this is why i haven't tried this. maybe when i'm older and more mature! this board is great for help and support! sorry i'm no help, but i think your colors are great and it will be terrific when you have it all put together!

Ok Just a little up date in case you are wondering. After taking all this time to mull it over I have decided that I cut the wrong size strips and triangles. So I am going to scrap what I have done and start over. I was really disappointed in the fact that I have so many strips all ready seed, cut and ready to be swaen together. BUt I can't use them since I know it will affect the over all quilt. and I would always see the mistakes. So I will start fresh. follow the directions to the letter. (I changed it because I thought the measurements were wrong.) wont do that again.. and make my son one the right way.

But not to despair I have always wanted to make a red, white and blue quilt. So will add some red and white to the blue and white and make a scrappy quilt. Will start dreaming of ideas now and looking for some red fabric. I already have ideas so I will be motivated to finish my sons quilt so I can start on the other one. Or maybe I will have to wait because I will be tired of the blue. Either way I know eventually I will make another quilt out of what I have already cut.

thank you for all the advice and support. Will show you the final results when it is done..

The thousand pyramids quilts I've seen are based on equilateral triangles.

So - I will get to that -

The first drawing is a triangle in a square unit (Doreen Speckmann called them Peaky and Spike units) - the reason for showing that is that the sharper (more acute) the angle, the longer the 'tails' are when the seam allowance is added.

The lower three shapes are based on 60 degree (equilateral) triangles) The diamond shape has 60, 120, 60, 120 degrees angles and the triangle has 60, 60, and 60 degree angles.

The diamond and triangles are traced around templates from Pandora's Box as seen on Quilting from the Heartland, hosted by Sharlene Jorgenson.

The outside lengths of the equilateral triangle are longer by about 5/16 of an inch than the outside lengths of the diamond.

I rotary cut some paper shapes and used a ruler to mark 1/4 inch from the edge near the corner where the seams intersect. When using fabric, I usually use an ordinary lead pencil and make the marks just dark enough so I can see them. If using dark fabric, I use a 'silver' pencil or a chalk pencil.

I've found this to be helpful - even now - for getting triangles to line up correctly. A shortcut is to make a template the 'finished' size and just put that in the center of each piece and mark around the corners.

When I sew these, I line up the points where the seams intersect and pin there - I fold the fabric back and peek to make sure that it will open up the way that I want it to.

This scan shows how I pin the pieces together and how it would look from the right side (the markings should be on the back of a 'real' unit - but this is to show you how it looks and the tails that are sticking out.

WOW - Bearisgray - you do great templates and instructions!

This scan shows everything flipped over and what I would do to create a 'finished size' template for marking the corners.

Triangles are not that big of a deal if one marks the seam intersections and pins them together properly - and allows for the tails/dog ears.

Finished?
 

Please give me the good news that you have completed this quilt! I am having the same problems you had. I am all excited about finishing this quilt that it's really upsetting me that things aren't lining up. Linda

I am sure mine had a white section between each block. Iam angel can't see any mistakes it's beautiful.