No Hassles Triangle Gauge
with instructor Steve Butler
What is it? – We’ve all been there, right? We’re in our favorite quilt shop and as usual, we see some amazing quilts. Flying Geese, Drunkard’s Path, School House, Log Cabin, Dresden Plate, Double Wedding Ring, Bear Paw, Half Square, Mariner’s Compass, it goes on and on. Talk about inspiration! Or maybe you’ve envisioned something original. In either case we’ve been bitten by the creative bug. An hour later we’re on the way home with the most gorgeous fabric that was ever made. Within minutes of arriving we’ve cleaned off our work station and set out our new fabric. Rich colors or magical batiks or perhaps mood setting prints, they all seem to call to us. Our excitement is almost palpable. So we jump right in and start to cut our block pieces. And it doesn’t make any difference if we’re working on something as simple as Nine Patch or as complicated as Mariner’s Compass. We know the pieces have to be cut and sewn together with precision if we’re to achieve our creative intent. But boy is that a challenge. Take half square or quarter square triangle based quilts for example. There’s only about a million quilt patterns based on different combinations of size, shape and combinations of half square and/or quarter square blocks. What’s the most difficult part? Making all of the blocks the right size and making all of the points sharp. Easier said than done. Most methods require math and cutting lots of triangles (they all have to be cut perfectly) and inserting lots of pins to hold it all together. All before we get to our sewing station. A lot of room for error and if we aren’t perfect we find that few, if any, of the triangles end up with sharp points and we have to adjust many of the blocks for size differences. And the palpable creative excitement is fading fast. Is there a better way, yep. Clover has developed an amazing tool that takes out all of the hassle and allows us to create half square and quarter square quilt blocks with reckless abandon. It’s the No Hassle Triangles Gauge. This is a nifty little tool that solves all of the triangle problems, does the math and even shows us exactly where to put our diagonal lines.
What does it do? – The No Hassle Triangle Gauge allows you to achieve our triangle quest with ease, either half square or quarter square. No guess work. No Mistakes. No hassle.
· For half square triangles you refer to the left side of the gauge. There you will find five different sizes of blocks. Reset the locking slide to the diagonal line below the size desired for your quilt design. The two numbers above will tell you what size to cut your blocks and what size the final triangle block will be. Once the blocks are cut, superimpose the triangle gauge within a double stacked block and mark the center line. Sew your scant quarter inch on either side of the marked line and then cut, unfold and press. Voila! You now have a perfect half square triangle block.
· For quarter square triangles you refer to the right side of the gauge where five size blocks are also indicated. Proceed to form half square blocks as above. Once complete simply match up two half square blocks, rotate 90° and repeat using the gauge to mark the final diagonal. Sew a scant quarter inch on either side, cut along the line and press open. Now you have perfect quarter square triangle blocks. What could be easier?
How do I promote it? – The No Hassle Triangle Gauge can be the foundation for a great class that puts all of your friends in a triangle frame of mind for future quilts. Something fun is to do a quilt block design contest featuring only half square or quarter square blocks. Put them all on display in your shop. Finish up with a story board showing each step really is. That gets the word out that triangles are both fun and easy. Let the excitement begin.
