Macybaby

here is how I make hourglass. I use my easy angle and companion angle (I believe they came as a set) . The main thing with these rulers is they have the dog ears already cut off, and that is important for lining up on the WOF so the triangles are correct. I use these rulers whenever I am cutting triangles.

I started out by using my 4.5" square and figuring out what size the triangles need to be. I will draw out a scale block to measure if needed too. Sometimes I'll use EQ8, but it always figures measures before cutting off the ears. When I'm using that, I'll draw were a triangle needs to be so it's a square/rectangle, then I'll get exact measures without ears, which is what I need.

For this pattern, I determined that I need to use either 2.5" strips, or 3.5" strips (for no bias edge on outside). The first picture shows how the rulers get laid out on WOF - and the important part is where the narrow end is. Normally I'll cut WOF a bit wider (1/8 to 1/4) so I can trim down. After you cut the first piece, you flip the ruler to line up with the new leading edge to cut the next piece.

One more thing to add, if you are not doing scrappy, you can cut your light/dark WOF and put them face together, and then cut the triangles, Then they are already paired up for sewing. I was going scrappy so didn't do that.

The second pic shows the two cut piece, The first has the bias edge on the long side, and for Hourglass, that will end up on the outside edge, so if you don't want that, make sure to cut them the other way, like the second so the bias are now on the edges that will be sewn together.

The third pic shows them sewing along the short edge and the fourth shows them pressed to the dark, and how they are paired up for last seam. I do spin my seams sewing this way.

Fifth pic shows them sewn and ready to be trimmed. if you don't have a 4.5" ruler, use a larger one and line cut two edges at a time, with the corners lined up at the 4.5" mark. I'm not a big fan of cutting all four sides at a time, so more often I will use a bigger square, cut two sides and then flip the block and cut the other two sides. Especially with smaller stuff where the ruler is hard to hold in place.