Pages

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

60 degree triangles

I was first inspired to try my hand at 60 degree triangles last summer when I saw the quilts that Libby (of the Simple Girl blog) was making. You can read about the start of my interest in this idea here. It turned out that the layout I showed you on that blog entry was a royal pain to sew, and is still a UFO! But I had lots of fun with other layouts and here is one of my finished minis called "Hazardous Materials".
Libby told me that she used a ruler called a "Clearview Triangle" ruler to cut her triangles, but I wanted to try to use my Omnigrid ruler for the cutting. I really had fun figuring this out. No really! It was fun. I sewed together a light and a dark 1.25" strip. Then I lined up the 60 degree line on the seam and cut the first angle. Then I tipped the ruler to the left, placed the other 60 degree line on the seam line, and put the edge of the ruler at the edge of the strip and cut...first triangle done!
Then I tipped the ruler back the other way, lined up the 60 degree line with the seam line and cut another triangle, and so on, until the whole strip set was cut into triangles.
It got a bit trickey if the angle ever got a little wonky, and then I would just recut the edge and keep going.
To deal with all the bias edges I sprayed the strips with "Spray
Starch" and then pressed them before I started cutting the triangles, which worked well.
Today I had my mini quilt class over to my studio to work on their 60 degree projects. I could tell that they weren't loving those cute little triangles as much as I do!! Here they are with their nose to the grindstone, labouring over those triangles and forcing them to fit together in their chosen layouts. Check back next month to see if they persisted in fitting them together, or will they throw their project in the garbage (gasp!)?!?!? Hopefully you will see some wonderful triangle quilts!







8 comments:

  1. Hazardous Materials is a great quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used the Omnigrid, too . . . I wanted to become 'fully acquainted' with the 60 degree line *lol* I bought the Clearview so I could make a 'Serendipity' quilt (which I haven't done, I might add *s*)

    I'm right there with you on the fun of flipping that Omnigrid ruler back and forth - flip/flop, flip/flop. It's a fun technique! I'm thinking about having another go of triangle fun *s*

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the method that Bethany Reynolds teaches in her books. I still fall back to this method even though I've got triangle cutting templates that I can use. Thanks for the refresher.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your little quilt! Ya know, I never knew what those numbers (60) were for before. I knew reading all these blogs would be educational as well as just looking at alot of eye candy! :c)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your little quilt! It is just adorable! I have never used that degree on my ruler before but since I have seen what it can do I think I will try that this weekend. Thanks so much for the eye candy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your little quilt! I have seen designs with this block and you just opened up the possibilities for me. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love that little quilt and your triangles do look easy to make.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, these look great Kathy.

    Such an easy way to do these. thank you.

    ReplyDelete