QUILTsocial | Issue 08

If you want to check how accurate your
centers are before you cut the units
apart, pull back one of the loose corners.
A perfect match – no pins!
Pull back the corner to check the intersection
Cut the units apart on the diagonal line.
Two untrimmed quarter square triangles
The last step is to trim the units. It’s a
whole lot easier, if you use a SQUARE ruler
to do your squaring up. I’m right handed,
so I position the ruler with the 1” and 1”
markings in the top right hand corner. If I
were left handed, those markings would
be in the top left hand corner.
I now need to know the UNFINISHED
size of my quarter square units. I want
units that are 3½” FINISHED so to get the
unfinished size, I now add ½” for the seam
allowances. That means, I’m going to trim
these units down to 4” UNFINISHED.
Now it may be not be exactly perfect, so
you may have to jiggle the ruler around
or you may have to jiggle your block
underneath the ruler. Once it’s lined up
to the best of your ability – then trim
along the right hand side and the top
side of the ruler.
Rotate the block 180 degrees. Line up
the clean cut edges with the 4” (in this
instance) lines on the ruler and again, trim
along the right and top edges of the ruler.
Five reference points for trimming the quarter
square triangles
And there’s the perfect quarter square
triangle!
Units are cut apart on the diagonal line
Press the seams. Confession time again
– I did twirl those seams on the back. As
I mentioned, old habits die hard. Plus
I really like the look of the seam being
distributed in all four directions, rather
than have that final seam across the
center of the block.
Twirled seams on the back
Preparing to square up the quarter square
triangle unit
Like the half square triangle, there’s a
better way to trim these units, which in
itself becomes a critical step in making
the perfect quarter square triangles.
In the photo below, you can see that
I have 5 reference points. Since I’m
trimming my blocks to 4”, I can use the
intersection of the 2” lines on the ruler to
find the center of the block. Then I can
place the intersection of the 4” on the
bottom left of the block. You can see the
other three reference points below.
Trimmed quarter square triangle
Hopefully this tutorial takes the mystery
out of making perfect quarter square
triangles. With the help of the Husqvarna
Viking Designer EPIC to get those nice
straight seams and that scant ¼” seam
allowance, making these units was a
breeze. Don’t forget to lower that stitch
length to 2 as you’ll be slicing through
some seams.
Let's continue this review of the Designer
EPIC with some of its embroidery
features.
Q
56 .com | issue 8
UILTsocial