Corner Triangle Tips and Tricks

There's been lots of sewing activity going on around here, mostly in making more blocks for the Summer quilt pattern from the Quilt Giving book (affiliate link). In the process, I've learned a few tricks in making these corner triangle blocks that I'd like share today.

Sewing these corner triangles is also known as the 'stitch-and-flip method', as the two pieces are stitched together, trimmed, and then the smaller piece is flipped over to the right side to finish the block. Let's have a look at the tips below to make the process easier.

The first tip is to mark the backside, from corner to corner, of the small square that will be the corner triangle. There's no room here for guessing a straight line, or using a guide placed on the machine. A straight pencil line to follow is what's needed here.

Once the outer edges of the small square are lined up with the larger block's corner, the next tip is to stitch just a thread's width to the seam allowance side of that drawn line.

This compensates for that little bit of fabric that's taken up in the fold when the seam is pressed. And if all has gone well, the edges will line up too, eliminating extra trimming. I've placed lines on each edge to show how everything has lined up after pressing.

And here's an optional tip:  stitch another line 1/2" away from the first, within the seam allowance (the area going toward the corner of the large square). Then cut in between the two stitching lines.

And the result is the original corner square block, and a bonus HST.

Now that's efficient sewing - creating the block needed, and getting HST's to use in another project, cutting down on a bunch of triangles to add to the scrap pile. Woohoo!

So I'm off to finish up my blocks and get them sewn into a quilt - there's more coming on the Summer quilt in the next few days.

Happy Quilting!