How to do a Half Square Triangle Block (HST)
I received a kind message in my PM inbox right after I posted this onto a quilting blog and she made a great point and offered a great suggestion, and I wanted to share it with everyone-(because I will bet there are others thinking the same thing) and then I would like to share my reasoning's for the way I did it...
Fellow Quilter-"Hi - looked at your tutorial for the HST and appreciate the time and effort you took to make it....it seems like you're wasting a lot of fabric by doing it this way. Even tho you say to keep the cut off portion for another project, the reality is that since the pieces are not sewn together, they're apt to get lost or disorganized and that most often results in waste. One additional piece of information to add to your tute to help folks with the waste material is to tell them what size block it would make if they made a second stitch line."
ME-
Later I can whip out these scraps and give it to my girls to make a scappy purse, lap quilt, or anything else they are interested in.
Fellow Quilter then asked: "Is there a reason you chose not to use the technique of drawing the line point to point then stitching a quarter inch on each side? That produces two HSTs out of a single set of squares and no waste of fabric.
Again, thanks for the time and effort you took to do the tutorial."
ME-
I purchase 5 inch fabric "CHARMS" (these are pre-cut fabric blocks that measure 5 inches square). This saves me so much time by having the fabric already cut to the precise measurements (time I can't spare).
So if I chose to sew a 1/4 in seam on both sides of my line it would make my finished block only measure 4 1/2 inches square- and therefore I would have a whole lot more "squaring up" to do to make my other 5 inch blocks match and my seams to line up- I would be cutting off a 1/2 inch of fabric on two sides of all remaining blocks. This would make a lot more work and take too much time and create a lot more waste (waste that I cannot turn into a quilt later) .
So by stitching directly on the line I keep the blocks the original 5x5 inches.
And even if I did cut my own fabric into my 5 inch squares, I still use this method because I can strip, stack and cut my fabric quicker without having to measure a separate bunch of squares just for the HST blocks.
BUT... if I was searching through a bunch of "scraps" the method that the fellow quilter asked about would be a great idea-and the right method too!
"s-oooew"...
If I start out with all my blocks measuring 5 x 5 inches AND... I want to keep the same measurements after sewing the HST block, then this is just the right method to use.
I hope this clears any question up.
Thank you so much and I appreciate all the responses so far and I love learning more from all you that have so much more knowledge!
Fellow Quilter-"Hi - looked at your tutorial for the HST and appreciate the time and effort you took to make it....it seems like you're wasting a lot of fabric by doing it this way. Even tho you say to keep the cut off portion for another project, the reality is that since the pieces are not sewn together, they're apt to get lost or disorganized and that most often results in waste. One additional piece of information to add to your tute to help folks with the waste material is to tell them what size block it would make if they made a second stitch line."
Later I can whip out these scraps and give it to my girls to make a scappy purse, lap quilt, or anything else they are interested in.
Fellow Quilter then asked: "Is there a reason you chose not to use the technique of drawing the line point to point then stitching a quarter inch on each side? That produces two HSTs out of a single set of squares and no waste of fabric.
Again, thanks for the time and effort you took to do the tutorial."
I purchase 5 inch fabric "CHARMS" (these are pre-cut fabric blocks that measure 5 inches square). This saves me so much time by having the fabric already cut to the precise measurements (time I can't spare).
So if I chose to sew a 1/4 in seam on both sides of my line it would make my finished block only measure 4 1/2 inches square- and therefore I would have a whole lot more "squaring up" to do to make my other 5 inch blocks match and my seams to line up- I would be cutting off a 1/2 inch of fabric on two sides of all remaining blocks. This would make a lot more work and take too much time and create a lot more waste (waste that I cannot turn into a quilt later) .
So by stitching directly on the line I keep the blocks the original 5x5 inches.
And even if I did cut my own fabric into my 5 inch squares, I still use this method because I can strip, stack and cut my fabric quicker without having to measure a separate bunch of squares just for the HST blocks.
BUT... if I was searching through a bunch of "scraps" the method that the fellow quilter asked about would be a great idea-and the right method too!
"s-oooew"...
If I start out with all my blocks measuring 5 x 5 inches AND... I want to keep the same measurements after sewing the HST block, then this is just the right method to use.
I hope this clears any question up.
Thank you so much and I appreciate all the responses so far and I love learning more from all you that have so much more knowledge!
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