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The inspiration for this diary was a comment from Pam from Calif that she has friend who refuses to piece triangles. Thank you, Pam.
Bias triangles. They separate the intermediate quilters from the beginning quilters. But they shouldn’t.
The very first quilt I pieced was a friendship star. The star points are half square triangles (HSTs).
The “standard” way to make HSTs is to cut 4 7/8 inch squares (in the case of a 12 inch 9 patch), then cut those in half on the diagonal. Then, in my case, a white triangle and a blue triangle are sewn together. If your scant quarter inch is dead on, and if you have a straight stitch plate, and if, if if, you have sewn a square that measures 4.5 inches. If.
To get around the 7/8 inch business, rulers such as the Easy Angle
were invented. With this, I could have cut out my HSTs from 4.5 inch strips. But you still have a bias edge. And as we know, 2 chances are all you have to get that bias seam right before the fabric is distorted.
Now, the “I pieced uphill in the snow both ways, you must too or else it’s not a “real” quilt” crowd may not like what follows, but phooey on them. If woodworkers can embrace power tools, jigs, etc, then so can quilters, and our results aren’t any less authentic. So I used the two squares technique. With this you can use Thangles papers , you can draw your own lines,
you can use a ruler such as June Tailor’s . This list is by no means exhaustive.
But the tool I use is the Tucker Trimmer.
You take 2 squares of fabric cut to the specified size and place them right sides together. Then you draw a line ¼ inch each side of the diagonal:
Sew on the lines you just drew:
Then cut down the middle:
Open and press. Now you have 2 oversize HST units which you will trim to final size.
Place the diagonal line of the Tucker Trimmer on the seam line. It’s ok if the seam line isn’t completely straight, just line things up as best you can. As you align things, be sure you leave something to trim on the bottom and left sides. With your rotary cutter, trim the right hand and top sides.
Rotate the square, and line (1) the diagonal on the seam line and (2) the dotted lines for the appropriate size unit on the left and bottom edges (the edges you just trimmed). Trim the top and right edges. You now have a HST of the correct size.
Deb Tucker’s video walks you through these steps much more clearly.
As to concerns that this method wastes so much fabric, here are the trimmings using this technique from making 8 6.5 inch HSTs:
So, this is how this beginning quilter is able to successfully make HST units.
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After doing quite well with scheduling for awhile, there are now lots of open dates. Would you like to write a future DK Quilt Guild diary? Please join in! Please volunteer within the comments. Thanks
The schedule:
5/05 -- OPEN
5/12 -- winifred3
5/19 -- OPEN
5/26 -- OPEN
6/02 -- OPEN