Triangle Salad, Tutorial #4

Happy New Year! I hope your 2016 is off to a wonderful start so far.

I’m back today with our fourth triangle-square tutorial.

This week we’re using Thangles, in the 2″ finished size. Different sizes of Thangles produce different numbers of units, depending on the size you’re using, just to keep things manageable. The larger your units, the fewer you get from each paper.

Here’s what the 2″ ones look like packaged, and also what a single paper looks like:

If you don’t have any Thangles papers, you can go back to either Tutorial #1 or Tutorial #2 and use the formulas provided to make your units in the correct size for this week (2″ finished).

If you have the papers, and would like to use them, let’s get started . . .

The Method:
You’ll need two strips, each measuring 2 1/2″ x 10 1/2″, one from a print and one from your background fabric.

Place the two strips right sides together, with the lighter fabric on top, then place the Thangles paper right side up on top of the strips.

Pin through all the layers to hold it together while you sew. I pin out in the open areas so that the pins are not in the way of my stitching.

Stitch on all the dotted lines. The Thangles folks say you don’t necessarily have to reduce your stitch length, since the paper is made for tearing, but I lower it just a tidget anyway.

Once you have all the dotted lines stitched, you can remove your pins.

Cut on all the solid lines, remembering to cut off the very ends of the paper on those solid lines as well.

Cut on the diagonal lines between the dotted lines, and you’ll have 6 pieces.

At this point, the Thangles people say to press before you tear off the paper, and it helps to keep you from stretching the pieces when pressing. (I usually forget to do this in my anxious rush to tear off the paper, so it really doesn’t matter either way, as long as you’re careful while pressing.)

Tear the paper off the back of each one:

Press them open:

Trim off the dog ear — you’ll notice with this method that there is only one dog ear to trim from each unit!

And now you have 6 finished cute little half-square triangle units, each measuring 2 1/2″ unfinished, to use in your quilt!

There’s no formula needed for this method, either. Simply choose the appropriate size of Thangles papers, and the instructions are included inside the package!

Advantages of using this method:

• It’s fast!
• It’s easy!
• It’s very accurate.
• There’s no drawing lines on the backs of the squares.
• If you need a lot of units, and it doesn’t matter if there are several that are all alike, this is a good method to use.
• If you already have strips cut in the proper size, it allows you to use those without having to cut more.
• Jelly roll strips work great with the 2.0 size!

Disadvantages of using this method:

• You have to purchase the papers.
• If you need extreme variety in your project, and don’t want multiple units all alike each time, you’ll want to choose a different method.
• You have to tear the paper off the back of each one.

For the Quilt-Along:
For the Triangle Salad quilt, the units we need this time should measure 2 1/2″ (unfinished), to finish at 2″ in the quilt, which means you need to use the 2.0 Thangles papers (see the first picture in this post for what the package looks like).

You will need to make 58 units using a print fabric with a background fabric. So this means you need to do the above process ten times, using a different print with your background fabric each time. You will have 2 extra units, but go ahead and put those in your baggie for now.

You will need to make 22 units using two print fabrics together. So this means you need to do it 4 times using 2 different print fabrics each time. Again, you will have 2 extra units, but keep them for now.

Store these 84 finished half-square triangle units in one of your ziplock baggies, and stick in with them the label that says 2″ Finished. You’ll only need 80 of them, but we’ll worry about that later.

Have fun! Check back next Monday for Tutorial #5. It’s the final tutorial before we start putting our blocks together — woohoo!