Kassaundra

This is one of many ways of making this unit. It can be done w/ strip piecing (but you have to deal w/ biased edges and fabric waste) or specialty rulers, or sewing squares to rectangles and having to cut off waste triangles. This is how I did it w/o any of those things.

This tutorial will be in at least 2 maybe 3 posts so bear w/ me.

We will be sewing on a biased edge so as always starch or sizing is your friend.

This is what is being made.
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If you do your left side in a lighter and right in a darker shade it will give it a 3D look.

This can be made in any size you like to fit your border space / needs. The individual units for this one are 2 x 5

First you need to figure out what size you want to make. You will need a template for the parallelogram and a unit size for your side half square triangle pieces.

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Then draw a rectangle the size of your whole unit, note this is drawn the size of the raw unit w/ seam allowances on. So this is 2 x 5 but the finished size in the quilt will be 1.5 x 4.5

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Each end has a 45 degree diagonal seam. Draw this in w/ your 45 degree line on top of the rectangle and the edge of your ruler going through first the lower left corner then the upper right corner as seen.

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Now your rectangle looks like this, the diagonal lines represent your stitching line.

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First we are going to figure out the size we need for the end triangles. Draw a 1/4 inch seam line to the right of the left line, that is the seam allowance.

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Now measure the left corner to the seam allowance for the size square you will cut in fabric. This we are rounding up to 2.5 inches, this will give some wiggle room if needed (but just a tiny wiggle room). So one square 2.5 inches cut diagonally will give both end pieces for one unit.

Now on to the parallelogram

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Draw the seam allowance 1/4 inch from each stitch line to the outside of each one. The original outer lines of your rectangle plus these new seam allowance lines are your cutting lines.

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This is your template

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Now use a little dab of glue stick to secure your template to your ruler, placing one short edge along the edge of your ruler.

I tried to be a detailed as I could this is very easy and can be done in less then 10 minutes. Now you have all the measurements you need to start cutting your fabric.