More than ONE Way to Trim a Triangle!

Yesterday while doing a bit of clean-up in the studio – yes, I’m one of those who has piles grow on every available horizontal surface before I get kicked into gear to set it all right again ---that’s the way my creativity works –I came across a zip lock baggie chock full of bonus triangle cut-offs that had been gifted to me at some point.

These are fairly large – and I measured the.  A bit less than 3-1/2” on the straight grain edges, so I am confident that they were snip-offs from something like snowball blocks or large flying geese ---or something of the sort.
The triangles were matched with one print against one solid white.

The size is large enough ---I’m working on building a stash of triangles that finish at 2” so I can quickly use them in my Leader & Ender Split 9 Patch Challenge blocks.

But it’s going to involve some sliver trimming – and you know how I HATE sliver trimming!

Still.  Whatever is the best use of the fabric is what I usually lean towards and I began to sew them in pairs….saving the trimming for later.

And I made some choices.  This is one pair that is just not enough contrast to me. 

I thought I could use these examples to show you what doesn’t work for me, and what does.  To me this is two neutrals sewn together.  The ground of both fabrics is white…so I split pairs that were like this so I could match them to other things more colorful.  Even though the one fabric does have color in the print..mostly what we see is the background of the fabric.

Here’s another one…even though this print has flowers and blue stripes..the background is still far too light for me.

Ahhhh!  Much better!

Even though that light print has a huge pink and red flower..to me it is still a neutral-grounded fabric.  And I’d prefer to use it on the light side instead of on the dark side.  I hope this helps you with fabric selection in the future!

Let’s trim!  ONE SIDE ONLY!

Did you know you can use your Easy Angle ruler for quickly sliver trimming down triangles?  ONE cut and done? 

Place the seam line along the seam line of your triangle as shown.  Have the line corresponding to the size you need at the top of your unit…I’m going to trim one side only…like this:

Now gently press!

A trimmed 2-1/2” unit that will finish at 2” – with ONE sliver cut!

I tackled that entire baggie ---you can see the “too light” pile to the back left of the photo…I simply scrounged around for some other more colorful triangles I could match them to.  They are all sewn and waiting to play in my Split 9-Patch blocks!

I’m off for my physical this morning.  And a mammogram this afternoon.  It’s GET IT DONE day. 

If you haven’t had yours….it’s time to take care of yourself.  Get it scheduled, get it done – then we can quilt with a clear conscience!

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