Half-Square Triangle blocks are a basic element in many quilts, and on a smaller scale, occur as elements within many block patterns, i.e. Friendship Star, Shaded Four Patch and many others). There are a number of techniques for making these, either individually or in sheets. My own preference is for making them individually. I have tried the sheet techniques, and somehow, for me, they are more trouble than doing them individually, primarily because you are working on larger pieces of fabric. The sheet techniques are described in many quilt books, and undoubtedly on numerous internet sites.
In addition to the decision as to whether to make the blocks individually, or in sheets, you have to make a judgement as to your level of experience and/or exactitude. Some folks, particulary when making sheets, work to exact sizes and are able to have their squares come out perfect. I am not one of these. I start with an oversize square and trim down to perfection. Many others agree with this approach, and it is the approach I will pictorially teach on this page.
To make hst's, you start with squares of fabric that are larger than you want to end up with. I believe 3/8" larger is the accepted formula, but don't trust me on that. If you want to work to exact dimensions, work from some other set of instructions. I alway make my squares 1" larger than my target dimension. This measurement does not depend on the size of finished block you want. If you are aiming for 2 1/2" blocks, cut 3 1/2" squares to work from. If you are aiming for 6 1/2" blocks, cut 7 1/2" squares to work from. The amount of oversize remains the same regardless of the block size. For purposes of this instruction, it is assumed that you are making the 6 1/2" blocks used in Treadle On Block Exchanges (TOBE's). These instructions will, perhaps, seem a bit involved, but remember, one of the beauties of making hst's is that you are actually making two of them at once.
OK... you will need some tools. Here are the ones I use:
You will need a plastic "trimming square". Here are several that I use. The two on the left are Onigrid products, a 9 1/2" and a 6 1/2". I also have these in 12 1/2' and 15 1/2". All of these have 45 degree angle lines running from corner to corner. The upper right item is by by Master Piece and is for 90 degree measurements. It doesn't have a 45 degree line and won't work for what we are doing. I include it so that you will know to watch out for such. The lower right one is by Olipfa and does have the 45 degree line, and also 60 degree lines... very handy when making blocks that have other than 45 degree triangles.
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Here is a close up of the Omnigrid 6 1/2" square. Note that Omingrid also offers a 6" square. That one is not quite large enough to handle the finish trimming for TOBE blocks.
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This is an important thing for you to know about your instructor... I work fast and dirty. I know that I will often be making 6 1/2" hst's for TOBE projects, and I will need to be cutting 6 1/2" plain squares of background material and 7 1/2" squaresof color material for the hst's... a lot of both. The standard long cutting guides are all 6" . For speed cutting of raw fabric, I made my own 6 1/2" and 7 1/2" cutting guides. Here you see them. Actually, I make a lot of special cutting guides and patterns. I get Lexan scraps from a local plastics plant, and cut whatever I need for each project.
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Cutting Raw Squares
I started out by cutting my plain 6 1/2" squares. I'm not showing picture instructions for that, as it is pretty basic. If your are really new to it all, just check out the instructions below for cutting 7 1/2" squares, only do it 6 1/2" instead. For the hst's, the first thing you have to do is cut your "raw" or oversize squares. You will need some in your background fabric, and some in your color or print fabric. Your material should be washed (i.e. shrunk) and ironed. Since you will be making two hst's at once for each operation, you will 1/2 as many squares of background and color as you want to make blocks, i.e. to make 40 finished hst's, you would need 20 background squares and 20 color squares.
Here I have folded a piece of background fabric into four thicknesses, and aligned the guide to trim off the rough edge. Note that I will cut to the right, since I am righ handed.
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Rough edge trimmed off... |
This picture is not upside down. I have turned the work around so that, again, I will be cutting on my right side.
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Here, I have made one cut from the left edge, moved the guide to the right, and then made a second cut. The too small edge remainder will be thrown away. As I said, I work fast and dirty, and I don't worry a lot about maximizing the utilization of fabric. I grab what will work and cut out what I need. |
Here I have placed the guide across one of the "slices" I cut up above. Note that the slice is simply not going to provice two 7 1/2" measurements... so be it.
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OK, I have made my 7 1/2" cut in the slice. Again, the two edge pieces that don't fit this project will be thrown away. I simply don't have space to store stashes of real small pieces. |
Our finished product... a stack of 7 1/2" background fabric squares.
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I did the same essential operation to produce some color squares as well. |
Marking and Sewing
The next steps are to stack pieces into sets, mark your center lines and sew seams 1/4" to either side of the center line.
Lay your color fabric squares out, GOOD or PRINT SIDE UP. Lay a background fabric on top of each one, as shown here. If your background fabric has a right, or print side, make sure that that side is DOWN, facing the "good" side of the color fabric. |
Use a straight edge that is long enough to reach from corner to corner, and draw a pencil line, as shown here. |
Just for kicks, this is my primary sewing set-up. At the left, you see my cutting table, at the right a formica commercial sewing machine top with a Singer 201 in it. The 201 has a hand crank for precise work, but this is normally disengaged in favor of the industrial treadle that the top is mouned on. Note the large lamp that swings to cover either the cutting table or the sewing machine's needle area. You can see a small stack of paired sets of fabric to the left of the sewing machine base, ready to be sewn.
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Here I have lined up a set of squares, ready to have the first seam sewn. Note my 1/4" piecing foot. This provides a precise 1/4" measurement for piecing squares. There are many types or brands of these available. This one is metal and provides 1/4" measurement to either side. Many provide 1/4" to one side and 1/8" to the other. This step is very straightforward, simply sew a seam 1/4" from your pencil line.
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When you get to the end of the line, pause and align the next set of pieces. Don't stop and lift the foot, or cut the thread. Just line up the next piece and keep sewing. Continue until you have sewn one seam on all your pieces. This is called "chain piecing", and speeds up the operation tremendously.
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OK, I have sewn a long string or chain of sets. I have turned the whole chain around and aligned the first set to have its second seam sewn. |
And here is the little chain of sets that I sewed for this instruction. At this point they are still joined together by the seams... See next picture...
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This is what the sets look like after being chain pieced. Cut the seam threads between each set to separate them. |
Cutting and Ironing
The next steps are quite easy and quick. The sets have been separated. Now they must be cut in half, creating two hst's, then the seam must be ironed over.
Here is a set. The pencil line is clear. The two seams are not so clear, but you can see them. At the left is a straight edge guide.
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Here the guide has been positioned so that its edge is exactly on the pencil line. Cut there. |
The set, cut into two pieces, each of which consists of a background triangle and a color triangle.
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Take your stack of triangles over to your ironing board and open them up, face down. Iron each seam over to the dark side, as shown here. |
Trimming
What you have now is a stack of rough hst's. They are all basically 7 1/2" square, but some may be more "square" than others. There may also be some variation in size, depending on how reliably you sewed 1/4" seams. The next step will turn these raw hst's into perfect finished products.
In this instance, I am using the 6 1/2" O'Lipfa square. The Omnigrid squares, or other brands, will work just as well, as long as they have the 45 degree angle line going from corner to corner. Just to refresh your mental image, run back up to the top of the page and look at this square in the tools section. OK, if you did that, you can see that while the 45 degree angle line is not really visible here, that is because it has been very precisely aligned on the seam, working from the top side of the block, i.e. the seam that you ironed over is down. Holding the square in place with my left hand, I will use the roller cutter to trim off the right edge and the top edge.
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The right edge and the top edge have been trimmed off. Having done this, I have very nice, precise edges that match the plastic square. |
Here is the same step, photographed with the Omnigrid square rather than the O'Lipfa... just to show you that any good square with the 45 degree angle line will work. Here, as above, the angle line doesn't show up well, since it has been laid on the seam, but you can refer to the tools picture above if you need clarification.
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Still working with the Omnigrid, here you can see that I have turned the work around, so that the the trimmed edges became the left edge and the bottom edge, and placed the plastic square on top again, aligning its left and bottom edges with the trimmed edges. The bottom left corner is nicely matched to the corner of the work, and again, the 45 degree line is lined up on the seam. The next step is to trim off the right and top edges again. |
And here is the O'Lipfa square photoed at the same step.
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Hallelujah! We now have a perfect, 6 1/2" trimmed hst square. You can see the rough edges that were trimmed off, lieing above the work. This "trim - turn - trim" step can go very fast when you get used to doing it.
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If it happens that you are like me, you may feel that you would benefit from reviewing two different sets of instructions, for reinforcment. Some time back, we did a Friendship Star quilt called "United We Stand"... a Treadle On memorial to honor those lost on 9/11. The Friendship Star block consists of four hst's and five plain squares. I did a very similar but not quite as detailed pictorial instruction for that quilt. You can review that set of instructions by returning to the main site page, then entering The Quilt Shop and clicking on the link to United We Stand.
I'm sure that following these very detailed instructions, either visually, or in actuality, seems very tedius at first. However, trust me, once you understand it and get the rythm of it, you will love making hst's. They go amazingly fast and have tremendous possibilies in may different quilt patterns.
Captain Dick
Cutting 8 HST's at One Time
While I do my hst's one at a time, some folks prefer this method, which cuts 8 at a time. You still have to trim them individually, of course...
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And again, from Vicki Wilkins
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