Hello Quilty Friends!
Happy Thursday to you!
Before I dive right into HSTs, I want to show off my completed Helix quilt top. Yes, I finished it! I really like the finished top, although I wish my points had turned out better. What do you think?
I didn’t have enough background left to add side strips, but that was okay, it will be fine as long as I’m careful when I sew the binding on because I don’t want to cut off the triangle points.
Quilt Block Basics
Lately I’ve been feeling very creative — maybe the change in the weather? I’ve been churning out new quilt designs on my EQ8 (Electric Quilt) software and I will never have enough time to make them all, I’m afraid. While I was working on all these new designs, I started thinking about the smaller units that make up quilt blocks and I thought — AHA!!! That’s a great topic for the blog!
So, welcome to a new VRQ mini-series, all about the smaller units that make up our favorite quilt blocks.
The first unit I want to talk about is the Half Square Triangle.
Half Square Triangles (HSTs)
Half Square Triangles or HSTs are one of the most common building blocks for a pieced quilt block. Sometimes you see HSTs called Triangle Squares or Half Square Triangle squares or blocks. I like to keep things simple when I write instructions and I consistently use Half Square Triangles or HSTs.
You can find HSTs in simple blocks such as:
Pinwheel (Center)
Shoofly (Right)
Or in more complex blocks like:
Mosaic #10 (Center)
Old Maid’s Puzzle (Right)
One of my most favorite things is playing around with the parts of my blocks to create new block designs when I’m designing. I like to change colors, switch lights and darks, and change the orientation of the units within a block in order to create something new and different. EQ8 makes this sew easy to do.
To show you what I mean, let’s play with the Mosaic # 17 block, which is all HSTs and gives us lots of room to play!
Let’s change the orientation of the HSTs:
Now let’s add another color in the mix:
Let’s try change the orientation, too:
Okay, okay, I’d better stop here or I’m going to lose my writing focus and create another stack of quilt designs I will never have time to make! LOL!
I think you can see how much fun it is to play with HSTs. Imagine what happens when you add other building block units with the HSTs………but that is a post for another day.
Half Square Triangle Assembly
There are many different ways to make HSTs — just check on YouTube, Pinterest, or your favorite quilting magazine.
I am going to show you my favorite method here — this is the method I use in my quilt instructions.
- Layer 2 squares together, right sides together (RST).
- Draw a diagonal line from 1 corner to the opposite corner.
- Sew 1/4″ away from both sides of the drawn line.
- Cut the HSTs apart on the drawn line. Open to make 2 HSTs.
I bet you noticed I didn’t use any dimensions for my fabric squares. That was intentional. As I’ve said many times, quilting is all about math (check out my ode to quilting and math HERE).
HSTs are no different! You can use this construction method to make any size HST. You just have to know a teeny tiny magical math secret!
To figure out how big to cut your squares, you need to add 7/8″ to your finished dimensions! Really, that’s all you need to remember. You don’t need to refer to a cutting chart, you just need to remember 7/8″. (Please note that 7/8″ may not work for all HST methods.)
Here are some examples:
I want my HST’s to finish at 3″, so I need to cut my squares 3 7/8″.
5″ finished? Cut 5 7/8″ squares.
12″ finished HSTs……….cut 12 7/8″ squares.
Easy peasy! YAY MATH! Thank you, Mrs. Hank (my high school math teacher)!
HST VRD Rose Card Patterns
We have a wonderful collection of HST pattern sin our VRD catalog. It’s a L O N G list, so hang in there until the end of the post.
Here’s my curated HST list:
Get the April Showers pattern HERE
Get the Baby Zip Ties pattern HERE
Get the Bat Dance pattern HERE
Get the Be Unique pattern HERE
Get the Beatrice pattern HERE
Get the Blizzard pattern HERE
Get the Carnival Glass pattern HERE
Get the Chop pattern HERE
Get the Columbia pattern HERE
Get the Crossed Paths pattern HERE
Get the Diamonds pattern HERE
Get the Domino Five pattern HERE
Get the Drayton Hall pattern HERE
Get the Elementary pattern HERE
Get the Estrella pattern HERE
Get the Fa La La pattern HERE
Get the Falling pattern HERE
Get the Fernanda pattern HERE
Get the Friendship Hearts pattern HERE
Get the Giggles pattern HERE
Get the Hanover pattern HERE
Get the Hidden Gems pattern HERE
Get the Hole in One pattern HERE
Get the Illumination pattern HERE
Get the Indigo Bay pattern HERE
Get the Jardena pattern HERE
Get the Malaysia pattern HERE
Get the Maple Grove pattern HERE
Get the Mountains pattern HERE
Get the Movie Star pattern HERE
Get the Nana’s Aprons pattern HERE
Get the Notches pattern HERE
Get the October Sky pattern HERE
Get the Optic pattern HERE
Get the Orange Waves pattern HERE
Get the Painted Moon pattern HERE
Get the Party Girl pattern HERE
Get the Party Girl Remix pattern HERE
Get the Peppermint & Holly pattern HERE
Get the Pinwheel Picnic pattern HERE
Get the Pride pattern HERE
Get the Rainbow Road pattern HERE
Get the Raspberry Cream pattern HERE
Get the Rebound pattern HERE
Get the Remember Me pattern HERE
Get the Salt ‘n’ Pepper pattern HERE
Get the Salute pattern HERE
Get the Serengeti pattern HERE
Get the Silver Star pattern HERE
Get the Sisterhood pattern HERE
Get the Smidge pattern HERE
Get the Smudge pattern HERE
Get the Snow Goose pattern HERE
Get the Solar Flare pattern HERE
Get the Spaceman pattern HERE
Get the Spiritualized pattern HERE
Get the Square Box pattern HERE
Get the Star Rail pattern HERE
Get the Starfire pattern HERE
Get the Stars N Stripes pattern HERE
Get the Sunny Day pattern HERE
Get the Tower Bridge pattern HERE
Get the Twinkle pattern HERE
Get the Underground pattern HERE
Get the Waverly pattern HERE
Get the Whiplash pattern HERE
Get the Whirlpool pattern HERE
Get the Wild Rover pattern HERE
Get the Winchester pattern HERE
Get the Winter Sun pattern HERE
Get the X Ray pattern HERE
Get the Zig Zag pattern HERE
Get the Zip Tease pattern HERE
Get the Zipper pattern HERE
I hope you enjoyed this VERY extensive list of HST Rose Card patterns. Thanks for suffering through the whole list (wink, wink).
As I was gathering them from the VRD catalog, I was struck with the enormous amount of creativity and innovation shown by our VRD designers.
Kudos to all of the VRD designers! You rock!
Well, that’s it for me for this week.
Take care until next Thursday —
Sew. Laugh. Repeat.
Always,
Tricia @VRD