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Another Triangle Square Method

© Jeanne Marsh

Last year Better Homes and Gardens published "A Century of Quilts",covering many of the quilt patterns that had appeared in their many magazines over the past century. It was a great issue and a real collector's item. I read and re-read it and fell in love with the quilt on the cover. The block had originally appeared in the April 1943 issue of "Successful Farming". The quilt in the current magazine was made from reproduction fabric of course. And wouldn't you know that I, being a lover and collector of repro fabrics, just happened to have that very print in my stash!

I don't usually make quilts exactly like examples given, but I thought this one just lovely! I purchased the tangarine (not orange, mind you) that the pattern called for and the white bleached muslin and began to read the directions more closely.There were a great many two color triangle squares and they were small.

The directions said to rotary cut strips 2 3/8 inches wide the width of the fabric of both tangerine and white. Then cut 2 3/8 inches wide squares from the strips. Now make a cut diagonally across all squares, resulting in triangles. A white and a tangerine triangle were to be sewn together to form a square. Depending on the size of the quilt planned there would be well over 200 of these squares.

"Hmmm," I thought, "Wouldn't that seam be bias? And wouldn't those small triangles be apt to stretch?"

There might be a way to make those two color triangle squares where there would be less stretch. I remembered a setup I had used in other quilts and decided to try it here. I paired a tangarine strip and a white strip together and cut the 2 3/8 inch squares. Next I drew a line diagonally on one square of each pair of squares. Using my 1/4 inch seam foot as a guide, I sewed 1/4 inch on EACH SIDE OF THE LINE. Then I cut ON THE DRAWN LINE. This gave me 2 triangle squares of two colors the size the pattern called for. I pressed the seam toward the darker side, taking care not to stretch the small square with the iron.

(Sew on dotted line, cut on dark line.Press open)

Sewing across the squares did not stretch the bias seam and the squares were easier for me to handle than small triangles. The printed directions had the size of the squares worked out as the writer intended for the squares to be cut diagonally BEFORE sewing. I had changed the order and had cut AFTER sewing.