Medallion Quilt Along – Border 4 – Half Square Triangles

I’m a wee bit late in posting this border. Sorry!  The weekend was a busy holiday weekend. And last week we were having the siding replaced on our house.  I only lasted through a couple of hours of hammering each day and then had to leave. It was too hard to even hear myself think!

So… here we are at the fifth border of the quilt.  Or what I have labeled Border 4.  I feel like I’m beginning to repeat myself.  In fact, if you look at the quilt, the borders do begin to repeat themselves a bit.  The next border we have done before.  When possible, I think we should explore other construction methods.

The Border Stats:

• Finished block size – 2″ x 2″
• Finished width of border – 2″
• Yardage requirement – minimum 9″ each light fabric and dark fabric.  Cut three 3″ strips from 40″ width of the fabric.  You will need more if you need to straighten up the edges.
• Width of quilt after this border – 34 1/2″ x 34 1/2″

1. Cut 30 – 3″ x 3″ squares from a variety of dark fabrics.  Cut 30 – 3″ x 3″ squares from a variety of light fabrics.  For the corner squares, cut 2 – 3″ x 3″ squares of each light and dark fabrics that are different from your border.

2. Lay a light fabric on top of a dark fabric, placing right sides together.

We have made half-square triangles before by marking the diagonal with a pencil and sewing on each side of the pencil line.  If you do not have this tool pictured above, The Angler 2, you can refer Border 2 for using the pencil method.

I like using The Angler 2 so that I don’t have to mark the diagonal lines with a pencil.  But either method works just fine and gives the same result.  If you would like to try using The Angler 2, place your pair of 3″ squares on top of the tool, lining up the left edge with the dotted line and the bottom corner with the left vertical line. You will notice that the top corner of the square will be to the left of the needle.  I’ve drawn red lines showing which lines you need to align the fabric against.

Sew down one side of the diagonal of the square.  Be careful that you are not pushing or pulling the fabric, but just letting the machine feed the fabric through at an even pace.  It’s easy to stretch the squares and then you will have wobbly, stretched stitching lines.

3. Turn the square over and sew on the other side of the diagonal.  Another thing I like about this method is that I can chain piece all the squares at the same time.  Sew down one side, one square after another. Cut them all apart and repeat on the other side of all the squares.

4. Cut the squares in half to produce 2 half-square triangles. When you are finished, you should have a total of 60 half-square triangles for the sides, and 4 half-square triangles for the corners.  Press the seams open.

5.  Trim each of the squares to 2 1/2″ making sure that the diagonal seam is centered.  If you would like a visual reminder of what this looks like, please refer to Step 4 in Border 2.  I know the trimming of the squares feels a bit tedious.  But it’s so easy to produce wonky squares when sewing on the diagonal. This is one way to make sure that they are perfectly 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″.  And it’s considerably less frusting when sewing them all together if they are nice uniform sizes.

6.  Arrange 15 half-square triangles along each side of the quilt center to create a light and dark diagonal pattern. Sew the left side and the right side together first.  Press the seams open.  Attach each side to the quilt center.  Press the seams towards the outside edge of the quilt.

7.  Sew the top and bottom border squares together.  Then sew a corner half-square triangle to each end of the top and bottom borders.  Sew the top and bottom borders to the quilt.

Your quilt should now measure 34 1/2″ square.

The back side!  Look at all those seams!  More and more I am tempted to press those seams open because there are sooooo many seams.

I’m also beginning to get curious about how to quilt this when it is finished.  I think the quilting will really bring the character out in this quilt.  Or… maybe it’s just me and my quilt that I feel needs some help?  I’m not terrible happy with my previous border of stacked logs.  But I’m not that dissatisfied as to go back and change it either.  Maybe the quilting will make it more cohesive?

Can you tell I’m tired and not very chatty today?  Hope you are all having a good beginning of the week.  This side of the country kids are going back to school today.  My nephews are in college this year!  How did that happen?  My husband was lamenting that they were toddlers when we got married.  Wow, has time flown by!

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