jodimarie

I have made a dozen Jacob Ladder quilts over the years and always use this method to make 4 1/2 inch HST...sew 2 4 7/8 peices of fabric together, pencil down the center, sew 1/4 inch from pencil mark and cut on pencil mark...WELL, last night, I had some time and went scrolling through the Tuterial section of this board and found ''quick way to create half square triangles'' ( the name to look for under Tutitorial ) and let me tell you....this method WORKS!!!! I used one 7 inch square of dark scrap fabric and one 7 inch square of light fabric...well starched first....layed them RST, sewed 1/4 inch around the edges and then sub cut from corner to corner and Viola, I had my 4 HST for one Jacobs Ladder Block!!! These 4 PERFECT HST, can also be put togetther in a scrappy type quilt as the 4 blocks put together, will give me a 8 1/2 finshed block. There is a ''formula'' on the 3rd page of the tutitorial, on how big to cut your dark and light squares, but I find it is always better to ''practice'' on scraps before I cut into my good fabric. Off now, to start another Jacobs Ladder for Christmas....in July!!!!!

EIQuilter

I like this method, but be aware that all of your outside edges are now on the bias. For me, that's the only down side to this method.

nhweaver

Thanks for sharing!

PaperPrincess

Yes, the key is to make sure that your fabric is STARCHED HEAVILY. This will help keep the bias edges in line, but they still need to be handled gingerly.

jodimarie

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I totally agree.....I have always used Magic Spray sizing before I ever cut a piece of fabric to begin a quilt. Spray and iron back and forth, sideways, up and down....any way I feel like doing to that full size piece of fabric....then and only then....will I begin to cut my strips or squares of fabric. I get very little to NO shrinkage in a final quilt with out all the hassle of prewashing, drying and then ironing my fabric....color catchers stop any bleeding. For a small quilt, I use about a can of Magic sizing and I just finished a King size quilt that took almost 2 full cans. I also use sizing every time I set a seam but then I do NOT iron back and forth but just press the seam. Less than a dollar at Walmart!! If you can find the green can of sizing, it is the heavy duty sizing and IMO, better for this type of bias edge work, you are lucky!! Walmart only carries the blue can here, reg. strength and my grocery store carries the green can for double the price...still a lot cheaper that anything my LQS carries and it does NOT gum up your iron like startch does....spray and iron....no waiting!!

Rose Marie

For 4 1/2 inch use two squares cut at 10 inchs. draw an x and sew 1/4 in down each side of lines. Cut in half both ways then on lines. You will have 8 HSTs with no bias edges. Square up with Quilt in A Days triangle square up ruler, done with one cut, amazing.

hevemi

The formula for Rose Marie's method which I also use is ( for any size HST):
finished size of HST x 2 , then add 2" to this number, sew and cut+ trim as Rose Marie instructs.

Judi in Ohio

Bonnie Hunter uses the Easy Angle rulers that I like, but I love Triangulations. The only problem is you make so many of the same. So I usually try to fix up a swap.

crafty pat

Thank you all for the wonderful information. You make it sound so easy I am going to try them.

Toni C

[QUOTE=jodimarie;5278136] Tuterial section of this board
I hate to sound stupid but how do you find this section? I love browsing thru tudes!