![]() Fold the fabric in half, with the selvages to the left and the fold to your right. The first step is cut your fabric strip the same width as the desired triangle. That visual indicator is a huge help, especially if you’re cutting late at night. It’s easy to use the wrong line (ask me how I know…) and really mess up your cutting. This may sound silly, but if you look closely at any ruler you’re using, there are a several diagonal lines marked on them. If I’m using this option, after I find the 60-degree line on my ruler, I mark it with a piece of masking tape or painter’s tape. However, if you find yourself making 60-degree triangles only rarely, you may want to opt out of the specialty ruler purchase and learn how to use your rotary mat or ruler. Creative Grid rulers have grippers built in them. One word of caution here, unless the ruler is from Creative Grids, some ruler grippers or Ruler Magic applied to the wrong side of the ruler is a good idea – it’s easy for the ruler to slip. If I hadn’t received one as a gift, I most likely would have purchased one when I found it on sale or had a coupon. Truthfully, if you find yourself making a lot of equilateral triangles, you may want to invest in this ruler. In other words, the 6-inch triangle I just cut out exactly on the six-inch markings on the ruler already has the ¼-inch seam allowances already built into the ruler. If, at this point, you’re wondering about seam allowances, most specialty triangle rulers already have that built into them. We will work a little more with those 45-degree angles in a bit, but for right now let’s move on to that 60-degree angle, which looks like this: You know how to cut these and you know how to draw these. Two of these angles you’ve already worked with – the 90-degree angle and the 45-degree angle. There are some exceptions, but since in this blog we’re only working with diamonds and triangles, we’ll stick with these three angles. In quilting, generally we use 60-, 90-, and 45-degree angles. Tri- comes from Greek and Latin roots meaning “three.” So, the word triangle literally means three angles. And from this study of angles, we begin to understand triangles. But first, let’s go back to geometry class. You can cut angles all day long, and they’ll be accurate and beautiful. Chances are, even if your quilting supplies are limited, you have a ruler with these lines: I would much rather take the time to teach you how to use what you already have. See why I consider them a waste of money? Unless every other quilt you’re making is one of those designs, chances are good those rulers will sit in your studio and gather dust. But you know the only thing you can make with each? A Lemoyne Star or a Hunter’s Star. There are rulers out there specifically for the Lemoyne Star. Specialty rulers, as a whole, are rulers geared for one purpose and one purpose only. I’ve gotten my money’s worth several times over out of each. The two I mentioned I feel are worth every red cent because I use them all the time. Unless it’s a specialty ruler I use nearly every day, such as Eleanor Burns Square Up Triangle Ruler or Creative Grids 60/90 ruler, I don’t purchase them. ![]() Quite frankly, I consider them a waste of money. I don’t – for the most part – buy specialty rulers. So, I learned how to cut the units out with a rotary cutter.Īt this point, let me drop in a little personal quilting philosophy: I can count on one had the times I’ve made a Hunter’s Star or Lemoyne Star quilt and have fingers left over. I make too many types of blocks to justify the investment. Templates are wonderful things to have, and if you find yourself repeatedly cutting out the same non-square block unit, you may want to invest in a good set. I taught you how to sew the units together, but threw out two different ways of cutting out the diamonds: rotary cutting or templates. When we constructed the Lemoyne Star block a few blogs ago, we were working with diamonds. When we talk about units within those blocks, we also tend to think about squares, but add in half-square triangles, rectangles, and triangles (you know… the big triangle in a flying geese unit). When we think about quilt blocks, generally we think about squares. ![]() Hang with me on this blog and I’ll explain. ![]()
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