planning on going through all my left overs and make the units. However I have some questions.

Do you press and trim as you go? I may be making these for months (perhaps years) and wonder if they may become frayed or wonky as they set? Or should I accumulate them and then press and trim enough for each block as I make it?

Although I want a lot of different fabrics (all batik), I can’t imagine myself doing a truly random layout. If I make 8 hst units from one fabric, I would want them in different blocks, spread evenly across the quilt. So how would you organize your hst units? Set up a paper bag for each block and place the units into specific bags? Or use boxes? Folders?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I would sew, press open, and story my half square triangles...When you are in the mood...is a good time. Once you get enough of them stored...the quilt will be "easy"...LOL

I know by sad experience I'd never leave the trimming and sorting until the end. boring....

I do all scrappy so pin in groups of 10, 10's are so easy to make a quick count. You might sort them into color families?
I gave myself permission a few years ago to not care if like fabric ends up by like fabric and I love how the tops have come out. Not the norm I know, but very freeing and relaxing.

Definitely keep them in a box or zip locks where they won't get tossed around and have a chance to fray once you have them sorted how you like. Good wishes on the project!

If you store them well there shouldn't be any problems going over time. Well means flat and nice in a box with a lid and where they will stay pretty much undisturbed until time to go. You can sort into baggies too but they slip and slide around when you don't want them to, so keep them in a box with a lid! I write in Sharpie pen on the bag any notes I need, like number of pieces or whatever.

However, I prefer to do all of one stage at a time, so I would probably rough sew them here and there and then trim down all at a time, or at least do them in groups.

Are you using a consistent background fabric? That can make a difference in how you sort and store.

I work a lot of with scrappy quilts and have devised a number of techniques to achieve randomness. True randomness can result in ugly, what we want as quilters is aesthetic randomness. What I've learned over the years though is that no matter what you do, sooner or later those two fabrics you were trying to keep away from each other ends up hand in hand...

Usually I use a variation of what Karla Alexander describes in her Stack the Deck books. Basically I keep my identical fabrics together until I combine them the first time and then I just avoid having any matching fabrics each round of connections. So hard to describe but let's say I allow myself 8 units in a top, that means (for me) that I am going to want at least 10-12 different fabrics (minimum) in the stack. I would have one stack of red, one of light blue, one of yellow, etc. for 10-12 stacks. Then I'd take the red and match it with the light blue, the yellow, etc until the red is all gone. Then I'd add a new stack to the end of the row and starting with the light blue, I'd match it with the yellow, etc. You just keep rotating until you are done. When you do your next set of connections, you take the first one without a duplicate. I typically want to put together the fabrics I have the most of first, and then use the ones with only a couple of pieces at the end because otherwise you can get sort of stuck.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...tack_the_Deck_

I've also used the paper bag technique for a crazy quilt. Recently I did a project where I really pushed myself to disregard all my usual rules and just go for it and I let all sorts of things happen that I wouldn't ordinarily do, like I wouldn't put a green stripe with a green polka dot, or a green polka dot with a purple polka dot. It came out fine even with stuff touching :)

Do it as you go. I can only imagine how daunting trimming 2000 blocks would be....

I recommend you starch and press the blocks before trimming, that will help immensely to prevent fraying and wonky-ness.

What a great question, and no 'right" answer. I agree with everyone who says starch, press, and trim as you go. Label, label, label everything you've done. ("Trimmed", "To be Trimmed"--and keep all of one kind in a ziploc bag inside a box with a lid (also labeled with the name of your project). I like to sew 10 at a time, starch and press 10 at a time, as the mood arises. Definitely would not suggest working with more than 20 at any stage of the quilt.

Keeping similar color units together will enable you to see what you have at the end, when you're ready to hit the design wall. Then you can spread them around "randomly". (If you're anything like me, "randomly" involves a lot of work--I mean play--to get it right! Harder than non-random any day!

You'll also know after 200 if you want to keep going toward 2000. If you have blocks pressed and trimmed, you can decide at any point when enough is enough. You might make it 2000 or you might grow weary of it. At least if you grow weary, the bulk of the task will already have been done.

Great exchange of ideas here - I agree, there is not a 'right way' to do it - just whatever way you enjoy to do.

My preference is similar to several others - while working on a BH mystery a few years ago and making 100's (if not 1,000+) of pieced clues - I found it best to work in sets of 10, 25, 50. Whatever time I had to devote that day determined # of sets. Organized similar to others and always starched, pressed, trimmed and stored in color order until it was time to make the quilt. For me, I felt accomplished at every milestone and motivated to continue.

At the moment, I'm slowly working on a scrappy IC and am approaching it in a similar way. I like to organize, see my progress and admire my pieced fabrics along the way :) Good luck and please share your progress so we can all enjoy your HST's too!

I work in "sets", so till the very end I have to be sewn, sewn, ironed and trimmed. With 2000 HST's I would find a large bin to throw them in as you got done. An occasional swirl of your arm would mix them up. But just to be sure, intentionally put two of the same together. Once it is done once, and other's won't matter.

I was burned out on hst's a few years ago so I've tried not to make quilts that need too many. And the magic 8 way of doing it is the only way to go if a lot is needed. I didn't remember the magic 8 way a few years ago, trying to make it like the pattern called for, and the quilt required many many many hst's that the magic 8 would have been perfect for.
Recently I've decided to go thru my many quilting magazines....again...and purge some more and get them organized a final time. I found a pattern in one of the magazines that I decided to make immediately. It's scrappy and each 8 inch block has 16 squares and 6 of them are hst's and I thought I would go crazy! I guess I'm still burned out. Most definitely be organized about the hst's and do a little at a time; sew some, trim some , make a few blocks to encourage yourself, walk away from them, come back fresh and start again. I in no way did 2,000, although the burn out quilt probably had close to 1,000, and if I don't see a hst in another 5 years, I think it will be too soon:D. It is almost impossible to make more detailed quilts without hst's, but, oh my............ I have another pattern that is on my to-do list, but I won't even consider it because it is mainly hst's. Please show us your progress. And try to enjoy the process, which is why we do this, after all.

Pizza boxes or paper plates for sorting.

Please ensure the technique you are using for the HST blocks does not have outer bias edges (the 4 at a time ones do). I like the Magic 8 technique and trim as I go.

Why avoid the bias edges? I made a quilt with bias edged blocks, trimmed carefully, then set the beautifully trimmed pressed blocks aside for 6 months. They grew in storage and I had to re-trim them all. I lost points and the beautiful secondary pattern is a mess.

I am looking at making two quilts this summer and one will be HST blocks, but finish at 8 inches, so not nearly as many as you will be making.

Starch (heavy) will be your best friend to prevent fraying.

I'm a big fan of Karla Alexander. I have several of her books and have made lots of quilts using her method.

​I followed Laura's idea from Sew Very Easy to make a custom box for my Scrap Crazy ruler pieces. You could make a box to fit your triangle pieces exactly. My Scrap Crazy pieces I am cutting and adding to my box as I get scraps and it will probably take me a year to get enough for a quilt.[ATTACH=CONFIG]614442[/ATTACH]

I have done a number of larger quilts that are all HST's. I have got into the habit of storing them squared up and pressed in baggies according to size. They have usually ended up as extras because they were not squaring up to start with so I thought to myself why not do them as I intended and put them aside. They are always ready for use this way. When I am ready to make a scrappy quilt like the depression block quilt, all I have to do is pull them out and put them together. Of course I find many uses along the way for some of the left over HST's I have put away. Always ready to go, bagged so there is little to no fraying. It may take me a couple years to collect the number of HST's need for such a quilt. I also have this other little quirk. When I feel like I want to be quilty and not in the mood to make a full top I just make HST's out of different pieces and put them away for another time. One never knows when a HST will be needed. This Depression Block quilt is all left over HST's. Nice queen size quilt.

Tartan, if you like your ruler set, you would like those books by Karla Alexander. Same concept but from before rulers, you draw out your own grid.

One of the ladies in my Tuesday group brings HST to work on, she has been using up her tiniest scraps. I think the concept is to have tiny little 1" HST in the center and gradually work bigger up to about 2.5" around the outer edges. I think she is nuts! Week after week for two hours at group she trims them down. She has some interesting square tall acrylic boxes in various sizes and once the block is trimmed it is put in the box stack. She doesn't have boxes for all her sizes but I have to admit, it's lovely storage for a long term project.

Don’t forget the leader and ender trick. Always start and stop your sewing with the HST, you don’t have to go down both sides. I try and do this instead of using a scrap piece or kite as some people call it. It’s a bit more work with HST but it’s amazing how many you get done. All while working on another project!

Standing organized is the key! I think a plastic bag is the answer to all things to be stored! In order to make them re-useable, I write my labels on small pieces of paper and stick them inside the bag. I would certainly trim and press them as I went along. I can't imagine doing that boring job all at once when I wanted to use them.

I'm a big fan of making things in 10's. Easy to count and also gives me some variety of tasks. I store my completed squares in baggies, each with 10 in them. If you want to make 8 like HST at a time not a problem just put them in different baggies. Don't obsess over having things evenly distributed. When the quilt is put together you won't be able to tell anyway and it will save you a lot of angst in the process.
I have also used a process to make HST called Triangulations from Bear Paw. It is a computer program (simple) that you print out pages of triangles that you use the lines to sew on. Very simple and easy to use and the size of the triangle is spot on so trimming is not necessary. You just sew and cut on the lines. You do end up with like HST squares so if you are aiming for every square to be different this would not be the way to go. You can tear the paper off as you go or wait until you're ready to put the squares in a quilt. I used newsprint paper that I got at Amazon for cheap but you can also check with your local newspaper as they sell the ends of their rolls for next to nothing (at least our local newspaper does) With that you have to cut the paper to 8.5x11 so it fits through your printer. The paper I got on Amazon came that size. Both tear away very easily and much less expensive than the foundation paper you can get.

I'm a Big fan of Triangulations, especially since you get straight of grain on both sides. I've been trying to figure out how to use it for scrappy and one compromise is to print out the 8x11 sheet on the computer and then cut it into strips of say 3 blocks each, depending on the finished size of the blocks, then just use those 3 and find enough fabric to work with, etc. This is greek to those who don't know Triangulations. But if you have the program you'll understand. Anybody else come up with good ideas for scrappy using the T. program?

I press as I go, saving the trimming until I am ready to put the quilt together. Yes, trimming is tiring and boring, but I try to not do it all at once, no room for mistakes here. Usually I make four units of the same color, dividing the quilt in quadrants, laying out one quadrant, changing the layout until I like the layout. The other three quadrants will mirror the first. This works great, unless I am making a two color quilt. I use a box to keep my units secure and clean.

When I’m working on something with a million like units, I will cut everything first. Then I sew until my DH gets home. Then after dinner, while watching tv together, I will press and cut apart the long strings of units. Of course I love my AccuQuilt, which makes the cutting easy, and no need to square up.