Half Rectangle Triangles

In my latest pattern, the Solar Parade Quilt, I made half rectangle triangles (HRTs) for the first time. I was a little intimidated at first, but by the end of making my first test quilt I felt like the HRT queen. If you are also intimidated by HRTs, or just want to learn how to make them, you are in the right place. In this blog post I will walk you through the process of making HRTs step by step. So lets get down to the nitty gritty and make some HRTs using the two at a time method.

For my Solar Parade Quilt pattern, you need HRTs facing opposite directions. If you are familiar with half square triangles you might be thinking, “opposite directions? You mean I cant just rotate them around and have them face opposite directions?” Nope, you can’t. You have to make them differently to face opposite directions. This brings us to step 1. Mark your fabric.

For the Solar Parade Quilt you mark half your background fabric from top left to bottom right, and the other half top right to bottom left. This will make HRTs in opposite directions. Once you have your background fabric marked, place the marked fabric right sides together to non background fabric making sure to have the marked line cross diagonally from corner to corner on the non background fabric (as shown in the image below.)

Pin your pieces in place and sew 1/4” on either side of the marked line. Then cut along the marked line and press your HRTs open.

Now here is the tricky part. Trimming your HRTs. In order to get perfect points once sewn, you need to have 1/8th inch of space from the edge to the seam diagonally across the HRT. So move your ruler down to get that 1/8th inch space and trim the top and side of your HRT.

Next, flip your HRT 180 degrees and align it to be the finished size you are trimming to. In this example our finished size is 3”x5.5”. You will once again have the 1/8th inch from the edge to the seam. Trim, and you are done! You did it!

Here is a chart on what size to cut your fabric, what size to trim your HRT, and the finished HRT once sewn into your project. Now go out and make a ton of HRTs. Go crazy! You are now an HRT champion.

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