Mail call, testing HST blocks

Three things to be happy about:
(1) April fool jokes
(2) flower shop windows
(3) an audition that goes well

I love receiving packages in the mail!  I was a winner on Char's blog hop giveaway and it came Saturday afternoon, yes!  Lots of good stuff was in the envelope - Utility Quilting  by Carolyn Forster, a pincushion and a dish cloth (made by Char herself!), a collection of 6” charms, and two skeins of DMC perle cotton.  Thanks, Char!!

My half square triangles look very promising!  I saw in the front of my Spectactular Scraps book that the authors show all 256 four-patch triangle blocks, and they credit the concept to a French monk, Dominique Douat, 1704.  Evidently he was into mathematics in decorative patterns; I wonder if he was a quilter?  Whatever.

In the book the authors made quilts using several layouts that they identified by number; I sewed together a few patches to see how they look - this is block #1 in the book:

and here are two layouts using that block:

In one layout the yellow stripe will stand out, the red stripe in the other one.

And here's their block #5:

I laid out a sample block; each layout has four of the blocks put together:

I like this one!  I can see that I'll need to cut a bigger variety of fabrics though.

Block #6:

And here's my layout:

this one's okay, but for all of these I can't really be sure what they look like til I add more blocks.  

I can start with the basic 4-patch block and mirror image the one next to it, or rotate the units right or left. It's easy to play with these on my design wall, I can see lots of fun ahead! 

That's it for now; have a great Monday, sew forth and sew on...