Not long ago, I stumbled across this ingenious
Magic 8 method of creating HSTs (Half-Square Triangles) and knew immediately I had to try it out in a special quilt I've been working on... and it worked wonderfully well:
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| Eight HSTs cut from two giant squares of fabric after being sewn together |
Created from two giant squares of fabric sewn right sides together diagonally, corner-to-corner:
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| Two squares of fabric sewn diagonally, corner to corner 1/4" from both sides of the drawn lines |
And the HSTs reveal:
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| All pressed and ready for those 'dog ears' to be trimmed |
Try this method out the next time you need a bunch of HSTs in a hurry - works great and LOTS of FUN, too ;-)
Time to get back to trimming those dog ears - just 78 left to go!
Later,
~Deb
Deb, it's always great when we find ways to shorten our time. I will have to look this method up to see what the 'formula' is for the size needed. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHey Miss Katie - the Magic 8 formula 'I' use is this:
DeleteDetermine FINISHED size of your HST unit. IF it is 2" FINISHED then:
2" + 1" = 3" x 2 = 6"
You will now cut TWO squares of your desired fabric at 6" square. Place right/pretty sides together, draw diagonal/corner-to-corner lines, Sew 1/4" away on BOTH sides of those drawn lines and cut according to the diagram above and shown in great detail at the original creator's blog link here: http://chezstitches.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-magic-8-revisited.html
Enjoy!
~Deb
After reading my reply, it needs a bit of clarification.
DeleteWith the Magic 8 HST formula 'I' have chosen to use:
1) Determine the FINISHED size of the HSTs you need, i.e., IF the finished size is 2" then
2) Add 1" to your finished HST size, in this case 2" so
3) 2" + 1" = 3"
4) Take that sum and multiply by 2, in this example the sum is 3" so
5) 3" x 2 = 6"
The resulting sum is 6", which will determine the size of the two squares of fabric you will now cut and sew together to create you 8 HSTs - how simple is that?
Please Note: FINISHED in this example and generally speaking in quilting terms, means finished in a quilt once the seams have been sewn into a quilt block. Raw includes seam allowances. So once again - a FINISHED 2" HST would be 2 1/2" RAW, prior to sewing into a quilt block. The number we are needing for this formula to work is FINISHED...;-)