With my Dublin Fancy Quilt Along coming up, I’ve been dropping lots of reels on my instagram to help you make this quilt. I’d love to have you join us for that quilt along! The sign ups for the quilt along and pattern purchasing options are all HERE. This pattern has lots of pinwheels, 75 to be exact. 75 pinwheels means 300 half square triangles! This is far and away the most time consuming part of making this quilt. After the pinwheels are done, the rest of the quilt goes together super quick. So, I thought I’d do a post on the half square triangle method we’re going to use for this quilt, 4 at a time half square triangles. I’ll go over pros and cons of this method versus some other techniques and give you some tips for making them.
Before we get into half square triangles, check out that super cute label I had made for my quilt! You can order one of these labels for your own quilt! I get them from Melanie at Southern Charm quilts/Meander and Make. They are great labels. I always order my labels from her. I’ve even sent some graphics from my patterns to her and let her design a label specifically for that quilt. That graphic in the picture is from my Dublin Fancy pattern. If you want a label with this graphic and your name on it, you can order it HERE. Just click Dublin Fancy in the order form. (Full disclosure: that is an affiliate link, if you click on it and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission. This does not affect the price you pay.) There are a few other choices there for some other things I have coming up this year. The Partial Dreams quilt is for my FREE pattern that’s availabe exclusively to my subscribers. I’ll have some pictures of that label for you soon. You can get that free pattern HERE.
Now let’s talk about Half Square Triangles
Half square triangles are a really common unit in quilting blocks. The most common ways to make them are 2 at a time, 4 at a time, and 8 at a time. Different people prefer different methods, and that’s ok. 4 at atime half square triangles have always been my favorite method. Compared to 2 and 8 at time, you don’t have to draw any lines. BUT, there are a few things some people don’t like about them.
Bias Edges
The biggest thing that some quilters don’t like is that you’ll end up with bias edges. If you aren’t familiar with what bias edges are, bias just means that the fabric was cut on the diagonal instead of the vertical or horizontal grain of the fabric. This will make the edges more stretchy. A lot of quilters try to avoid blocks that have the bias on the edges. I have been making half square triangles this way since I was a beginner, before I knew to be scared of these bias edges. By the time I knew 4 at a time half squares triangles were supposed to be difficult to work with, it was too late. They were already my favorite! I’ve never, not even once, had any issues working with blocks that have bias edges. But, if you don’t like the idea of working with bias edges, there is an easy fix for this…
STARCH!!! or pressing spray. Starching your fabric and pressing before you make your cuts can make a big difference. When you use starch or pressing spray, wait a few minutes and let the liquid soak into the fabric before you press it. When you press your half squares triangles, before you trim them, use a little starch then too.
The Half Square Triangles coming out too small
I’ve never actually had this problem, but I have seen people comment on random threads and posts that this was an issue for them. This could be that you just aren’t familiar with the technique or maybe that the pattern was written to cut it too close. For Dublin Fancy, there is plenty of wiggle room so that you can get those trimmed and squared nicely.
You have to trim them
Unfortunately this is par for the course with any half square triangle method. Unless you’re making a whole quilt of the same size half square triangles, you’ll need to trim them to get them to match up with the other pieces in your quilt.
A big advantage with using them in Dublin Fancy
For Dublin Fancy, using 4 at a time half square triangles GREATLY simplifies the cutting. You’ll sew 4 of the half square triangles together to make pinwheels. The pinwheel blocks will make up the foreground of some nine patch blocks. The measurements I needed to get the pinwheels to be the same size as the background squares is close enough that I was able to write the pattern so that all of the foreground and background pieces are cut the same size. This would not be possible with 2 at a time or 8 at a time half square triangles. This also gives a little extra wiggle room so that you have plenty of fabric for squaring those half square triangles off nicely.
How to make 4 at time half square triangles
You’ll take your two squares, stack them right sides together and sew a 1/4″ seam on all sides.
You’ll need to cut the square in half on the diagonal, and then cut it along the other diagonal quartering it.
***TIP – When you are lining up your cuts, don’t prioritize lining the ruler up with the corners of your fabric. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out. Instead of lining the ruler up with the corners of the fabric, line the ruler up with the point where the stitchlines cross as shown below. If your squares weren’t perfectly stacked, lining up the ruler with the point where the stitchlines cross instead of the corners of the fabric will take care of the stacking imperfection.
Once you have cut along both diagonals it should look like the photo below. When you open those up, you’ll get 4 half square triangles as shown below.
I like to press my seams to the sides going towards the dark fabric. This will allow you to nest the seams when you sew the half square triangles together. You can nest diagonal seams just like you would nest any other seam to help them match up nicely. Use a little starch or pressing spray to give them a little more motiviation to cooperate for you when you sew them together.
The last thing to do is to trim the half square triangles. In my opinion, trimming is the worst part of any pattern that has half square triangles. For the Dublin Fancy Quilt, you will have plenty of wiggle room to get them nice and square. You can watch my demo on instagram HERE.
That’s all I’ve got for today
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
I hope you enjoyed it.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you!
I’d really appreciate it if you subscribe to my blog and follow me on Instagram too! And I’ll say it again… I’d really LOVE to have you join us for my Dublin Fancy Quilt along. You can buy the pattern and find the links to sign up HERE.
Happy quilting!
