Half square triangle quilt in the making

 Piles of 5 inch charm squares from a whole lot of different packs. Autumnal shades, with some brighter blues and greens to lift it. My idea is to make these into a light/dark half square triangle quilt.

This quilt has been forming and storming for a long time.
Playing around on my board with different light/dark half square triangle combinations.
This was one idea...

 But this was where it began heading instead. My ideas board wasn't big enough for the planning of this layout, so I used an existing quilt as the 'board' on the floor so I could still move it out of the way.

Eventually I was happy with the design.

This is how I went about making the light/dark HSTs.
One dark fabric charm square and one light fabric charm square placed right sides together, edges well aligned. Pin to secure. Draw a line with fabric pen corner to corner using a 45' ruler to get the angle correct.

Sew 1/4" to either side of the drawn line. You can chain stitch all the pieces to move the process along.

 Then use some slave labour to speed up the process of removing pins and cutting the threads if you have chain pieced...

Next use your rotary cutter & cut along the drawn line to end up with 2 triangles. Open up the triangles and press. I decided to press seams open for this quilt rather than to one side.

One pressed open square

 Trim the square to size (4.5"), using the 45' angle to line up and ensure the triangles are of equal size.

BEWARE - this step can lead to confusion and frustration if you turn any of the squares the wrong way or mismatch any pairs! Lots of photos and lots of checking.

Match pairs, pin along side to be stitched together. I added a diagonal pin to help prevent any shifting of the fabric.

 Chain piece pairs together, remove pins & press open. You will now have rectangles made up of 2 squares each (4 triangles).

 

Pair, pin & sew the rectangles in a similar way to end up with blocks made up of 2x2 squares (8 triangles). Before opening clip corners off to help reduce bulk at seam.

 

Then press seams open. 

 

Continue in a similar way to slowly piece larger and larger blocks together. This is where I am up to so far. A bit of unpicking today to make sure that the seams are meeting where they should. A pin at 90' to the fabric at each intersection seems to be the best method for me, and then plenty more pins in between to keep the top & bottom layers nice and even.