Category Archives: Half Square Triangles

Metro Lines

I’ve designed my own quilt before, but this is the first one that I am sharing with others. It’s a simple pattern and can be made with any print and two solids. I had some left over scraps (no particular fabric collection) from another project and made the quilt top. My back will have one metro line surrounded by solid fabric. My binding will have a combination of the two solid fabrics. It’s a small baby quilt, but I know the blocks can be resized for any size quilt. I used HSTs and squares and just arranged them in this order. My soon to be daughter-in-law helped me name it, and that’s how Metro Lines was born.

Squaring Up Your Quilt Blocks

I’ve been compelled to add this information as a refresher. I’ve been quilting for quite sometime now and I always thought I was squaring up my blocks right, especially my HSTs. As they say, it’s never too late to learn. I was working with a group of quilters; senior citizens to be exact, and they were learning how to square up their half square triangles. For the life of me I was having difficulty showing one of them how to do it. I had to get help from the instructor. Once she showed me. It was a breeze to show someone else. My problem was how I was turning my block after I made the initial cuts, so I decided to add two tutorials that I found on the Internet as a reminder for beginner quilters. One tutorial covers squaring up quilt blocks, and the other is on squaring up half square triangles.

Quick and Easy . . .

I became fascinated with half square triangles. So I began searching the Internet for quick and easy ways to make them. Using Jenny Doan’s method you can make four at a time. I also came across other methods where you can make more than four at a time. During my search I came across a blog that had a tutorial for making a Hunter’s Star using HSTs. This was a quick and easy way to make HSTs. I have to try this. I’ve added the link for the tutorial. I will also post my pictures when I make my first Hunter’s Star block.

Hunter’s Star Tutorial

NJMQG Challenge

I used half square triangles to make these blocks. I used Jenny Doan’s quick method. My renditions of modern.

Half Square Triangles

I’ve been searching the internet to find quick ways to make HSTs. I want to demo this technique at my quilt guild. The one I saw Jenny Doan demo, by far is the quickest. She used a light and dark 5″ square. She placed right sides together. Then she sewed a 1/4″ seam around the entire block; sizes can vary. Then she cut the square on the diagonal; opposite corner to corner; making four HSTs from that square. Many quilters use this technique. The photo below shows the steps.