I am making a new quilt that uses the technique where you use squares or rectangles of fabric, sew diagonally across and then cut off the corner triangles...well I HATE wasting fabric so I came up with an idea to salvage the corners to use in another project. I hope this is helpful to someone and not something that's been around forever that I didnt' know about! Since I'm making 104 of these units, I will end up with 104 half square tiangles for another project! Maybe matching pillows for the quilt. I will have even more extra units when I piece the green and cream blocks....Yeah...I hate wasting fabric!

The pictures are a little dark because I'm sewing on my hand-crank Singer machine. We were without electricity after the storm hit Norman, OK Tuesday evening! I read until I finished my book and then pulled out the project that I had cut out a year or so ago and decided to sew!

I love to do this too... it is like making two blocks at once :D:D:D

Yes, and then you have some fun HST to use in another project, or even in the current quilt!

I like the idea of using a ruler as a guide - would never have thought of that on my own.

Thanks for showing this, I would never have thunk to do that. Great idea.

ditto

Kool,thanks for the neat idea. Also bothers me to waste fabric. Now you already have a new project going. Hugs . Hope all is ok with you now. BrendaK

Thank you 'sew' much for posting this!!!!!

I am starting a project with the corner cut off, and this will make it so much easier in the end. i was going to keep them, but dreaded using them for a future project. this will make it easy!

Great idea! Never would have thought of the ruler either! Just think of the crumb blocks these could used in. I have a ton of odd width strips I've been sewing together & cutting into 4 patches;need some HSTs...gee, the ideas you get from this board!!

This method is Bonnie Hunter's way! She's been teaching this for years. She's the queen of scraps.

She calls them Bonus Triangles.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/...triangles.html

I save all the cut-off triangles in a zip bag.
They make a great old-fashioned looking doll quilt.

They can also be passed along to someone who makes miniatures. One person's scrap is another person's treasure.
June in Cincinnati

I do this all the time. :thumbup: Easier to sew them while they are together
than trying to sew them afterwards. I mark both lines before going
to the machine.

I knew it seemed like such a simple idea that I could not have been the original one to think this up...but glad to share anyway...maybe someone out there had not tried this before and will benefit!

Great tip. I will use this while doing my dear jane....if the tips are big enough

I've got a 1 gal. bag filled and 1/2 of another so far. Don't have any idea when I'm going to have enough to do a decent size quilt though. :-D Since its not a WIP, I'm not sure how to classify them, maybe SFQ (Saving for Future Quilt)? ;)

Check out Bonnie's website, she has great ideas how to manage scraps and lot of free pattern with how to pictures. It's like a big quilt book. She is very generous with her patterns. Great minds thinks alike so you are great! LOL


http://quiltville.com/

I do that a lot too! Just hate wasting all that fabric!
Of course now I have hundreds of different sized half-square triangles just waiting for me to use them.

I do this too, and often incorporate the bonus HST in one of the borders. They already match the quilt!!!

Same here! :o)

That's the way I do it also.

One of the latest quilt magazines showed a table top which required cutting off the corners. Then they took the corners they cut off and made a table runner with it. No waste and could be wonderful gifts.

ditto

I never thought of this - and I hate to waste fabric. Thank you for the great idea. I will certainly start doing this.

What a clever idea. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for this tutorial. I knew I had seen this technique before, but I could remember the source.

This is wonderful! So glad you posted it here. I don't always have an opportunity to search other sites so I like to catch new ideas here.

I've always cringed whenever I "had" to waste those small triangles, thinking that they're too small to resew together. No more cringing! Thanks.

I do this method quite regularly. I have used the scrap HST in the same quilt or to make another.
I agree, why waste the fabric and the time is minimal. It is also easier to sew that diagonal while still attached than after it has been cut away!
kathyd

Yep, have been doing this for a long time and now have a bunch of HSTs that I can use -- sometime! :-)

You are doing exactly what Bonnie Hunter told us she does when she was at our guild meeting last Monday!!!

I do this and friends will also give me 1/2 sqs. I used some of asian fabric and made Sunbonnet Sue goes to the Orient wallhanging. Right now I have several hundred chain pieced on my artwal. These will be Sunbonnet Sue gardens, with a giant sunflower.

I do this every time I use this type of piecing. I absolutely HATE working on the bias, especially an exposed bias edge. I have found my points are as near to perfect as possible for me when I use squares and rectangles to speed piece these triangular pieces. I have a huge tote at home of all various sized HST blocks ready and waiting for a quilt that will probably be a Bonnie Hunt one since hers require a ton of pieces. Her leaders and enders are awesome.

There is a quilting book named "TWO FOR THE MONEY" by Jo Parrot, pulished by That Patchwork Place. I learned the technique of using left overs for a second quilt from that book. I have made two quilts: "Double Stars" and "Hope of Hartford". I am planning smaller quilts or lap robes for useing the left overs. Blessings to all of you quilters who like to use every scrap of fabric. :lol:

Thank u 4 sharing this great :idea:

I hate to waste fabric. this is a great tip. thanks.

I agree to save if the pieces are large enough. I, too, am working on a project that will create a huge stash of these leftovers. So, I'm sewing them together to create the 2nd HST and plan to use these small squares as the inside border. I'm sure I'll still have more leftovers so they'll go into something else....maybe the pillowcase border??

great idea thanks

I do that, too!

I often use the cut away hsts for a border or inner border. Got the idea from a pattern called stretched stars.

Thank you. I'm a newbie and just getting ready to make that seam on Connecting Threads' Artichoke table runner kit.

Great idea! :thumbup: Hate wasting fabric too!