Learn how to sew half square triangles with 3 methods that can be used to create 2, 4 or even 8 magic patches. Easy formulas for beginners
Whether you’re new to quilting or just brushing up on the basics, this Half Square Triangle tutorial is quick and to the point with photographs to guide you along the way! I’m sure since you’ve taken…
I created a Half Square Triangle Cheat Sheet for you that will tell at a glance what size to cut your squares for making HSTs.
Now that you know how to cut fabric and how to piece a 16-patch quilt block, you are ready for triangles! When it comes to sewing, triangles are a little trickier than squares and rectangles, but still totally within a beginner’s skill level. Follow along, and you’ll be able to sew triangles as well. Or at least, half square triangles. We’ll get to the other types of triangles in a future post. There are affiliate links in this post- what that means is that if you make a purchase through the link, it doesn’t cost you any more than the shopping you were planning to do anyway, but does mean that I earn a small commission. A half square triangle is exactly what it sounds like. Draw a square. Draw a line from one corner to another. That’s a half square triangle, also called an HST. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?!?! Don’t stop reading here, there are a few more tips you’ll need to be successful. Start with 2 squares, and use a pencil (or fabric pen) to draw a line from one corner to another, on the back side of one of your squares. Use your acrylic ruler to draw your line, don’t eyeball it. As you’ve learned in previous posts, precision is an important part of quilting. For the Big Blue Quilt I’m working on, I need my blocks to be half color (blue or gray) and half white. I marked the line on the white square, because it was easier to see the line on the lighter color. I use a ruler for this step. I’m good at quilting. But I have terrible handwriting, and even drawing a straight line is beyond my skill level. Seriously. Even if you have awesome artistry skills, use a ruler anyway. Precision makes all the difference when it comes to quilting. Line up the two squares and stitch a ¼ inch from the line you drew, repeating on both sides of the line. Using the ruler and rotary cutter, cut along the pencil line. Set the seam, and then press towards the darker fabric. You’ve now got two HSTs! There are an endless number of ways you can place your HSTs to make a block. Please note, none of these “blocks” are sewn together. What you see here is simply 4 half square triangles lined up next to each other and turned in a variety of ways. For the quilt I am working on, I’m making a sort of triangle/arrow thingy. Now, you may have noticed I didn’t mention any sizes in this tutorial. This method for making HSTs will work no matter the size of your starting squares. You just need two squares, and off you go. As long as all your starting squares are the same size, you can make a whole quilt with half square triangles, and never need to know the math behind it. But… If your quilt looks like mine, a mix of squares and triangles, you have to involve math in the process. Just like in the previous post about learning to piece, you have to take seam allowances into account. Every time you sew two pieces of fabric together, some of measurement gets lost in the seam allowance. The math for a half square triangle is the finished size + 7/8 inch. There is some amount of a2 + b2 = c2 in figuring out this math, but you don’t really need to know the details. You just need to remember to add 7/8 inch to both height and length when cutting the squares to make your HSTs. You now have all the tools you need to make a quilt top. The remaining posts within the Basics Series are all about taking your quilt top and putting it together with batting and backing to make a completed quilt.
I’m a sucker for a Half-Square Triangle (or HST). I was wasting time on gaining inspiration from Pinterest and came across this fabulous image with soooooo many different HST block combinations. If you’ve seen it before, then feel free to move along… but if you’re like me and haven’t seen it before, ENJOY! Image Source Are you on Pinterest? Do you use it regularly?
Learn how to make 2-at-a-time half-square triangles and download the match cheat sheet for easy reference on starting square size!
Learn how to use the Magic 8 Method when making Half Square Triangles and Pinwheels! It's a much faster way to piece Pinwheel and HST Quilts!
blogged here
This is Method #3 in my tutorials on how to make Half Square Triangles. The first method makes 2 at a time, the second method makes 4 at a time and this method makes 8 at a time. It is for sure …
Learn how to sew half square triangles with 3 methods that can be used to create 2, 4 or even 8 magic patches. Easy formulas for beginners
How to Make Half Square Triangles a few different ways. Download the HST cheat sheet to keep handy as you quilt. Easy Half square triangles
Explore CB Handmade's 334 photos on Flickr!
I am happy (sort of) to say that we are back from a wonderful week in Toronto and were lucky to be delayed only one day due to Mother Nature. I will spare you the details of the drive back earlier this week but suffice it to say - the roads could have used a bit more attention. Leaving is hard. Always hard. Our son. Our daughter-in-law. And, our "perfect" grandson -- and if you are a grammie, you know that all grandchildren are perfect. So is ours! What helped with leaving this week was the anticipation of meeting our new great-nephew who put in is appearance on Sunday! Special K! Loved him from the minute I heard my niece-the-athlete's voice informing me that I was now "officially" Grand Aunt Jan (GAJ for short). I love my nieces to death and being a "great aunt" seemed like underachieving so I told them I wanted to be Grand Aunt Jan (and if you say that in with a Downton Abbey affectation, it sort of rhymes). Nevertheless, I was anxious to meet another "perfect" grandchild. This is the quilt that I made for my sister (the new grammie) for Christmas. It is from strings that my niece-the-quilter gave me last year when she was cleaning out some of her scraps. Most are about 1" wide and from various bright pre-cuts she used in making quilts for children in her life. I had made a few blocks with them by actually piecing the string onto a pre-cut square. I'm not sure I really like this method but it does provide stabilization and makes it easy to trim them down. So -- this particular quilt is from my niece-the-quilter (altho she didn't know about it), mr iquiltforfun, and me. And I have mentioned it on the blog a time or two but was unable to show the blocks because it was a Christmas secret. The backing (and this is a dreadful picture) is from a cut of fabric (beautiful pink fuchsias on a vibrant blue background in real life) that I bought in Hawaii when the new mommy and daddy got married two years ago. The binding is a bright pink (yes, I know it's a boy!) Indian batik that the new parents gave me for a birthday. And the strings are all from the new aunt -- along with some that I added to increase the significance of the quilt. Besides a piece of Christmas fabric from my mother's fabrics (it's really not very pretty but it needed to be in there!), I have added at least one strip from every fabric that I received for my 60th birthday. I have written about that quilt here if you want more detail. This remains one of the (if not the) most special quilts I have because of the significance of each piece of fabric. So baby K's grammie has a quilt for when he comes to visit. Can't wait to see him in his stroller in the neighborhood this spring or laying on the quilt on his little belly in a few months. New babies bring us so much joy! And so does sharing our love of quilting with those who appreciate it. Life is good. I hope you are starting 2014 off with lots of joy in your life! Jan
Hello lovely quilters! I hope that you know about our library of free quilt patterns we have on AGF website! If not, it’s time for you to check it out and choose your favorite for summer sewing. Today
Join me in a challenge to make a hot pad each week and I'll provide a quilt tutorial with it. Which means 52 weeks of hot pad or pot holder.
Half square triangles can be quick and easy to make with these simple tips. Learn how to make them in batches for all your quilting projects.
A video demonstration, HST conversion chart to make all block sizes, and sewing techniques to sew 2, 4 or 8 half square triangles at a time!
Made with charms from a couple 3 Sister's lines, and Panier de Fleurs by French General. Border is from Antique Fair. Pieced and quilted on my machine with Aurifil 50 wt in 2325 and 2021. Dimensions: 46" by 55". Completed April 2014.
In this article, go through the precision technique basics of quilt piecing quarter and triple triangle squares.
Good morning! Here is block four for your sewing enjoyment! (If you are just joining us, information about materials can be found here, and here are the previous blocks: Block 1, Block 2, Block 3. Materials: 8 3.5" squares of Color A 8 3.5" squares of Color B *note* these are the essential materials for each block, so you can cut several blocks worth of fabric at once to save time! I hope you're not too sick of sewing, pressing and trimming half square triangles! I think it actually helps me to make a bunch, press them, and trim them one block's worth at a time. Makes it less overwhelming! Create your blocks, following the same procedure as last week. If you need help making your blocks, please see this post. You should end up with 16 2.5" squares. Ready to lay out your block? Here we go! ROW 1 ROW 2 ROW 3 ROW 4 (Sorry for these crummy pictures. We actually got some much needed rain, but it rained almost all weekend. The light in my sewing room is less than ideal!) After you have sewn your squares into rows, press your seams. I like to press odd numbered rows to the left, and even to the right. It helps to use a small piece of paper to number your rows. I like the tiny post-it notes. After pressing, you are ready to sew your rows together! Pin, if necessary, but I find that these short rows don't require pinning. ROW LAYOUT Press one final time, and voila! Another finished block! Only 68 to go! The first half of the first row is done, and we've finished one month's worth of blocks! Pat yourself on the back! Remember to add your blocks to our flickr group!
Learn how to make 48 half square triangles (HST) at once This is a very easy technique that produces 48 accurate HST. Learn in 3 minutes: HST size 3 1/2 inch square. With this technique you can easil
I created a Half Square Triangle Cheat Sheet for you that will tell at a glance what size to cut your squares for making HSTs.
The humble half square triangle, or HST as it is often affectionately known, is one of the most foundational yet most versatile units in all of quilting. Let’s take a look at several ways to make this common quilt block unit. (This post contains affiliate links)
Almost 3-1/2 years ago i shared the Magic 8 method on my blog. That particular post has been pinned thousands of times, shared and re~blogged over and over. Well...the other day, i was thinking about this method and may have an idea to improve just a bit on the very popular Magic 8 method. Nothing earth shattering, but just something to consider...Plus i've created a cutting chart and sharing a slick way to trim all those half square triangles! So let's begin at the beginning. How to make 8 half square triangles using only 2 fabric squares. To make a Magic 8, first determine what size finished half square triangles are desired. For example: To make 2" finished half square triangles, Add to the 2" measurement, 7/8". Your total is now 2-7/8" Multiply 2-7/8" by 2. That equals 5-3/4". (2) 5-3/4" fabric squares are the size needed to create (8) 2" finished half square triangles. ** improvement: cut the 2 fabric squares 1/4" larger. For the above example...Cut (2) 6" squares instead of 5-3/4". This will allow you to trim your half square triangles for more accuracy. For those very accurate quilters, this step may not be necessary. Here's how to make a Magic 8 Take your desired fabric squares and place them right sides together. Draw 2 diagonal lines corner to corner Stitch a 1/4" on either side of both drawn lines Cut the stitched fabric squares apart, resulting in 8 half square triangles. There will be 4 cuts. With each cut, be careful not to shift the fabric squares. The first is a vertical cut, right down the middle. The second cut will be horizontal...again, right in the middle. The third cut is corner to corner and the fourth cut is the opposite corner to corner Voila! If the fabric squares shift a bit, the extra 1/4" will allow one to trim for accuracy. Now for a great trimming trick... Say you need to trim your half square triangles to 2". Draw a diagonal line using a dry erase pen on an acrylic ruler. In this example i've drawn my diagonal line 2" down from the corner of the ruler. If you want to trim half square triangles to 1-1/2", the 'dry erase' diagonal line would be 1-1/2" down from the corner of the ruler. Line up the 'dry erase' diagonal line with the seam, and trim. EZPZ! This trimming trick is shared from Corey Yoder of Little Miss Shabby Here's a chart to help determine what size fabric squares to cut for the desired Half Square Triangles. The unfinished size is also the trimming size which includes seam allowance. ***For a FREE printable download of these instructions, head over to my Craftsy Pattern Store HERE. Look for the Free Magic 8 Tutorial. Consider following my Crafty Pattern Store too as i will be offering more free tutorials soon! Now...go make something yummy with all those half square triangles!!
The Half Square Triangle (HST) quilt block may be one of the most basic blocks but there are so many ways to make them! Recently I revisited my Sun Salutations quilt pattern (a quilt entirely constructed out of HSTs) and did a bit of math to make a smaller version. Once you know the basic formula
This simple step HST scrap trick will save you time in the sewing/quilting process and make your HST scraps a breeze! Quilt faster and use up those scraps!
Happy Friday! I got in some gorgeous floral fabrics this week, "Christine" by Eleanor Burns. Magentas, Purples, and blues... GORGEOUS! Please! Oh my god! Floral fabric, some stripes, and some polka dots... I'm so in love with every print! I immediately cut and sewed them into half square…
Learn how to make half square triangles the easy way. I have found this method to be the most straight forward and foolproof technique for a perfect block.
I've had several questions about how I did the triangles for the quilt I'm currently working on, and I thought maybe I'd give you all a little how-to. This is the way my sister taught me, and it has several advantages, the main ones being that it's fast and hard to screw up. Those are generally my criteria with any quilting method: fast and hard to screw up. There is one main tool that you will need for this method, though it could conceivably be done without it. I use this ruler, from Quilt in a Day by Eleanor Burns: From The Bitchy Stitcher Inside the package, she has a chart for cutting your fabric. So, you choose the size you want your finished HST blocks to be - I chose 3 inches (or 3 1/2 unfinished) - and then cut out your fabric in large squares according to the chart. To get HSTs at 3 inches, my big squares need to be 8 inches. I cut 90 8-inch squares from several batik fat quarters and 90 8-inch squares from Kona cotton in white. Before placing two of the squares together, take one square (in my case I always used the white, so the marks would show easily), and using your preferred fabric marking tool and a ruler, draw an x across the square from corner to corner (on the wrong side, if using a print): After marking, lay your two squares together (right side to right side if not using solids or batiks). Pin at each side to hold in place. Using your marks as a guide, stitch along both sides of each line, using a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Remove pins and press to set stitches. Now, you are going to cut this square 4 times. Once along each of your drawn lines and once vertically and horizontally. This will produce 8 triangle-square units Each block you have just produced will be slightly larger than 3.5 inches, so you'll need to trim them. Before pressing them open, lay your Eleanor Burns-approved ruler on the triangle, with the appropriate line on the ruler over the seam line on your block, like so: Trim the excess on either side of the ruler. Press open and trim the little tails from the corners. To make 8 blocks from one 8-inch square probably took me between 5 and 10 minutes, with the longer times having more to do with the constant interruptions from my children than from any difficulties. So assuming even 15 minutes for each set of 8, it took me about 3 hours total to make 720. Not that I did it all at once. Even I have a limit for how many times I can repeat the same task over and over in one day. I'm sure someone with a head for such things could figure out how to do this without one of Eleanor's fancy-schmancy rulers; any right angled ruler would do if you can figure out how to mark that seam line. I noted that the red line for a 3.5-inch square is exactly 2.5 inches from the corner of the ruler. (Okay, here's how. Take the size of your unfinished square - in this case 3.5 - and multiply it by the square root of 2. Then divide that number in half. There's probably a shorter way, but I have to think of it that way or I get confused.) I hope this helps make half square triangles (or half triangle squares, whichever seems more accurate to you) not so scary and daunting. Next I'll show you how I figured out the layout for the quilt. Now please enjoy this cartoon from the inimitable Natalie Dee: www.nataliedee.com
This had been a free pattern on Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) and downloaded over 42,000 times. Based on helpful feedback I received on there, I have prepared a short video for the trickiest part. You can view this here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-J7ji8gfs6U Pattern Details The Half Square Triangle Pouch is a flat square-shaped quilted pouch with a zipper running diagonally across the front. Finished size is 10cm (4") square. It is tiny but opens wide and holds more than it looks. Using this pattern, you will be able to make two HST pouches at the same time, so it is perfect for gift giving. You can keep one for yourself! (Sometimes after I give away a handmade gift, I miss it and wished I made 1 extra for myself. Is it just me?) Here is the trick to create this clean and simple look---It's one continuous zipper tape. For this tutorial I used zippers called "Free Style Fastener" and "Jelly Freedom Zipper" by Lecien which are single zipper tapes. They are readily available in Japan and come in various colors. If you can't find these zippers, then almost any 40cm (16") or longer zipper will work. You separate a zipper into 2 tapes and 1 pull. Just cut off the zipper stop at the both ends and slide the zipper pull out. Ta Da! You have a one- sided zipper to use! NOTE: There are some types of zippers (such as metal and invisible zippers) will NOT work. Also, you will have to use 1 extra zipper pull so you can make your 2nd pouch. If it is not easy for you to get 1 extra zipper pull, then just buy 2 zippers so you will have enough pulls for this project. Tools needed - Rotary cutter and mat - Clear acrylic gridded ruler - Sewing clips Please note that you can't download a digital purchase through the Etsy app at this time. To download a digital file, please sign in to Etsy on your mobile browser or computer and downloaded from the Purchases and reviews section.
Half Square Triangles (HSTs) are a quiltmaker's best friend! They are a building block in lots of classic and modern quilts. Know how to calculate, cut, and sew them, and you'll be on your way to designing your own quilts!
Anyone else feeling like this year is just flying?! How is it August already?! But it does also mean it’s time for block 15 from the Modern HST Sampler! If this is the first time you’re reading this, fear not, you can join in at anytime. Start with this one or go back to the […]
The half-square triangle: You can't get far into quilting without encountering this foundational unit. Today we'll cover HSTs math and how to trim HSTs
I found this amazing idea for half square triangles by the Missouri Star Quilt Company on Youtube. I thought I would do it to make sure it really works and see how accurate this is...... First take two charm squares. Stack them up, right sides together. Sew a 1/4" all around the outside edge. I started on a side but now realize I should have started in a corner, but it doesn't make that much difference. It will look like this....you can see my little wobble on the left hand corner... Use your rotary cutter and ruler and cut from corner to corner. Flip them open and voila! you have perfect half square triangles.....One note of caution, the edges are on the bias. It is most important to PRESS not IRON your finished square. This is a cool idea and I will use it in the future. If you measure a charm square they are a little bit over 5", as you can see in this picture. If you cut your own charm squares exactly 5" you will get an exact 2 1/2 " finished square. My friend Terry just emailed me and said, if you cut your own on the bias they would turn out with the edges on the straight of grain.....another good reason for friends! I am just a little slow on the uptake or have you heard of this technique before? Isn't it always the simple things that amaze us? Or maybe it is just me!! Kelly
The Half Square Triangle is a quick simple quilting technique! This tutorial teaches you how to sew a HST which can be turned into fun and stylish quilts for anyone!
Make a simple Half Square Triangle Quilt with this free pattern! You can make this quilt with a precut stacker and your favorite fabric.
Explore knitnlit's 899 photos on Flickr!
A video demonstration, HST conversion chart to make all block sizes, and sewing techniques to sew 2, 4 or 8 half square triangles at a time!
I created a Half Square Triangle Cheat Sheet for you that will tell at a glance what size to cut your squares for making HSTs.
Pondering possible quilt layouts for my very own bed. All using the simple HST block. The sky's the limit! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Which one is your favoute? Any other HST layouts you can point me to? I might add more to this post so I have a 'library' of HST designs.
