Today I'm so excited to welcome guest contributor, Ashlee Doyle of Crinkly Quilts to the blog! Ashlee has such a fun, modern take on classic quilt blocks. Her bright, scrappy style will make you want to dive right into your fabric stash. In this guest post, Ashlee is sharing one of her favorite quilting techniques: how to make Half Rectangle Triangles (HRTs), along with a free pattern for her bold and playful Squishy Stars quilt.
Whether you've been intimidated by HRTs before or you're ready to try something new, Ashlee's clear instructions and clever tips will give you the confidence to master them. Let's hand things over to Ashlee!
Meet Ashlee of Crinkly Quilts
Hi everyone! I'm Ashlee Doyle, the quilter, pattern designer, and longarm enthusiast behind Crinkly Quilts. I live in beautiful Montana, and like many quilters, my passion started with a single baby-quilt I made in 2015. That passion has grown into this whole creative ride. When I'm not drafting fresh patterns or long arm quilting for clients, you'll usually find me buried in fabric, chasing texture, or dreaming up the next quilt I want to make.
Half Rectangle Triangles, or HRTs for short, are some of my favorite quilt blocks to make. And to be honest I was intimidated by them at first. I tried making them early on in my quilting journey, and completely failed. But a year or so later I gave it another go, got myself this super cool HRT trimming template, and totally crushed the HRT making game. Now, I am going to pass my secrets onto you with my free pattern, Squishy Stars.
Squishy Stars combines HRTs and HSTs (Half Square Triangles) to make a funky modern star. Download the pattern for free here in my shop.
How to Make Half Rectangle Triangles (HRT's)
Lets Go through the process of making HRTs, so you're confident when you make your quilt. This quilt used 2 ½" x 4 ½" HRTs, so we cut our rectangles 3 ¼" x 6 ¼". That way we have plenty of wiggle room when it comes time to trim.
Then we mark our fabric. When you make HRTs, the direction you mark your fabric is important. If you mark all the pieces top left to bottom right, then all the angles will be going in the same direction. We want our pieces to angle in opposite directions, so we must mark half the rectangles from top left to bottom right, and the other half top right to bottom left.
Next we align our pieces together. The pieces overlap at an angle as shown in the image below. You can pin these in place so they don't shift while you sew.
Now, sew ¼" away from the marked line on either side. (If you have a super fancy sewing machine that has a laser guide, I suggest making use of that laser to keep your seams on point.) Cut along the marked line and press seams open.
Finally we trim our HRTs. In order to get a super crispy perfect point there needs to be a ⅛" space from the edge of the rectangle to the seam. If you are using the HRT trimming template I linked to at the beginning of this post, then all you have to do is align the seam with the marked line on the template and trim.
But if you are using a ruler you have on hand, just make sure to have that seam align with the ⅛" marking before trimming.
Flip your rectangles over and trim the other side the same way to make 2 ½" x 4 ½" HRTs.
Assembling the Squishy Stars Quilt Blocks
From here you can follow the instructions in the pattern to make the other components of your blocks and assemble everything together.
Rotating the direction of the blocks gives the stars a squished and stretched look, but it's your quilt, and you can play around with the orientation of the blocks as you choose.
I hope this gives you confidence to tackle HRTs and learn a new skill to add to your quilty toolbox.
Thanks for joining me today on the Diary of a Quilter. If you want my free charm chain stars quilt pattern join my newsletter here.
So long for now,
Ashlee Doyle
Wasn't that such a fun and inspiring tutorial? Half Rectangle Triangles have felt tricky to me for a while and I love how Ashlee breaks them down in such a clear and approachable way. And her Squishy Stars quilt is the perfect mix of modern and playful.
A huge thank you to Ashlee from Crinkly Quilts for sharing her tips and free pattern with us today! Be sure to check out more of her beautiful work on her website and Instagram, and if you make a Squishy Stars quilt of your own, tag us so we can see your version. Happy quilting!
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