Multiply your fun with half the effort!
Any way you slice it, a half-square triangle is a thing of beauty. For such a simple quilt block, so many incredible designs can be created! Half-square triangles are in about 80% of the quilts we sew here at Missouri Star, so we wanted to give you a few handy tips and tricks to make stitching them together easier than ever.
Here’s how 1 typical half-square triangle is made:
Take two precut fabric squares, stack them right sides together, and draw a line down the center on a diagonal from corner to corner. Sew on the line and trim away a quarter inch away from your seam line. That will give you a half square triangle that is the same size as the squares you started with. It leaves two smaller triangles as scraps. But we can do better than that!
Here are Jenny’s favorite methods of sewing half-square triangles, just for you:
2 at a Time
Take two 5” or 10” precut fabric squares, stack them right sides together, and draw a line down the center on a diagonal from corner to corner. Sew ¼ inch out on both sides of the drawn line, then cut down the line in the center, and press open. That gives you two easy half-square triangles!
4 at a Time
Take two 5” or 10” precut fabric squares and stack them right sides together. Sew ¼ inch all the way around the perimeter of the squares. Then cut twice diagonally, from corner to corner, and press open to make four half-square triangle units! But wait … it gets even better.
8 at a Time
Take two 5” or 10” precut fabric squares, stack them right sides together, and draw an x from corner to corner. Stitch ¼ inch out on both sides of the lines, cut diagonally on each drawn line, and press open to get eight beautiful half-square triangles!
Try using the Clearly Perfect Slotter Trimmers to make squaring up your quilt blocks simple. It’s a nifty quilt template that not only cuts your half-square triangles to the right size but trims the seam down perfectly as well! It’s a neat little invention, click HERE to get yours now!
Be creative with the handy half-square triangle and have a blast! Try playing around with quilt layout possibilities for just fifteen minutes and make something new today. When you turn and flip these versatile quilt blocks the design possibilities are absolutely endless! Click HERE to see some of the tutorials Jenny used HST to create her pattern.