21 Jan AND How to make HSTs using paper piecing

Earlier I posted about how to make HST, (Half Square Triangles) for one of the challenges I am participating in, as some of the newer quilters seem to be struggling with them.  In this post, I'm going to show how to do with using paper piecing, using my 365 Challenge block since today, it is a pinwheel block using 4 HSTs. (Perfect timing on this).  :-)

I'm using Triangulations, which is a CD, that includes pages for HST from 1/2" all the way up to 7.5" finished.  (The size of printers and regular printer paper limits it from going any larger.  But if you need something larger than 7.5" there are other ways of making them)  You can purchase Triangualtions either online or you can ask for it at your local quilt store.  Mine is an older one, and only has HST and QST (Quater Square Triangles).  The newest one, also includes Flying Geese and Strip HST, so you don't have to cut your papers down if you want to use strips of fabric.  There are some sites, that also offer free PDFs of HST pages, which will work the exact same way, as what I'm going to explain here.  The free ones you can find may not have all the different sizes of HST available that I have on the CD, but if you only need a couple of sizes, then the free ones in the size you need is sufficient.  On your CD, you find the page of the FINISHED size HST you want to end up with and print out as many pages as you need for the number of HST you are going to make.  In my case for the challenge today, I need 1.5" finished HST units.  So, as I'm making them, they will be 2" UNfinished.  Here is what I can print out when I find the 1.5" HST page.  When you are printing these pages, you need to make sure your printer isn't scaling the page, so you get the correct size.  So always select Actual Size or No Scaling, depending on your printer settings.

Triangulations tells you right on the paper, what size FINISHED HST units you will get using it, and it also tells you how many HST units you will have and what size you need to cut your fabric, if you are going to make the entire page.  If I were to make all of them on this page, I would end up with 24 HST units.  I only need 4 for my block, so I trimmed the paper down to just 4 units, and will save the rest of them to use another time.  (I'm working on another project where I need this same size, so they aren't going to go to waste).

This is what I ended up with, when I trimmed the paper to just the 4 units I need.  Since all my HSTs are going to be out of the same fabric I can make 4 at once using this method.

 Now, I need to measure the size of this template, so I know how large I need to cut my fabric.As you can see in this picture, I need my fabric to be larger than 4.75" by 2.375" or 2-3/8".  You want to give yourself some wiggle room, so I suggest you cut it no smaller than 5" by 2.75" or 3"

Here you can see I cut my fabric much larger than I needed.  I would suggest that if you are new to doing it this way, you don't go to small, you want to give yourself plenty of room to sew it together. (This picture shows that I have already done the stitching, but you can see I have plenty of fabric around all the outside edges).

Make sure you layer your fabric right sides together, and put your paper on top. You will be stitching on the dotted lines.  So any place you see dotted lines, you want to stitch over them.   I use a smaller stitch, about a 1.8 so that when it's time to remove the paper, I'm not pulling out my stitches.

Here is a picture of the back side after I have done my stitching, and what yours should look like.

I know, it looks kind of funny, but once we trim, it will give us perfect HST units that will be the correct size. 
Once you have sewn all the lines, lay it on your cutting mat with the paper side up.  You will be cutting on all the SOLID lines.   Since I trimmed my paper to just get 4 units, two side were already "trimmed" when I cut my paper. You want to cut right on that solid line.

Here I have trimmed all 4 outside edges.

Now I will cut the rest of the solid lines. Don't forget the small ones in the corners, that will trim your dog ears, so there is no fabric sticking out the sides of your units.

After you have trimmed them all on the solid lines, you need to pull off the paper.  This is the the one thing I don't like about paper piecing, removing the papers.  But I do love the accuracy I get when I'm paper piecing, so I will take the time to remove the papers.

I will fold the paper back on the seam, and give it a good crease.  Then it is much easier to remove.  I hold my thumbnail, on the stitches then grab the paper, and pull, it should tear away easily because the stitching perforated the paper as you were sewing.  Once you remove all the paper, take them to your pressing station and press the units open. I usually press so the seam is to the darker fabric.  Here you can see I got a perfect 2" HST unit, ready to be sewn into my block and finish at 1.5"

And here is two HST units sewn together.  Notice how the points do not go all the way to the top??  That is your seam allowance so that when it is sewn to other units or blocks, you still get that point.

 Here, you can see where I sewed the seam, and it stitched right on the point, so I won't have any chopped off points when I open it.  See where all the lines of stitching meet?  That is the point of my HST.

Here it is pressed open, with all 4 units sewn together.  This is my 3" block for the 365 Challenge for 21 January.  Yes, if you look at the mat, it is larger than 3", right now it needs to be 3.5" because it isn't sewn to anything else, and I need those 1/4" seam allowances for when it gets sewn to another block.

21 Jan

And a close up of my center points.  You can't get much better than this.

So, now you know how to make HST two ways.  There are other ways, but I think this will get new quilters started.  If you have any questions leave me a comment, and I will try to help you out.

Until next time... Happy Crafting!!