Half Square Triangles: Treat me so bad I'm in misery
 

When I cut the diagonal, the rotary cutter always nudges the fabric over at the top a tiny bit, so my 2 halves are not the same size. Does anyone have a good trick for cutting these meanies?

Also, is there another way to chain piece them besides sewing the squares together then cutting them?

Thanks!!!

I like to cut my squares bigger, sew on diagonal, cut, and then resize to correct size. I use Deb Tucker's tools. Works great.

If I'm understanding your question, I ran into this problem recently while making HST that were only 1 and 1/2 inch square so the slightest move caused a problem. I found that when making the diagonal cut if I used the middle of the edge of the ruler on the line rather than placing the corner of the ruler at the beginning or end of the cut, it did not move at the end. I hope you can figure this out, probably clear as mud! As for chain piecing, I have no suggestions for that.

try this: http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...rs-t46365.html

As for you question on the cutting problem, maybe you need to stabilize the ruler. If it is large pieces you are cutting, I'd say get a Slidelock ruler. If not, use small pieces of fine sandpaper rubber cemented to the underside of the ruler in several places, where it doesn't block seeing the lines.

Wow, this is such a great idea! Quilters are so tricky!

Thanks everyone for the advice! I feel better about the future now. :)

I mark a diagonal line on one square, place it over another square and stitch 1/4" on each side of the line. The I cut on the drawn line to get two half square triangles. At that point it doesn't matter if the ruler nudges over a bit as your seams are already sewn. I don't care to work with sewing triangles together and I don't care to work with bias pieces. The nice thing is that each of us just needs to find the way that works best for us and do the piecing that way.

I use Nammie to 7's method .....but even so, all my rulers have cork dots scattered around on the backs. These "grab" the fabric and help keep slippage at a minimum. Just something else you might want to try.

I have always used Thangles. Unstarch bias edges are NOT friends to quilters. Try to avoid them as much as possible!!