What to do with leftover Half Square Triangles?

What to do with half square triangles.  Late last fall and early this winter, I participated in the Quiltville Mystery Quiltalong.  Steps one and three were to make lots and lots of half square triangles, half blue/neutral and half raspberry/neutral.

At the end of the quilt along, these HSTs were to be used as a border, only I ended up finishing my quilt without a border.  I liked the look of the border, but my quilt was already too big without it, so I set aside my HSTs and promised myself I would find a way to use them in another quilt.

What to do with half square triangles

Just on their own, with no other fabrics or blocks, there were lots of options, just by twisting and turning the squares in different ways.

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Now, my HSTs were all leftovers from another project.  But if you are looking at this quilt and thinking you would like to make one too, here is a quick HST tutorial for you.  Follow the tutorial and that will get you caught up to this point.  Make half of your squares with color 1 and neutral, and the other half with color 2 and neutral.  You need 168 HSTs, if you are making my exact quilt, but make more or less, depending on your needs for finished quilt size.

My HSTs will finish at 2”, but you can make them any size you like.

How to Make Half Square Triangles

I settled on this layout for my HSTs.

Making Half Square Triangle Blocks

Pin the raspberry HSTs to the blue HSTs and sew with a ¼” seam allowance.  Press towards the blue HST.

Pin the seam in the middle, and sew the two units together to make a square that measures 4½”.

Repeat to make 42 squares.  Or more.  Make your quilt bigger if you like.  I was completely at the mercy of the HSTs I already had made, but if you’ve got more fabric, you can definitely make your quilt bigger.

Now, you could stop here, and put your quilt together with these squares.  This is more or less what it would look like.

If I had more, that’s probably what I would have done.  But, after the mystery quilt along, I had used up all of my raspberry fabrics and most of my blues.  I still had lots of neutrals, and so instead, I made my blocks bigger by adding a 1½” strip to each side of my blocks.

Adding Sashing

For quilt blocks using 2” finished HSTs, two of the neutral strips are 1½” by 4½” and two of them are 1½” by 6½”.  If you make your HSTs larger or smaller, you will need to adjust the length of your strips.

The basic math for this step, if you need to make adjustments is this:            

Strips are 1½”.  The length of the two smaller strips is the size of your half square triangle time two, plus ½”.  The length of the two longer strips is the smaller strip plus two inches.  You can use this math to adjust the pattern to work with any size of half square triangles.

Now, my half square triangles will finish at 2”, so my measurements for the neutral strips are 4½” and 6½”, and I will be referring to them as such.

Start with the 4½” strip on the right, sew to the square with a ¼” seam allowance, which will make a nice, crisp point on the right edge of the HSTs.  Press towards the neutral strip, unless it is too light and the seam shows through, in which case press towards the center.

Repeat with the 4½” strip on the left.

Then, continue to repeat with the 6½” strips on the top and bottom.

Repeat to make 42 squares that measure 6½”.  Make more or less as needed, for the desired finished quilt size.

Putting It All Together

Place two squares next to each other, the one on the left has the 6½” strips vertical on the sides, the one on the right has the 6½” strips horizontal across the top and bottom.

Pin the right square onto the left and sew along the right edge with a ¼” seam allowance.

Press towards the left square.

Sew pairs into rows, and rows into the quilt top. 

42 blocks make a soothing and gentle baby quilt that measures 42” by 48”.

I worried a little that it would be too neutral, but I really like the pops of color in an otherwise peaceful quilt.

I hope you liked this tutorial, make sure so to pin it, and file it away for the next time you are wondering what to do with half square triangles.