SOSAH Days – Sew Our Stash at Home

In June 2020 the Programme/Workshops Committee began hosting Zoom meetings for members to sew and visit from home.

Here are some resources from past SOSAH Days.

March 2, 2022. Playing with HST blocks.

Important: Do not sew your HST blocks together.  We will play with these HSTs on SOSAH Day.

Directions for the day:

From Joen Wolfren’s 3-in-1 Color Tool
  • If you want to play with Half Square Triangles (HSTs), make at least 24 HST blocks.
  • Each HST will have one side darker and one side lighter. Watch for contrast in value.
  • Choose a colour scheme for your HSTs. A colour wheel may be helpful (see photo).
    • Complementary Scheme (opposite colours on the wheel)
    • Triadic Scheme (colours in a triangle on the wheel)
    • Analagous (3 to 5 adjacent colours on the wheel).
  • An HST block finishes at 1” smaller than the squares you cut.  An 8” square will become a 7.5” square and will finish at 7″. A 5” square will become a 4.5” square and finish at 4”, etc.
  • The suggestion is to use 5” squares or larger. Charm packs, with other fabrics added, might work here.
  • Find directions for making single 4.5″ HSTs in the September 2017 Block of the Month. 
  • Find directions to make eight HSTs at one time here.
  • Square up your blocks. A 6.5” x 6.5” square ruler with a diagonal works well.  Place the diagonal on the seam and trim two sides of the HST. Turn and trim the other two sides. See the photos below.

Note re making improv HSTs: Put a couple of squares together and sew the diagonals; cut apart and do not trim.

Trimming HSTs:

February 2, 2022. Playing with Four-Patches.

Directions for the day: Pick two colours of scraps, sort each colour into two piles, one of lights and one of darks, and have them ready for SOSAH Day.

December 1, 2021

  • Ideas for the day:
    • Visit and get ready for the holidays.
    • Share ideas for small holiday projects.
    • Sew your Stash! Make a pile of random light/dark half square triangles (HSTs) as described by Cheryl Arkison on our November 3 SOSAH Day. See Cheryl Arkison’s blog post about HSTs.
    • Start a new project. For example, make a jelly roll quilt with 20 to 40 – 2.5″ strips or make a jelly roll quilt from your stash.
Darla’s Jelly Roll Quilt
Glenna’s Jelly Roll Quilt
Examples

November 3, 2021

  • Guest speaker Cheryl Arkison gave her talk on Scraps vs. Scrappy. She also talked about improv quilting. She noted the importance of certain design aspects that help make improv quilting successful.
  • We also had time to visit and share current projects with other members.

March 24, 2021. Shared with Community Quilts. Ideas for the day:

  • See Community Quilts re making pet beds. Maybe you can use some of your pet themed fabrics or other scraps on hand. Current quilt sizes are posted also.
  • Check out Carola Russell’s website for stashbusting tutorials.
  • Visit Cluck Cluck Sew for ways to use jelly roll strips (2-1/2″ strips.)
  • Find some ideas for using up small squares at Coriander Quilts.

24 FEBRUARY 2021 – SOSAH DAY INSPIRATION

February is Heart Month and the colour is red. It is Valentine’s Day on February 14 and this year the Lunar New Year arrived on February 12. It is also Black History Month so you could add black to your creation.

  • IDEAS
    • Have you made yourself a COVID Outdoor Visit quilt? Approximately 40″ x 50″ works well also as a Beat the Morning Chill quilt.
    • Smaller projects, such as, masks, coasters, placemats, door hangers for yourself or Community Quilts is an easy way to use up your red scraps.
    • A heart quilt can be a good gift quilt any time of year.
    • Begin a quilt for the Quilts of Valour and include red.

16 SEPTEMBER 2020 –– SOSAH DAY INSPIRATION

On SEPTEMBER 9 AT 2:30-3:00 there is an envelope exchange in the parking lot of our meeting venue. The challenge is to make a mug mat in a Harvest Theme to fit into the envelope and send as a letter.

INSPIRATIONAL LINKS for harvest theme mug mat

19 AUGUST 2020 SOSAH DAY INSPIRATION

The challenge is to use the Log Cabin Block.

  • Find the classic Log Cabin block in your reference book for blocks or pull out the Quilt of Valour block handed out by Suzanne and Anne. Try the block scrappy!
  • In Kaffe Fasset’s Free Pattern Day scroll down to Green Mosaic or All Stacked Up
  • Donna’s quilt in the Saying Connected #20 is a variation of the Log Cabin quilt and the pattern may be available at Pie in the Sky Quilts. Donna notes that blocks are 11.5″ unfinished, the central HST is 3.5″ unfinished, and the “logs” vary from 1″ to 2″ cut or unfinished widths.
  • Anne W’s baby quilts in Staying Connected #18 are improv. She started from a print in the centre and added pieces as she moved around the centre until she had the size she wanted.
  • Another improv block is the Wonky Log Cabin Block Tutorial from scrapish.com
  • Laura Cole of Sew Very Easy has a variation on the Log Cabin at Flowers on the Half-Log Cabin.

There are many ways to work with the Log Cabin block. When you have a few of them then the question becomes how to arrange them. Have fun and happy quilting!

15 JULY 2020 SOSAH DAY LINKS –

The challenge this month is to use some crumbs – those small scraps we all hang onto. A few links to provide inspiration:

How do you organize your crumbs, and, how big of a piece goes into that bin?

17 JUNE 2020 SOSAH DAY LINKS – first Zoom Sew Our Stash at Home Day

The challenge was to make a quilt top in a day.

See a few of the quilts members made in our Staying Connected posts.