Half Square Triangle Short Cuts – video demo

This past month, I filmed some short videos with the folks behind Pattern Drop.* My Hopscotch quilt is the featured quilt this month. That pattern has a bunch of half-square triangle blocks, we shot a video with some helpful tips for mass-producing lots of half-square triangles at once.

Since half-square triangles are common in SO many quilt patterns, I thought I’d share the demo with all of you.

Pattern Drop is a fun, new pattern-of-the-month club. You can read all about Pattern Drop + get a discount code in this post!

This video shows how to make 16 half-square triangle blocks (HST) at once. You could make more or fewer triangles- just draw your grid with half the number of squares you’d like to make at once. (If you need 18 HST blocks, draw a grid with 9 squares, if you need 24 blocks, draw a grid with 12 squares.)

This method will work on any sized HST blocks. To modify for other sizes: draw your grid squares  1/2″ bigger than the size of the finished HST blocks. So for example: in this demo we need 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ finished HST blocks -> therefore we draw 5″ x 5″ squares. If you need 3″ finished HST blocks, draw a grid with 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ squares, etc.

Keep in mind: each drawn square only requires ONE diagonal line.

And sew the 1/4″ seam allowances on boths sides of the diagonal lines – not the straight grid lines.

Finally, this Quilt in a Day ruler* is still my favorite. It makes such quick work of squaring up HST blocks.

There is a 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ version as well as a bigger 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ option.

The ruler basically cuts your squaring-up time in half since you’re only cutting two sides, instead of four. Keep in mind as you use it that you are always lining up the corresponding marked measurement for the size you need on the seam of the block you are squaring-up.

So there you go! This method is especially helpful when you’re making LOTS of HST blocks at once.

Hopefully these Half-Square Triangle tips will save you lots of time and help you get quickly through that least favorite (but oh-so important!) job.

Thanks again for featuring my pattern Pattern Drop! Check out Katie Blakesley’s Sugar House pattern that will be next month’s drop. I can’t wait to see the patterns featured through the next year!

Did you find this tutorial helpful? Pin this image so others can find it too!

*FTC Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting Diary of a Quilter when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. 🙂