Thread: Help with putting triangles together

If they are lined up when you pin them, why don't you try sewing from the center out with two seperate seams. Any excess fabri. Would be pushed out and it be easier to ease in the fabric to actually have them line up on the edge of the quilt.

I have done a few of these. Actually, whenever I see a border print, my mind says "Triangles"! I have had the problem of "D cups" in the middle. I have found that I have to be very careful about stretching the bias edges. I always sew from the point and start 1/4" from the point when I sew. Since you are always holding on to the end as you are sewing, there is a tendency to stretch the point. Then when you sew the two half hexagons together you get a D cup. You might try unsewing each triangle back a few inches - very carefully, trying not to stretch. They maybe take a little wider seam towards the point to take in the extra. I don't think you can "unstretch" what you have already done. Maybe use your triangle template to draw new sewing lines. I understand where you are right now. Been there! Good luck. Ann

I am surprised noone has asked the OP if she is failing to offset her triangles when she sews them together. The closeup pic of the center of your unit, where all the points come together, you have a lot of chop on the middle triangle point on both sides. This to me indicates that when you sew your three triangles together for the two halves of your center unit you are not off setting the 1/4". Here is a blog I just found that has a close up pic of how the triangle units should be offset.
http://www.mommybydaycrafterbynight....ng-making.html

You will know you have done it correctly when you look at your half unit and there is a nice seam allowance of 1/4" from the top point of your middle triangle. Again, the above blog, while a slight different degree triangle shows beautifully how there is a seam allowance from the tip of the center triangle. Then when you go to sew the two units together, do as onebyone suggests with glue. I will often start sewing from the center as well. This way I can put my needle exactly down where it needs to be. Sew to edge, remove, flip and sew from the center to the other edge.

I redid them twice ... and this is the end result ... I'm not taking them apart again, because the fabric is starting to fray.

What is happening is that I don't have "points" in my triangles when I am sewing them together. At this point, I wasn't trying to line up the print on the fabric - yes, the lines were lining up as I wanted them to, but I didn't really care about the leaves / pattern - I was just trying something out. I did NOT expect to have as many problems as I did with joining 6 triangles together in the middle.

I did the swirl the seam, but it's still NOT nice triangle points in the middle, they are cut off.

This is what I can't figure out how to do. I will watch / read the link that feline fanatic just posted and see if that solves my dilemma

For this one, it's a practice / trial and error, so I'm done with it!

your pieces may not be cut exact. but you could try pressing the center seam open. sometimes that helps them lay flat better. Also check your seam allowances. You might be off some and that will make things not fit.
On mine, i ended up doing like the quilt shop owner, i put a hexagon in the center. appliqued it.

Marion, I am sure once you offset your triangles they will not be chopped points in the middle. Here is a pic of a 60 degree triangle quilt I did a while back. While I assembled this as rows, the principal is still the same. Note how all the triangles meet as a nice point when they all come together to form a hexigon.