Striped Triangles Scrappy Quilt Tutorial

It’s time for another scrappy quilt tutorial!  It’s been a goal this year to clean out the scrap box, but even with all of the scrappy sewing I’ve been doing, somehow the box is still full.  I don’t know how that happens guys, I don’t know.  The only thing I can think of is that back in January the scrap box was overflowing, and now it’s merely full, so I guess that’s progress?

Anyway, magically multiplying scraps aside, I’ve got a great quilt tutorial for you, that works with both scraps and strips, so you can make this beautiful Striped Triangles Scrappy Quilt even if your scrap box is empty.  And, if your scrap box is empty, please tell me how you do it!!!

Striped Triangles Scrappy Quilt Tutorial

Supplies Needed:  Enough scraps and/or strips to make (221) 5” equilateral triangles. 

• The exact yardage is going to vary. 
  • If your strips are skinny (4-6 pieces to make each triangle) you are going to need more fabric as you’ll have more seams. 
  • If your strips are a little bit wider (3-4 per triangle) you’ll need less fabric as you won’t lose as much to the seam allowances. 
• For comparison’s sake, most of my strips were cut at 1½” to 2½” and I made sure I always had at least 3 fabrics per triangle. 

Using Scraps to Make Striped Triangles

This quilt works with scraps of all sizes, widths and lengths.  Start by sorting your scraps into piles of similar sizes.

Make a little pyramid of 3-5 scraps, with the smallest at the top.  The bottom strip needs to be approximately 6½” wide. 

The number of strips you need is going to depend on their height.  If your strips are very skinny, you are going to need more of them than if you are using thicker pieces. 

The total of your strips (accounting for a ¼” seam allowance) needs to be 5” tall.

The triangle template will help you to make sure your strips are wide enough, and let you know if you need to add or subtract a strip.

Striped Triangles Template PDF

Sew your strips into pairs, and then sew your pairs together, making sure to line up your fabrics in the center, rather than along an edge.

Use the Triangle Template to center the strips. 

You can pin the template to your fabric and use scissors, or skip the pin and continue to use the rotary ruler and cutter.  Either way, use the template to trim away the extra and have a perfect equilateral triangle.

Repeat to make as many triangles as you desire.  As a reminder, to make a quilt like mine- you need 221 triangles and your quilt will finish at 40″ by 54″.

Using Strips To Make Striped Triangles

Working with scraps that small can be tedious.  Or, you want a more unified (less scrappy) look, so you are working from fabric yardage.  Or, you have a new jelly roll you’ve been dying to break into.  Whatever the reason, you can also make this quilt from longer strips and then sub-cut into triangles, rather than making each triangle individually.

Pick 3 strips with a total cut size of 6”.  That could be 1.5”, 1.5” and 3”, or 2.5”, 2.5” and 1”.  Or any other combination that adds up to 6” total before any seams are sewn.  Using 4 strips means your combo needs to add up to 6.5”, using 5 strips means your combo needs to add up to 7”.

Sew the three strips together, pressing towards the dark fabrics.  The strip should now measure 5” tall.

Use the Triangle Template or the 60* line on your rotary ruler to sub cut equilateral triangles.

I really like the color combination of these three fabrics!  This whole quilt came together because most of what I have made in the last 2-3 years has been in the same color palette.

If you missed it before, you can get to the Triangle Template HERE.

Putting the Triangles Together to Make the Quilt Top

Set 13 of your triangles aside.  Since we’re making 13 rows of 17 triangles, you do not want to sew them all into pairs right now. 

Start with two of your triangles, try to pick two triangles that don’t have any of the same fabrics and are a good mix of colors and patterns.  The left triangle should be pointed to the left and the right triangle should be pointed to the upper left.

Sew these two triangles together, and then sew a second pair with the same placements of pointing left and pointing to the upper left.

This next photo is what it looks like when sewing two pairs of triangles together.  The longest pink strip is the edge to sew and the pin is holding it all in place.

And now you’ve got four triangles sewn into the beginning of a row!

Repeat to make a total of 104 pairs, and then sew the 104 pairs into a total of 52 units that have four triangles.   Make sure that every pair has the left triangle pointing left and the right triangle pointing to the upper left.  The pairs should also be situated this way when sewing the pairs into units of four.

Sew 52 units of 4 triangles into 26 units of eight, always keeping the same direction of the strips within the triangles.

For pointers and tips on how to sew equilateral triangles together with perfect points, take a look at this Triangle Tips Tutorial.

Sew your 26 eights into 13 strips that are 16 triangles wide. 

Woo hoo, you are nearly there!

Now, you need to add the 17^th triangle to each row.  This is where those 13 triangles you set aside at the beginning will come in. 

Lay out all of your strips into 13 rows, each row will have two strips.  The rows will not line up along the edges left and right, but will be off center.  See the photo for a visual of this poorly explained step.

Fill in the 17^th triangle for each row, making sure to continue the pattern of triangles that point to the upper left with triangles that point to the lower left.

Sew a single triangle to the left side of 7 of your strips, and sew a single triangle to the right side of the remaining 6 strips.

Now, wait a minute Darcy!  Your photos show this step happening when your rows are only eight triangles wide.  Are you sure you want us to do this step when our rows are 16 triangles wide?

Yes! 

My kitchen table (where I do all of my sewing) and my cutting mat are not wide enough to show this step with rows that are 16 triangles wide.  I did sew my individual triangles on to my rows when they were only eight triangles wide, just to get the photo I wanted with the same background as the rest of the pictures in this tutorial.  But that makes life harder for you.  Don’t do it that way.

First, sew your rows to 16 triangles wide, THEN add the single triangle.  It will make your life easier!

So now you’ve got 13 rows that are 17 triangles wide.

Sew your rows together, matching points and seams as you go.  Again, the Tips for Triangles tutorial will help with this step.

Now all of your rows are sewn together, and in a typical quilt, this means your quilt top is done (or, at least ready for borders).  For this type of triangle quilt, you can be done now, if you want edges that zig zag, and depending on your plans for this quilt, that may be exactly what you want.

If not, if you want your quilt to be a rectangle with straight edges, use your rotary ruler and cutter to trim the sides to straight edges.

221 triangles, sewn into 13 rows of 17 triangles is a great way to use up lots of scraps and makes a stunnning striped triangles scrappy quilt tutorial.  Now to tackle the still overflowing scrap bin…

And one more time, for those of you who skipped over it earlier, click here for the Triangle Template.

As happy as I am with this finished quilt, I think I love the scrappy backing even more!  I love finding another way to use up scraps, I love those polka dots and I love seeing the quilting design unimpeded by the block design.

And, for those of you who think I can do no wrong, that everything that I touch turns to gold, let me disabuse you of that notion in a hurry!  I was so excited a few weeks ago when hanging my Camellia quilt made for such an easy and awesome photo opportunity.  I tried it again with this quilt, and on the curtain rod as the curtains were a similar color to the quilt, and it just would not hang straight!