Hey Everyone, welcome back to Technique Tuesday. For the past couple weeks I have been talking about half square triangles and this week I am going to talk about the cousin quarter square triangles.
What is a quarter square triangle?
A quarter square triangle is made up of two half square triangles creating four smaller triangles within the square. The number of fabrics used in the quarter square triangle can be anywhere from 2 to 4 depending on the look you want and the design being created.
Getting Started
First of all pick the fabrics – 2 to 4 different fabrics. They can all be from the same colour family just different values to create a monochromatic colour scheme or maybe 2 colours to create a complementary colour scheme. Four different fabrics is what I have chosen to work with – the primary colours with a 4th one thrown in for good measure.
My four fabrics – bright and bold.
Pair up two of the fabrics. I have chose to pair up the red & green and the blue & yellow.
Next make the half square triangles as per my post on How to make Half Square Triangles.
Once made press them open but do not square them off as we need them unfinished to continue making the quarter square triangles.
Two half square triangles.
Making Quarter Square Triangles
Place two half square triangles together ideally with the seam allowances going the opposite directions so they but up nicely together.
Place the two HSTs right sides together.jh
Draw a line from one corner to the opposite with a pencil or marking tool of some sort passing perpendicular through he seam line. I flipped it over to the red/green HST to see the line better.
Draw line from corner to conner through seam line.
Sew a ¼″ seam on either side of the line.
Seams sewn on either side of line.
Cut apart along the line.
Cut apart along drawn line.
Press open.
Press seam to one side.
Refer back to my blog post on half square triangles for a refresher on squaring off.
Voila!
A four fabric quarter square triangle.
A four coloured quarter square triangle.
From the 4 squares of fabric I have created 4 quarter square triangles made up of each fabric which are seen in the photo at the top of the page – don’t they make a cool design. Too bad I don’t have enough of these fabrics to make a cuddle quilt.
Have questions or need assistance I am happy to help and only an e-mail away.
Happy Quilting!
Thank you for the tutorial. Can you give me cutting numbers to make a 12′ block using these four quarter square triangles. ?
Hi Diane Sure if you want a 12 inch finished block then the quarter square triangles need to be 6 inch finished so you will need to make them 6 1/2 inches unfinished. Always need to account for the seam allowance. Cut each fabric 7 1/4 inches to make the quarter square triangles and then square them off to 6 1/2 inches once they are made. Putting the 4 together will give you an unfinished block of 12 1/2 inches so when put into a quilt it will be 12 inches. I hope you could follow this. Jen