Carpenters Wheel square size
 

I want to make a Carpenters Wheel using half square triangles and full blocks. I can't for the life of me figure out the math. I want to use a charm pack of 5" squares to make a throw. Could someone please help..?

If you use 5" squares to make HST's, your finished HST's will measure 4". (This is using the conservative method of adding 1" to the desired finished size and then cutting down a smidge.) So you would cut your squares at 4.5" so they will measure 4" finished.

Thank you...my brain just couldn't handle the math this morning!

It just occurred to me that for the Carpenter's Wheel you probably want to wind up with two HST's of each color combination. The method I suggested may not work for you, unless you have two squares of each fabric in your charm pack. I don't use or recommend the method of sewing all around the square to make HST's, because of the bias edges, but that might be what you need to do.

Edited to add - 5" is probably too small for the sew-all-the-way-around method. Your block would be tiny.

I had always stayed away from using the method for making HST by sewing around the square and having bias edges. HOWEVER, I just finished a Hunter's Star and did use that method. I had absolutely no trouble at all....in fact the blocks seemed to fit together especially well. I was surprised and pleased and won't be hesitant to use this method in the future.