FQT Sewing Week 1
When sewing this quilt, pay attention to the instructions. When you make half square triangles, you usually sew 1/4″ on either side of the drawn line. This is not what you do for this quilt!
You’ll be making the half square triangles at the same time as you sew the quilt, and to do that, you’ll need to pay attention to the instructions.
Start with the rectangles you cut from your background fabric and the squares you cut from the fat quarters.
Place them right sides together as shown, and sew on the drawn line and 1/2″ away. (I chain piece by sewing all of one set of lines and then again with the second set of lines.) Be sure you orient the drawn line as shown. Sew all 80 units.
Once you finish sewing those units, pull out the rectangles that you cut from the fat quarters and the squares you cut from the background. Place them right sides together as shown and sew on the drawn line and 1/2″ away. Be sure you orient the drawn line as shown. Sew all 80 units.
When you are finished sewing both sets, cut between the sewn lines. Put the half-square triangles aside for use in the border later. Press the squares so that you have a rectangle again.
I also wanted to address what to do if one or more of your fat quarters is not the full size. I had that happen, so one of my 3-1/2″ squares did not come out square:
Luckily, we do not need for the border all the half square triangles that we end up with. So, I chose to “make” a big enough triangle. I drew the center line using my ruler as shown above. I then cut 1/4″ away and sewed that triangle that I cut off to the larger triangle:
I then trimmed off the excess from the smaller triangle and sewed this triangle to my background rectangle:
If you have to do this, be sure you pay attention to which direction you draw the line and make the triangle. It’s easy to do it wrong and not be able to use that triangle at all!
Be sure to post photos and comments below!
Half of my sewn and cut units.