QUILTsocial | Issue 08

Another pitfall – be careful that you
don’t stretch the seams.
In the photo below, the arrows are
pointing to the corners – this area is
usually not pressed well and can cause
issue with your points in the final units.
Again, straight seams will give you a
nicer finished unit.
WAIT – don’t just lay the ruler on and
draw a line and don’t line the ruler up
with the corners of that block. NO – you
want to place the ruler so it’s more or
less lined up with the corners, but more
importantly, the line you are about to
draw should be 90 degrees to the first
seam line. This is critical to the success of
your quarter square triangles.
Place the two half square triangles right sides together
Carefully stitch a scant ¼” on both sides
of that new diagonal line. Notice that I
haven’t used pins. Again, the straighter
these lines of stitching are, the better
results you’ll have with your quarter
square triangles.
Press well right to the end of the seam.
Now we’re going to draw another
diagonal line on the reverse of ONE of
the units.
Draw another diagonal line.
Second line MUST be 90 degrees to the first seam.
Place the two half square triangle units
right sides together alternating the
colors. So the pink is on the blue and
the blue is on the pink as shown below.
Nest those two center seams up to each
other. If you recall, I would not consider
pinning these units. They’re small
enough that they won’t distort or shift.
But very important that those two seams
be nested to each other. That’s why it’s
important that the seams be pressed to
the same fabric. In this case, the seams
were pressed to the blue fabric and this
allows the seams allowances to nest
against each other. This in turn helps to
get a perfect intersection in the middle
of the unit.
Stitch a scant ¼” on both sides of the diagonal line.
A scant ¼” stitched on both sides of the diagonal line.
Q
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UILTsocial
| issue 8 55