7 Tips and Tricks for Speedier Half Square Triangles
Half Square Triangles (or HSTs)- how I love to hate them! For this impatient quilter, I sometimes find the chore of marking and trimming HSTs to be enough to turn me off making a quilt ! But usually once I've persevered, I realise it's totally worth the effort- and even moreso when I implement some of these sneaky tricks to help make HSTs even quicker.
If you need a refresher / introduction on making HSTs, you can click here for downloadable PDFs on how to make them:
Now onto the speedy tips! (If you prefer to watch a video on these, here is a reel I made)
General:
I'm not one to recommend lots of quilting paraphernalia but a square ruler is HIGHLY recommended for trimming HSTs. I have both a 6.5" and 4.5" but if I was to recommend one, I would say 6.5" as it's a bit bigger but you can still trim the smaller ones with it.
Don't worry about being perfect. Sometimes my sewn lines on my HSTs are pretty wonky but I promise once they are trimmed, you won't even notice!
Don't tell the quilt police this one, but f you are making a quilt that is JUST HST's, (and all the same size) (i.e. no other shapes), consider not even trimming your HSTs- they will all be roughly the same size and come together nicely. This Sunshine Day quilt by Life with Eleanor is made entirely of HSTs.. and I didn't trim them
The little flower in the photos below is not mandatory for making HSTs- I just wanted to make the photos a little nicer :-)
Marking:
With the exception of 4 at a time HSTs, you usually need to mark your squares when making your HSTs- I hate this step! So here are a few work-arounds.
Instead of marking using a pen or fabric marker, stack up some squares in a pile ( I like to do 4 at a time but you could do more) and use your iron to press in half which leaves a line for you to follow
Don't mark at all- instead use a piece of tape on your sewing machine (I love Cluck Cluck Sew's diagonal seam tape but any tape will do) which aligns with 1/4"- then you just keep the corner of your square aligned with this line
For 2-at-a-time HSTs, you are usually required to mark a line down the middle, sew either side of it, then cut down the line. You can skip the marking step by just cutting straight away and then sewing either side.
Trimming:
If you prefer to press your seams to one side (that's my preference):
You can actually trim your HSTs before you press them open! This means you only need to cut two sides instead of four and can result in your HSTs being extra accurate. Simple take your ruler and align the measurements with your sewn seam for the size you want. For the example below, I want my HSTs to be 3.5" - you can see the 3.5" marks on my ruler are lined up with the sewn seam:
If you add about 5 pieces of tape/ washi tape to the 45 degree line on your ruler, it locks it into place which makes it easier to slide along and cut - this is especially useful if you trim all four sides.
That said...
You can usually get away with trimming only two sides (with an option to trim the other dog ear). I find in 9 out of 10 of my HSTs that two sides are straight enough that I can get away with only trimming two- this saves SO much time! (image below- just trim the top and right side)
If you prefer to press your seams open
You can trim two at once! Just make sure your centre seams line up to ensure your 45 degree lines is consistent (see image below- see how the centre line matches up perfectly?
I hope you found these tips useful- as always, let me know if you have any questions and happy sewing !
(And one more photo of a section of a quilt where I didn't trim the HSTs :-)
