Half Square Triangle Short Cuts: a Video Demo

Half Square Triangles are one of the most common building blocks for many quilts – traditional or modern. I thought I’d share my favorite tip for getting them done quickly and accurately.

How to Make Half Square Triangle Quilt Blocks:

My Hopscotch quilt (pictured above) is an example of a quilt with a lot of repeated half-square triangle pieces. Since this pattern has a bunch of half-square triangle blocks, I had some help from Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt shooting a video with some helpful tips for mass-producing lots of half-square triangles at once.

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 both 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 half square triangle method is especially helpful when you’re making LOTS of HST blocks at once. I know it can feel tedious, but having an accurate HST block will make a huge difference when you go to piece your quilt!

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.

You can find more information about the modern gray and white quilt in the photos here.

Did you find this half square triangle blog quilt tutorial helpful? Pin this image so others can find it too!

*FTC Disclosure: this half square triangle 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.