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Triangles are the foundation of many quilt designs. The triangle, attractive as it is can sometimes cause a few stitching concerns due to the bias-cut edges. I'd like to take the annoyance out of creating quilt blocks that have triangles and show you how to easily stitch the the no-hassle way while creating a sampler quilt. This quilt features both half- and quarter-square triangles created without cutting a single triangle. In this first episode I'll show you six block options. "No-Hassle Triangles Quilt Blocks." That's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy, TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. The sampler quilt behind me is made of 12 12" blocks with a little sashing and cornerstones combined. But we're going to be concentrating on the blocks themselves, made of half- and quarter-square triangles. To identify those, the half-square has two halves to it, as you can see, both triangles. The quarter-square, four sections. In the second program we're going to deal with the quarter-square, but now we're going to just concentrate on these half-square triangles. The color combinations I think I would like to talk about first. I usually choose a print. Choose from the print the fabrics that will go with it. So just pulling out the blue, aqua, teal, pink. Make certain that you always have a dark and a light plus some mediums. You need the three contrasts to make a stunning design. Traditionally, quilters cut triangles. There's nothing wrong with that, but this is what happens. When you cut a square in half and then meet right-sides together to stitch the triangles you're stitching along a biased edge. Even though it's woven you can see the stretch that's in that fabric. Often when stitching this the block becomes a little callywampus. You know, it just doesn't get exactly square. So rather than cutting triangles we're going to cut squares stitch and then cut the blocks apart. There's just a little bit of math involved. We'll get to that a little bit later. First, let's press the fabric. That seems obvious, of course. I generally add a little spray starch or spray starch alternative to the fabric before cutting it. It adds a lot of crispness and prevents some of the raveling of the threads. Give it a little extra steam here and press and press. I've already trued the edge, or cut the edge straight off-camera. Then it's time to cut. Now, here's the math portion. For each block, to make it a half-square triangle you're going to take your finished measurement. The block that I worked with just a few minutes ago was 4" finished. Add 7/8". You're going to cut a strip 4-7/8". If you're making a 6" finished block you've got to cut 6-7/8". It's just 7/8". Then place the ruler on top of the fabric align all the respective cut edges and then do a nice, clean cut. For every pair, the pair I showed you and this is the pair that I have here. It has a cut of aqua and cut of white cut the white strip, or the ivory strip, the same size. Meeting right-sides together place your strips so that they are nicely matched. I would do a little pressing at this point. Then if you cut 4-7/8" strips you're going to cut 4-7/8" squares. Now I have right-sides together of the ivory and the aqua line it up with my ruler, and do the cutting. You'll cut numerous blocks. I'll tell you in the instructions just how many to cut. For the marking, there are three ways to mark. The first way is just to use a ruler. Place the ruler point to point and mark across using a fine-tip pen. The second way is to use a gauge that had been designed for this that you place at the point and then the point. You can mark the stitching line on both sides if you'd like and then the cutting line through the middle. The third way is to use the gauge that gives you the exact measurement that you need. It says, for a 1/2" quarter scale you can cut 4-7/8" and depress this. After you've cut that 4-7/8" then align your block within the confines of the ruler. Mark down the middle. So you can see, there are many ways to do this. Now it's time to do the stitching. Before sewing the half-square triangles I do a double check. That's to make certain that the marking is exactly from point to point. You can place your gauge, your ruler, your marking pen along that line, just to make sure everything's lined up perfectly. You're going to have several stacks of these combinations. I have them pinned together on the sides. On the machine I have a presser foot that has a 1/4" width foot on the right side. As I stitch along that center mark I can get an exact 1/4" seam. I've come to the end and then I just butt the next block set and stitch along the side. You'll do this chain stitching as many together as you like. I'm just going to do two to show you. It has the same principle if you're doing two or 20. Sew the next side, get everything lined up. I put a new needle in my machine when I start a new quilting project. I put in cotton thread. I find cotton thread the best for quilting. I'm stitching about, oh, 2.5 millimeters of the stitch length, no longer. You may want to do 2.0. That's up to you. After you have sewn you can cut apart the thread tails between your blocks then cut down the middle. Rotary cutter, ruler and mat right at your sewing machine works handy for this. Or you can get up and go to your cutting area. Cut down the middle. Now you have the half-square triangles that open up into the full deal exactly what you need. Now pressing, pressing is really crucial. We'll show you the pressing steps we like to use for any quilt block. Press two ways, maybe three times. First, press it flat. Set the seams by pressing flat. You're going to be pressing many more at a time. Then press toward the darker side. If you press from the inside and then you guide that iron along, and press. Now it works better if you press from the inside because you don't get a little tuck. If you want to set that seam use a tailor clapper and just depress. You don't have to pound it. But that will remove the steam from the fabric and you'll get a very nice crisp seam in that area. You'll get two blocks two half-square triangles from each block set that was cut in this instance, 4-7/8". As a quick review to making half-square triangles you're going to cut the squares the finished measurement which is 4" in this case, plus 7/8". Or you can look on your gauge and it tells you what to cut. Meet right-sides together of your block set. Place a gauge or a ruler and mark with a fine-tip point from point to point. Set your machine at a very short stitch length stitch a 1/4" on either side. After you press you will find that this block will be 4-1/2". After it's sewn in the seam it will be down to a finished size of 4", a 4"-block. That's the no-hassle way of creating a half-square triangle. One of the more streamlined quilt blocks to create from half-square triangles is the Box Quilt. First illustrated in print in 1898 it's created with eight half-square triangle blocks and a square. The design has great movement reminding me of a pinwheel. When we are looking at these different blocks I think you'll be impressed by the way a half-square triangle is positioned gives the block remarkable change remarkable movement. We have eight half-square triangles and a center block that was cut 4-1/2". The other block sets were what I just worked with, 4-7/8". So to create eight blocks you need four subsets. I have the aqua and the ivory together. You'd mark it as I showed you earlier stitch along both sides of the center cut apart, and you get the blocks. Do the pressing as I illustrated as well, or showed you, as well. Then you're going to lay these out in the way that the blocks should be designed. Honestly, I have a little cheat-sheet here because sometimes it's a little tricky to get them twisted and turned in the right way. We're going to aim for parallelograms. I think I'm going to do it right here. There we go. There's the block just by these half-square triangles. Now to do the sewing the sewing on all of these blocks no matter how many pieces are in a block you're going to take the first column and lay it on top of the second column. Then kind of put them together do a little pinning. Here you can see I'm stitching along the side continually stitching from one set to the other. After you've stitched one set you're going to lay the stitched section on to the remaining third column, which is here. Then do that same chain stitching down. It's connected kind of like honeycomb or a screen or whatever you want to call it. Then do some pressing. For the pressing we're going to press toward the darker area. In this case you're not going to worry about it there's not dark. Just press in one direction. I like to press, for example the top row going from left to right the second row going from right to left so that when they're then sewn together in sections you have your seams that are going in opposite directions. It just works out so much better. It's traditional quilt seaming. That's the Box Quilt. Next we have Shadow Play. Instead of making all the half-square triangles squares from the same fabrics, stitch three different color combinations. As I mentioned, I call it Shadow Play where the fabric's choice create the impact. If we look at the quilt, at the top this is Shadow Play. We have nine blocks. Again, we cut 4-7/8" squares but there are three different color combinations. Here we go, one, two, and then three. Same stitching idea, just the different color combinations. You're going to sew pairs together of three colors aqua and white, white and print, and the teal. Then do the layout. The layout is kind of in groups of threes. Here we go. I just think putting this together is so much fun because you see that same simple block choice and yet it's a totally different look. That's Shadow Play. "Godey's Lady Book" was a monthly magazine published in Philadelphia between 1830 and 1876. Before the Civil War it was the most widely circulated magazine in the US. One of the designs featured in the magazine in 1858 was simply called, Godey Design. I have that design right here. It's a 16-patch. There are 12 half-square triangles in four square blocks. To create this, cut 3-7/8" blocks in three different color combinations. Make them as I told you earlier. For the design layout, I have it laid out partially for you with a little pinwheel in the center. Then in each corner there's a block. Again, we have some interesting designs laid out. We'll put this here, and this here to get a parallelogram. There we go. We'll try it this way. You do need your little cheat-sheet I must admit, to get this laid out. Instead of having three rows we now have four rows to sew together. But you can see these simple half-square triangles create a very fascinating block with movement. When researching quilt block names I found literally dozens of quilt blocks named a Square in a Square. With seemingly limitless geometric options using squares it's no wonder that it's a common name. Regardless, it's an attractive block all designed with half-square triangles. It's in the very lower corner of this sampler quilt. You can see we have quite a few colors of fabric included in here almost everything that we've used except the aqua. These are interesting half-square triangles 16 squares in this block and there's three color combinations. We have the pink and the print and then the blue and print and teal and white. We're going to look at this block a little differently than the other ones. I have it already laid out so that you can count how many block sets you'd need. For every two triangles you'll need a block set. We have eight pink and print. We'll need four block sets. Color makes a difference. Just by giving things a turn you can get a totally different look. You don't have to follow my layout. You can use various layouts, using these 16 blocks to get a square within a square. Next, May Basket. It's another frequently used name for a quilt block. I also found this block named Cactus Flower. Your fabric choice will dictate the name you choose. This version combines two finished sizes this time, 3-1/2" and 6-1/2" giving the block a center floral focal point. When we look at the May Basket there's kind of pointy flowers in this basket. You can see the basket very evidently. It's because of that 6-1/2" block. These are all 3-1/2" blocks. But to make them, you have to cut them that 7/8" because you know, you saw how they were cut apart. That takes up that seam allowance. Whatever you want as a finished block for a half-square, you add 7/8" to the measurement. Here, again, I have this laid out and I want to point out some of the elements of this block. You can make so many quilt blocks to figure out how many blocks you'll need. You can see I have just one of the 6-1/2" finished and I have one, two, three, four, five, six. So I'd need three sets of the smaller sections that were cut 3-7/8". Now when you get the block made for this 6-1/2-- Now remember, you can always use your gauge to remember what size to cut them. You're going to end up with two because each block set creates two. Save this for another block. Combining a 3- and a 6-1/2" block, first, to sew the seams you'd sew these two sections together then these two sections together in order to get a column. I hope that's clear. I boldly named this Nancy's Spool. It's another combination of 3-1/2" and 6-1/2" half-square triangles. Its featured design is something that those of us who sew and quilt can't do without. I like this design because of the way it looks difficult. That big spool is a focal point with a lot of half-square triangles in the opposite corners. Again, I started with 6-7/8" blocks sewed them together, and created the two large half-square triangles. Then if you fill in the blanks, you'll be able to get-- Let me see if I can remember how this was done. You'll be able to get the layout. Then we'll do another layout here have another little spool together. You can see-- There we go. We got the block. To construct this I put these four sections together, these four sections and then put it all together. You can see that half-square triangles have many options for you to create. And they're no-hassle to do so. Next, on Nancy's Corner, learn how a simple sewing project helps at-risk children who are neglected or abused. Here to tell us about this project called Little Bits, is creator, Patricia Holmes. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, Patricia. Thanks for having me, Nancy. This project that you do is very impressive. You make small, little bits, as you call them. You put them in bags and deliver them. You're a creator a one-woman dynamo, making these. When did you start to make these? In 2011. That's quite a few years ago. You've made a lot. Tell our viewers how many you've made. Approximately 28,000. You make these from printed fabrics. Yes, yes. Tell about what you have on the back. I line the backs mostly with a cotton flannel so it makes it nice and soft. What I started with was things that I had left over. The first year that's what I did. Sure. I have a big collection of fabrics and so I used what I had. They're soft and quiet and non-threatening. Yes. And a comfort, I think, a comfort. Absolutely. You haven't cut them exactly. You've made them approximate. So you meet right-sides together-- Right-sides together, turn them inside-out iron the seam open and then stuff them. Then you close up the end, and that's it. It's very simple. You just closed up with a little zigzag stitch from the right side. Hey, I'd like to, you know-- If I were a little kid, I'd think these would be great. Yeah. So you make these. Now this is interesting, I think that you told me how many you make in a day. If I stuck to it I could make 50 to 100 a day. That's admirable. However, I don't usually finish them in a day. I can do up to 200, and then the next day finish them all, or whatever. Sure, sure. And you also make these little punches that they go in. Pouches to carry in, so that they can carry them and take them with them where ever they're going. They can be used as-- They can put other things in them. They can also be used as little pillows. I mentioned that you're a one-person dynamo for this cause. You don't expect our viewers to send these to you. No, absolutely not. Explain how you made in-roads to get these to the kids who need them. Okay. I first came upon what's called Church Dolls and I purchased them at a quilt show. I spent a lot of time thinking, boy this is really a neat thing. Then one day it hit me that I've got all this time and fabric and a reasonable amount of talent. I decided, I think I should put my free time to good use. I've always cared very much about abused children, foster children and anyone who's at risk. So I started making them and I changed them every other week and did different things until I finally sent-- I called the Dane County Child Protective Services and they said that they would like some. I took them there. I have about five places in Madison and Dane County that I take them to and some in Milwaukee, and now Columbia County. For our viewers who are watching who live all over the country they can just make in-roads, make some calls, inquiries. Absolutely. Their own county Child Protective Services can help them. I usually take them to them. Excuse me. Sure. But I've even had to mail them. Like Milwaukee, it's cheaper to mail them then to drive them. And you've even made little pillows. Yes, I expanded a little bit. My idea is that every little kid needs a pillow. Yeah. And it's such a comfort to every one of us that's ever had something soft. I think, actually, the pillows, in the long run are probably going to be the most helpful. Well, these are adorable, Patricia. You're doing a great service to so many. And now you're encouraging others. Thank you for being with us. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. You're certainly welcome. Thank you for having me. I hope you've enjoyed this interview as much as I have. If you'd like to learn more about Little Bits you can go to all things Sewing With Nancy at nancyzieman.com. Click on "Nancy's Corner" and find information on Little Bits, how you can participate. I hope you also enjoyed our first program on "No-Hassle Triangles Quilt Blocks." We'll be back next time with our second episode. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Nancy Zieman has written a book entitled "No-Hassle Triangles Quilt Blocks". It includes instructions for quilt featuring 12 quilt blocks and all the techniques from this two-part series. It's $9.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at sewingwithnancy.com/2809 Order Item Number BK2809, "No-Hassle Triangles Quilt Blocks." To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman has been brought to you by Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Studios; Clover; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Pellon. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.