What say you? It seems like such a great idea but somehow I'm just not very successful at it. So I tried a "thangles" block of the month through our local quilt shop to improve my skills. Stitching on the line never gave me a true 1/4" no matter how hard I tried. They suggested that I sew just a thread outside the line which I did but then the corners didn't come out right. I put my thumbnail on the sewing line and ripped the thangle off as was demonstrated but no matter how I did it, usually, there was some still stuck to the fabric at the ends and when I pulled it off it undid the stitches at that end and I had to resew. Plus my finished block was always still too small.

Check out Triangulations it's much better than buying Thangles all the time.

I've not used thangles but have used this web site http://www.blockcentral.com/a-halfsq...glepaper.shtml and printed my own sheets of paper.

It works like I think thangles work, but I have found this very easy to do as well as successful. I think a few HST's were a bit small, but that was probably my fault, either in stitching or cutting.

I have used this and loved it....

http://www.blockcentral.com/hst/hst-3inch.pdf

This is the easiest way for me to make (HST) half square triangles...she has 4 sizes to choose from. They come out just great and no bias sewing.

I sew "just outside the dotted line - closer towards the cutting line" to give a little leeway and have had great success with the block sizes.

Good luck


lol ... the above reply is pretty much the same thing...she just typed faster, lol :-P

Maybe try folding the paper first before tearing it off, also shorten your stitch length like you do for paper piecing :D:D:D

LOVE Thangles!
I also bought the "Triangle Magic" program to print my own in any size.

I hated Thangles for pretty much all the reasons you stated. I don't think any other method of paper piecing HST is going to be much of an improvement.

The biggest advantage of Thangles over the square methods is you use the same size strips as you use for the rest of your project. The only other method I know of to make HST from rectangles is Sally Schneider's Gizmo. She's not taking orders until September though.

I'm bookmarking all your suggestions for future referral. Presently I'm on my SECOND block of the month with thangles....I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.... :-)
Our monthly package comes with 2 1/2" strips so can't take advantage of some of your suggestions right now but will definitely try in the future. I use a 2.5 stitch and have tried creasing both directions before ripping still with no success. Gotta' be me, gotta' be me, gotta' be me :-(

I love Thangles. I am currently doing the Buck a Block series 7. My HST have never looked so good. I will say, though, that if I'm just going to do a few then I generally don't use the Thangles but for a project like the BAB where you're making quite a few I think they are great.

never tried them.