Trimming, Trimming, and More Trimming

 Midday Friday I got a call from quilting buddy Terry - one of the Frankfort Girls, our quilting group. She needed some help! She's finishing up chemo treatments (Praise God - all going well!!), but some medication side effects are hindering her in some ways. One way I could help her out was to trim half-square triangles, better known as HSTs.

Yes! I was happy to be able to do this! Often when a friend is going through a rough stretch health-wise, I don't know what to do to be helpful, so to be called on with a specific task was perfect.

I can see where Terry would have had a hard time trimming these. Even in good health and perfect conditions, I rarely opt to make such small HSTs. These needed to be trimmed to 1.5 inches. Small. Yes. And there were over 100 to do. 

Dive in and getter' done!

Terry had everything organized. Each zippy bag contained HSTs for 10 blocks. I did 2 bags while at Terry's on Friday, and brought 4 bags home with me and did them over the weekend.

The pattern Terry is making is called Needle and Thread by Paula Barnes. Click the picture below to go directly to the pattern.

I took the parts for one star block and laid it out on the counter. This makes a sweet little block, but OH! such small parts! Each block requires 12 HSTs. Gracious.

So I trimmed and trimmed and trimmed. And trimmed some more. My normal method of managing a large, tedious job is to break it down into manageable parts. And Terry made that super-easy by having the zippy bags. I decided to do a bag at a time - or half a bag at a time, whichever I could manage. It went surprisingly well, especially when I could also listen to an audio book while I trimmed. 

I'm delivering the last of the HSTs this afternoon. And that is that. Done, and glad to be of some help.

How's your Monday going? We began with clouds, but the afternoon is sunny and clear. My morning was spent making phone calls, doing bills, household paperwork and such. Ugh. But it needed to be done, and I can be quite the procrastinator when it comes to that sort of stuff. Checked off several items on my to-do list. That's how to feel accomplished on a gray Monday morning. *smile*

Happy Quilting, Friends!