yea, I learned this the hard way!!!!

I'm with you.. I don't like triangles.. especially cut on the bias triangles.. mine cant ever seem to be square.. Lucky for me mines a scrappy one so my mistake (hopefully) wont be too noticeable..

Good luck.. Remember- Deep breaths, walk away and keep plenty of chocolate on hand!

Have you tried thangles?

I love love love my Thangles Have just about eversize needed

I can understand your frustration. I too was intimidated about triangles. Then one day I made up my mind I was just going to do them. I have always wanted to make a scrappy quilt using 1/2 square triangles.
And now, I am so pleased with how it is turning out. But I do it the way others have described. Cut large square, draw diagonal line, sew 1/4" from each side of line, cut on drawn line. Then trim back to size desired. And yes, I starched well before even cutting the squares.
Keep trying... you will get it. By the way, I DID sew one on ther wrong side, but after I cut it apart and looked at it, you can't even tell so I left it. Hate unsewing!

what is a thangle??

It's a strip of paper that you pin to a strip of fabric. You sew along a line on it and then cut along the other lines (I think dotted lines for sewing, solid for cutting) and then press and remove the paper and voila-perfect half square triangles.

that will definitely work for me...lol Can you buy them in all sizes?

they come in lots of sizes. Theres also a web site that shows how to use them if you get confused Just bought a larger size that had instructions for a tree skirt. My lqs had one hanging and it was beautiful and looked simple to do with the thangles you don't waste any material

I have tried them and they are good, bit expensive for the amount I do so I do it the normal way but I don't use Starch as I do a lot of quilts for Project Linus and don't want to add any chemicals. Here is the Thangles website for you: http://www.thangles.com/index.html

so are these thangles fabric or paper foundations?