The ultimate half-square triangle block tutorial

As promised, here is a tutorial for a very easy block which I did not invent but was shown how to make many years ago. It is very easy to chain piece, surprisingly quick to make, and you don't cut any triangles. If you divide your fabrics into light-medium-dark you can get interesting effects when the blocks are sewn together, and the layout possibilities are almost endless. Any half-square triangle layout looks good, and log cabin layouts will also work.

The fabric quantities given will make two 4in blocks at one time. Take note of pressing directions. If the blocks are pressed as shown, they will go together very easily.

From the fabric you wish to feature, cut two, 2-1/2in squares. I used bright colours and prints for mine.

From secondary fabric, cut two 2-1/2in by 3-1/2in rectangle. For this I used different bright green fabrics.

From background fabric cut one, 5-1/2in by 4-1/2in rectangle. I have used white fabric.

You will also need to make a template. Cut one, 4-1/2in square from template plastic or cardboard. Cut in half diagonally to make two triangles. If using cardboard it will need to be renewed from time to time, as the edges will wear away.

Sew each 2-1/2in square to the 2-1/2in side of the small rectangle. Press seams towards square. With squares at opposite ends, join two of these units to make the pieced rectangle unit shown.
On wrong side clip the seam allowance in the centre, being careful not to clip into the stitching.
Press seam allowance away from the square, as shown.
Place triangle template on wrong side of pieced rectangle, making sure it goes over the square in the corner. Using your preferred marker, draw a line along the long triangle edge. Repeat on the opposite corner. I used blue washout marker, but you can use a fine pencil or other marker.
With right sides together, place the pieced rectangle on top of the background 4-1/2in by 5-1/2in rectangle. Stitch along both drawn lines, as shown above and below.
You can see the sewn lines clearly from the back.
Using ruler and rotary cutter, cut 1/4in from each drawn line. Press seam toward large rectangle. This is what your blocks will look like when trimmed and pressed! You can also see the small strip of fabric that was trimmed, and is not needed.
This is a quilt I made several years ago, using this block. The background fabrics are different grey prints, secondary fabric is black solid, and I used several different bright tone-on-tone fabrics for the feature squares. The outer border is also pieced triangles using the background fabrics.

When I made my quilt pre-cut strips and squares had not been invented, but they could easily be used to make this block as many are 2-1/2in wide.

Enjoy making your blocks, and I would love to see pictures of the quilts when they are made!

Edited to add: My quilt was made (and dated) in 1998, and I learnt the technique before that. My quilt was also published as a project in 'Down Under Quilts" magazine in 2004. No doubt it has appeared in other sources....you can't keep a good idea down!

No fame and glory this week

Aren't these glorious fall colours? Today is quite autumnal, with a stiff breeze blowing from the south across the valley and up onto our hill. Much nicer than summer's heat. The photo was taken in Dawes Road, Toronto, Canada; if you know Dawes Road you may recognise it, and you don't - why then, it doesn't matter. Just enjoy the colours.

Last weekend when the state quilt guild visited, a photographer from a local paper was wandering around taking pictures.....I was duly lined up with a few other ladies and posed in front of a quilt. When we received a copy of the paper today there is the photo.......but no me.......

I have been cropped!

While I didn't particularly wish to appear in one of the local rags I can't help feeling slighted.......makes me wonder about the conversation back at the newspaper office when the photos were being selected for publication. "We'll use that one, but oh dear - better get rid of that woman on the end" I can hear them saying. One picture is of the whole room with people sitting, standing and milling around and there I am way over at the back, if you didn't know it was me you probably would never recognise me. And that's OK. At least I wasn't cropped out of that picture, it would have left an odd hole.

There are no pictures of me on my blog. I doubt now there ever will be, because obviously I am something to be shunned and feared. Something with which to frighten small children and give honest people nightmares. I shall never feel the same about the image in the mirror again - that is, if I can bear to even look into a mirror.

On a more cheerful note, I have decided to put up a tutorial on the technique I taught my quilt group recently. I made sample pieces showing the different stages of making the block but the fabrics I used were a bit dull and didn't photograph very well (a bit like me, obviously) so I am cutting out some brighter fabrics. Look for it over the next few days.

Recently I ordered myself a cutting table like this one, I hope it arrives soon. There is a backlog of cutting and pinning, the kitchen bench is a good height but a bit narrow. Still, we use what we have, don't we - even if it is less than ideal.

Last week I had a most unnerving experience. We were on our way out when I decided to visit the bathroom first. Shut the door, lifted the lid on the toilet prior to doing what it is one does in these situations, and noticed a large green tree frog sitting in half in, half out of the water looking up at me with beady eyes. Erk. I very quickly shut the lid and left the room. Kevin, who is braver than I am, lifted it out and put it in the garden. I always check for frogs now before using the toilet. If one was sitting in one's usual position and a cold clammy little hand reached up and touched one on one's bare nether regions.........can you imagine the shock?

Showy dress.

The glaring colors and "loud" costumes, once so common, have given place to sober grays, and browns and olives; black predominating over all. The light, showily-trimmed dresses, which were once displayed in the streets and fashionable promenades, are now only worn in carriages. This display of showy dress and glaring colors is generally confined to those who love ostentation more than comfort."

I was wearing bright colours with an orange top when photographed - perhaps it was considered too loud and glaring to be seen by readers with delicate sensibilities?

Enjoy your days!

Great Freebies Site

Check out this great site for freebies....there are great ideas for all sorts of projects! With Christmas coming (looming, actually; it's getting closer by the minute) it will be very handy. I'm on it too, my tutorial for folded star is there. Many thanks to Khris, Sharon and Diana who make it possible.

Jennifer

Random thoughts for Friday

Isn't the interwebz an amazing place! Zoe in Germany (who doesn't have a blog) found my Folded Star tutorial and emailed me to say how pleased she was, as she made one of those years ago but had lost the instructions to make another; and Geta in Romania has also found it. Check out Geta's blog, there are several tutorials, her wonderful trapunto and quilting, and she is having a giveaway. She has photos of a beautiful pale green bag she has made, it has an orange flower on the front and orange lining.......just scrumptious.

Thank you to all the lovely folks who commented on Monday's post, about our scary experience with the shopping trolley bloke. We have posted our letter to the shopping centre management so will see if anything is done about it. Hopefully it may also lead them to put up advisory speed signs in the carpark, far too many people (mums with children in the car as well as the young macho blokes) drive too quickly.

So far we are two weeks into Kevin's retirement and murder has not yet been committed, in fact not even an angry word has been spoken. And we have our wedding rings back so we are married again.

Do you like the kitty quilt? I used lots of bright prints with a black border to match the black noses, eyes and whiskers - all stitched with one thread of DMC black stranded cotton in hand buttonhole and stem stitch. The backing is a bright allover cat print and I called it "Psychedelicats". It was even pictured a few years ago in Down Under Quilts magazine, in an article on cat quilts. The fireplace is in our living room, our house is nearly 60 years old, and was built when nearly every Aussie house had a fireplace. It's not the most beautiful feature of the house so I hang a quilt in front of it in summer; we have a gas fire in it for winter warmth.

And tonight is music club night - wonder what cake I shall buy for supper? - our theme tonight is songs or poems on age. Old age, young age, teen age - any age. Should be fun.

Have a lovely weekend!

Jennifer

Picture and link added

Thanks to Chookyblue for pointing me in the right direction...I was on the right road but hadn't quite made it to the gate. So now I have a picture of my Folded Star trivet, and a link to the tutorial, in my sidebar.

I have been sewing up a storm in front of the air-con, my new bag is coming along nicely. The lining only needs the corners boxed, then it can be attached inside the bag. I probably won't stay up to do it tonight; I stayed up very very late last night reading as it was too hot to go to bed. But it will be finished tomorrow, another finish! That will be three so far for 2009!

Looking forward to the cool change tomorrow evening.

Jennifer

Asking for help

Dear fellow bloggers, many of you are far more technologically minded than I am. (that's not difficult) I would like to put a picture on my sidebar with a link to the tutorial for the folded star trivet I posted in December, and I cannot for the life of me work out how to do it. My brain has been fried by the heat so I am working with less functioning brain cells than usual. If anyone could help me I would be very very grateful. I would be full of grate.

This is one of the cushions I have been propping under my injured foot (which, by the way, isn't quite right yet - I bumped it in the shower this morning and it told me quite firmly not to do that). I bought the tea-dyed stitchery several years ago from a shop in Queensland, used a deep red for the embroidery then framed it with a tiny strip of green to match the green in the Aussie wildflower print that I used for the rest of the cushion. The old house looks like so many that are still around in country districts - it wouldn't be trendy enough for city folk, but I like them.

Now I am going to move My Lovely New Bernina into the lounge room which has air-con, and work on my latest bag.

Jennifer

Folded star or Somerset patchwork

Recently Debbie showed a pretty trivet that she received. Many years ago I learned how to do this technique, and finally I have had time to make this tutorial. It's a lot of fun, and not difficult. I will spread it over a few posts as there are lots of pictures - a picture tells a thousand words! - which will show the steps to making Somerset patchwork.

You will need to decide on fabrics. I used Christmas fabrics from my stash as I plan to use it on our Christmas table, but of course it will look good no matter which fabrics are used. There are four rows in the star and each row can be a different fabric, fabrics can be repeated, or more than one fabric can be used in a row. As you can see, my light coloured row uses two different fabrics - the colour tones are the same, but the prints are different. You will also need fabric for the backing and binding, and a piece of muslin for the base. The finished star can be used as a table mat, hot food trivet, pot holder, or on the front of a cushion or bag.

Fabric 1, centre: Cut four, 3-1/2in (8.75cm) squares.
Fabric 2, first round: cut eight, 5in (12.5cm) squares.
Fabric 3, second round: cut eight, 7in (17.5cm) squares. I used two different fabrics for this row as I found that I couldn't get all eight squares from one fat quarter.
Fabric 4, third round: cut eight, 6in (15cm) squares.
Base fabric: cut one, nine in (22.5cm) square. Fold it into quarters and press, open out then fold diagonally and press. You will have four pressed lines. If preferred the lines can also be drawn using a ruler and marking pencil. This is inside the finished star and will not be seen.
Backing: you may prefer to wait until the top is finished before cutting fabric for backing, as you may wish to alter the size from the dimensions given here.
Binding: you may also want to wait before deciding on a binding width. I cut two strips 1 in (25.4cm) but only needed one for binding. In hindsight they could have been wider, say 1-1/4 in (3.2cm) or even 1-1/2in (3.8cm).
Thread: thread to match each fabric. Points are stitched down by hand so thread will need to match fabrics, outer edges are sewn by machine but as this thread won't be seen in the finished star the colour doesn't matter.
Depending in the fabric used, you may be able to finger-press; this will result in soft folds and points. For crisp sharp folds you may prefer to use an iron. I chose to press my fabrics using steam, as the gold metallic designs on some of the fabrics made them stiff.

Take one piece of fabric 1 and fold in half; press. Fold one corner to the middle and press; repeat with the other corner, to make a triangle shape. Make sure the point is on the folded edge, not the open edge.

Repeat with all squares. If using more than one fabric for a round you may like to layer the fabrics alternately to keep them in order.

Using fabric 1 and with the lines on the base fabric as a guide, set the four triangles with the points touching at the centre and the folded edges touching to make a square. Using thread to match fabric 1, stitch the four points to each other and to the base fabric. Stitching just inside the outer edge of fabric 1, sew a row of stitches by machine to hold the square to the base fabric. This row of stitching can be seen in the picture below.
Using fabric 2, start the first round. Place the point of a fabric 2 triangle 5/8in (1.5cm) from the centre and pin in place. Continue to place the remaining fabric 2 triangles with the points 5/8in (1.5cm) from the centre point, alternating placement so the points line up with the fold of the square below and with the join between the four sections of the square. Arrange the triangles so they alternate over and under each other. Using thread to match fabric 2, stitch the points to the base fabric, and machine a row of stitches just inside the outer edge as before.
Continue to place the next two rows as before. Using fabric 3, make the second round as previous row but with points 1-1/4in (3.1cm) from the centre point. Stitch points and outer edges. Using fabric 4, make the third round with points 1-7/8in (4.7cm) from centre point. The final row will be partly off the edge of the base fabric.
This is the time to decide on the finished size. I trimmed my star to make a 9in (22.5cm) circle,
but any size from 8-9in (20-22.5cm) diameter would be fine. You can also trim the excess points and leave an octagon shape. If making a circle you will use bias fabric for the binding - if making an octagon or square, you can use straight binding. I used a bias tape maker to make fold lines on my binding.
Trim to shape and size desired. Cut backing fabric the same size - this can be placed on the back of the star, wrong wides together, and trimmed at the same time as the front. It is then ready for binding.
With right side of binding to right side of star, pin and stitch. Fold under 1/4in(6mm) on the end of binding so the fold will overlap the join. Stitch all around.
Because of the many layers of folded fabric, the edges are bulky. I trimmed some of the bulk away to make it easier to fold the binding to the back. Stitch binding down on the back by hand.
In hindsight I would have cut the binding slightly wider to make this step easier, and also for the appearance of the finished piece.
Now make a cuppa, sit back and enjoy your handiwork! When I looked at these pictures I realised that I had made a mistake in the light coloured row - the 'under and over' overlapping didn't quite go right at one point. But in the overall scheme of things it doesn't matter.
If you have any questions or comments I would love to have them.

Jennifer