Thursday, July 21, 2011

HST Tutorial

In a July 20, 2011 post, I showed you a quilt I made which included MANY half square triangles, or HST's. I made the quilt top in a class taught by Roxann O'Hare of The Cosmic Cow. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cosmic-Cow/149605151761698

 

In that class, I gained confidence using the oversized square method for constructing half-square triangles (HST's), pictured above in a mini-tutorial.  Here are the steps:

 

Join two oversized squares (I used a 7" square to create a finished 6" block for a charity quilt project).

Draw a line, corner to corner.

Stitch ¼" from the line on each side of the line.  (Sewn line – drawn line – sewn line.)

Cut on the DRAWN line, leaving two triangles.

Press the seam to the dark side of each HST.

Trim to your desired size.  If you have a ruler with a 45 degree angle line, that's super helpful. You can align that line with the center line of your block before cutting.

 

Voila!  Perfectly-sized HST's. 

 

Yes, it uses a bit more fabric, but the increased accuracy and decreased frustration are worth a few extra pennies, I think.  With perfectly-sized HST's and a ¼" foot on my sewing machine, I'll be happier with my finished blocks, and my trusty seam ripper can spend more time in the sewing box!

 

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to try it. I've been practicing on quilting recently.

    www.aalexandrajewelry.blogspot.com

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