Triangles - of all shapes, sizes and angles - are a quilter's joy and delight. Really! They add movement and dynamic angles to blocks - and make star blocks possible. Ok - I have a bit of a crush on triangles, and I want to share some of my favs with you!
All triangles are NOT created equal - nor do they share the same degree (ha - get it - degree, as in angle of degrees.....) of complexity or difficulty. Let's look at a few different types and how they are created.
Half Square Triangle
The Half Square Triangle is a block or unit made up of two equal 45 degree triangles that make a square when combined. It is one of the simplest of not only the triangle units, but quilt blocks as well, and is an essential element of many more complicated blocks.
In fact, I walked you through seven different ways to make HSTs (half square triangles) in an earlier post (you can read it here), including using the Studio 180 Tucker Trimmer. Spoiler alert - you already know I'm a huge fan of Studio 180 tools because, well, they are awesome, but I'm focusing mainly on Studio 180 tools for this post, because they will make three of the four types of triangles I'm going to share with you!
HSTs, arranged in rings of expanding color, make up Granny Squares (which was inspired by the colorful afghans my grandmother crocheted when I was growing up!). In Spinning Out, HSTs make up smaller pinwheels that together make a larger pinwheel - a pinwheel in a pinwheel! So is that all you can do with HSTs? No!
In Catch A Falling Star, the HSTs are arranged in the Broken Dishes block - but the Broken Dishes blocks are put together to form stars from the negative space - and those stars are disintegrating as they fall to the bottom of the quilt.
Fizz uses HSTs and combination or partial HSTs (check out this blog post to see how those units are made) to make spinning pinwheels.
And of course HSTs can be used to make flying geese units and/or star points like you see in Luminous. Starting to see how versatile the humble HST unit is? Amazing, right?!
VBlock - or Peaky and Spike or Tri Rects - Triangle
This is another awesome triangle block that is often used to make star points, but you'll see it is super versatile as well! I did share in this earlier blog post how to make the V Block, as the Studio 180 folks call this unit, using (of course!), the VBlock Studio 180 tool.
Confetti (above) uses this fun shape not as a star point, but as a stand alone block. And - sorry Deb - but this one is NOT using the VBlock tool, but is instead paper pieced.
In Road Trip, the VBlock unit was used to create the lovely little stars in the top left corner. Fun, right?
Rotate the unit the other way, and you get long lovely points for your stars, like you see in Star Spangled Banner. See - the V Block is practically as flexible and creative as it's big brother, the HST! Are you getting ideas for how to jazz up your next project?
Split Rectangle (or Split Rects)
Let's take the angle a bit steeper - and look at the split rectangle, or split rects. It is pretty much like it sounds. Instead of a square formed from two equal triangles, this is a rectangle formed from two equal triangles. I covered how to make a split rects unit in this previous blog post.
Some find this unit challenging, but that's the beauty of the Studio 180 tools - and the Split Rects tool specifically. It makes challenging blocks not just doable, but practically perfect when you're done!
Spark uses the split rects unit not as a star point, but as the star to a multifaceted diamond block. And the same units are colored just a bit differently to created the faux border effect. Isn't that fun?
Paper Pieced Triangles
You can use rulers and tools to make some standard triangles - but sometimes you want something a bit different. Maybe you want longer points - or wider points - or skinnier points. That's where paper piecing comes in! If you're not familiar with paper piecing, I looked at it in this earlier blog post - complete with mini tutorial video!
Celebration Slices is probably one of my favorite patterns for showcasing not only the versatility of triangles, but also how fabric placement can impact what you see. In this case, color and placement determine whether you have a birthday cake, a pumpkin or a Christmas tree!
Check out all of the different shapes and sizes of triangles in Elementz - all made possible by paper piecing!
I hope you are inspired to add some triangles - of any angle, size or shape - into your next project!
Head over to Kate's blog to get her view on the joy of triangles and what they can make!
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