Ways Round the Triangle!

I love half square triangles – I always have!

And in my pursuit of the method that would make triangles love me back – I have tried EVERY triangle method known to Quilters far and wide.

Except for THIS ONE!

In our Jamestown Landing class the other day, we had folks working with pairs of squares and a diagonal line, sewing either side of the line.  We had gals working with sheets of Thangles or Triangles on a Roll or printed pages of Triangulations ---Triangulations works especially great since you can print them in the size you need, and work from larger cuts of fabric like Fat Quarters ---great when you need a whole bunch of triangles from bigger chunks of  fabric.

Bonnie W was doing something I had never seen before, however!

How many of you have seen the half-square triangle ruler by Creative Grids?  I have ---but I’ve never bought it because my easy angle ruler does the same thing, and this thing is plenty big, but it works for many.

However, Bonnie was using it in a way I’d never thought of, and this might come in handy for those of you who don’t like to sew the cut bias of triangle units.  Instead of using it to CUT the triangle pairs – she was using it as a guide to draw the cutting lines first, and then sewing on either side of that line with her 1/4” seam before cutting.

This allowed her to make good use of her 2 1/2” strips, just like using the easy angle ruler does for me, but she found it easier for her to sew because she prefers not to sew on bias edges.

Here her lines are drawn ---she just drew a line wherever we’d normally be rotary cutting first.  A few pins in place and she was ready to sew!  It does the same thing as Thangles, but no paper to remove!

I got home and wondered if I could do the same thing with the Easy Angle ruler – it should work the same, shouldn’t it?

I pulled out a couple of 2” strips ---that's one of the sizes I use the most.  The 2 1/2”  Creative Grids half-square triangle ruler wouldn’t be optimal for me, I need more variety in sizes.  That’s the one thing that kept me from buying it, I’d be limited to one size only.  And those rulers are NOT cheap!

I used the Easy Angle ruler much in the same way ----just as if I was rotary cutting. I just used a frixion pen instead of my rotary cutter!

8 pairs of triangles ready to be sewn!

I pulled out Barbie today --- feeling in the mood for “strawberry milkshake pink!” 

Here is the critical point of sewing with this method.  Your foot MUST be the correct 1/4”,   if not a bit scanter.  If you have a computerized machine that can needle over – even better, because if you are sewing with 2" strips like I am here,  your units need to measure 2” when cut and pressed, not 1 7/8”!

Because of this I took what was a 1/4” foot with a guide that came with my featherweight ---and I broke the guide off.  The guide was never accurate anyway, but the silver part of the foot gives me that 1/4” from the needle that I want.  The guide also didn’t like to run cross-country over the fabric without dragging, so I was happy just to have the guide gone.

Here I am all sewn!

You can tell that I just trailed my tails between diagonal lines.  I think if I draw this in another manner, having the lines be zig zags instead of  parallel diagonals, the stitching would be more continuous.

I just cut apart on the drawn lines and was ready to press.  The frixion pen lines disappear when touched by the heat of the iron.  And yes I know the argument about lines coming back in the freezer, but I’m not hashing that out here.  My quilts are washed many times over through the course of their lives, and that solves the problem.

The Pros I see to this method are ---no triangles sucked down the needle hole. The ability to work with strips cut on the half inch or full inch instead of having to add that pesky 7/8”.  Accuracy of the units AS LONG AS the seam width is where it needs to be to give me the unit size I desire.

Too scant a seam and my triangles will be too big.  Too fat of a seam and they will be too small.  Every 1/4” foot is different, so don’t trust them until you have tested them out.  Ever.

Cons?  Time.  It takes a lot of time to draw lines.  I have no trouble sewing a cut bias, so drawing lines first before sewing is redundant for me.  I love to “chain press”  so having to cut these apart into individual units and then pick up one unit at a time to press was time consuming and awkward. 

Still, all in all – I can see myself using this method in a few situations, and you might find it works for you too! 

There are morning chores going around over here in Quiltville, and early this afternoon – I’m hitting the road and heading Northward to Floyd, Virginia!

Have an awesome Sunday, everyone!