Quilting for Beginners Part 3: Mastering Triangles

1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to P three in my Quilting for beginners series. In this class, we're going to be exploring triangles. We'll make a variety of different triangle blocks. And I'll introduce you to some techniques that will help ensure your triangles are on point every time. Triangles have such wonderful versatility and are used in so many different quilting blocks and designs. Mastering triangles will really help you level up your quilting game. Hi. I'm Julie Rey. I'm a textile artist and quilt educator based in Portland, Oregon in the United States. Bought my first sewing machine in 2013, and I've been obsessed with sewing fabric together ever since. I love exploring line, shape, color, and technique in new ways to create modern quilt designs that are truly unique. Maybe you're new to sewing triangles and find them a little bit intimidating. Or maybe you've tried some triangle blocks, but they never seem to line up quite right. Or perhaps you're working towards designing your own quilt or writing a quilt pattern and are researching some different methods for creating triangle blocks more efficiently. Whatever brings you here, I'll share with you some of my tips for getting perfect triangles every time. So before beginning this class, you should have a little bit of experience with quilting. Perhaps you've created a quilt top or even completed an entire quilt. You're brand new to quilting, I recommend beginning with part one of this series, where I really help lay the foundation of a quilt practice and walk you through piecing together a quilt top. You'll find a link to the previous classes in this course in the resources section. In the resources section, you'll also find three really useful documents. One is a mastering triangles workbook that contains cutting charts and written instructions for each of the triangle blocks that will be constructing in this course. There are also two free quilt patterns available for you to download and will offer you an opportunity to practice making the blocks that I'll be teaching about in this class. If you're ready to begin, grab some fabric in your sewing machine and join me in the next lesson. Or I'll talk about our class project. 2. Class Project: For this class, you'll be working to construct a quilt top that incorporates some of the different triangle blocks that we'll be constructing together in this course. You're welcome to use one or both of the quilt patterns that I've provided as a free download with this course, or use another quilt pattern of your choosing. If you're working in designing your own quilt, please share that design with us as well. Post a photograph of your completed quilt or quilt block in the project section of this course. In the next lesson, we'll go over some of the materials that you'll want to gather before getting started. I'll see you there. 3. Materials and Supplies: In this lesson, I'll go over the different materials and supplies you'll want to gather before getting started. If you've created a quilt before, you'll likely have most of these on hand. First, you'll want to have a working sewing machine. You don't need anything fancy. As long as your sewing machine makes a basic straight stitch, that's all you need. You'll need some fabric to work with. I recommend quilting cotton, as this will be the easiest to work with. If you're just practicing the blocks, you can use two different colors of scrap fabric. Fat quarters will work well. If you're following along with the patterns provided in this course or with another quilt pattern of your choosing, refer to the fabric requirements table to ensure you have what you need. For cutting supplies, you'll want a self healing cutting mat, a rotary cutter, and two sizes of acrylic rulers. I recommend a long acrylic ruler, one that's about 6 " by 24 " for cutting with the fabric strips, and also a square acrylic ruler. The size of the square acrylic ruler will depend on the size of the blocks you'd like to make. I have a 10.5 inch by 10.5 inch square ruler and a six inch by six inch square ruler. If you're only purchasing one, choose the larger size as you'll get more use out of it. Whatever acrylic ruler you purchase, just make sure it has a 45 degree marking on it as this will become very useful when trimming and squaring up our triangle blocks. For piecing your quilt blocks together, you'll need a quarter inch presser foot, some 50 weight cotton thread, straight pins, and some marking tool. You could use a water soluble pen or chalk that's designed for marking on fabric. Or you could use something like a hero marker or a non serrated butter knife to create a crease mark. For pressing supplies, you'll need an iron, preferably one that makes steam and some surface for pressing, such as an ironing board or a wool pressing mat. Lastly, go ahead and download the mastering triangles workbook that I've provided, as well as any of the patterns that you'd like to use. Go ahead and take a moment to gather all the materials that you need. I'll meet you in the next lesson, where I'll give you a brief overview of all of the different triangle blocks that we'll be constructing together in this class. 4. Overview of Triangle Blocks: In the last lesson, we covered all of the materials that you'll need to construct the different triangle blocks in this course. In this lesson, I'll be providing an overview of some of the different triangle blocks that we'll be constructing. The half square triangle block, which is often abbreviated as HST, is a square block consisting of two right triangles, each of a different fabric, divided by a diagonal line. This is an extremely versatile block because it can be rotated and arranged in so many ways to create a multitude of designs. The flying geese block is another very popular block. This block is a rectangle, that is always twice as long as it is tall. You might notice that if you sew two half square triangles together, it creates the same look as a flying geese with a seam down the center. The flying geese block is a much more efficient method for creating this design because it eliminates the seam. Well, the square in the square block doesn't sound like it would have anything to do with triangles. It's actually a square block, rotated 90 degrees with a triangle in each corner. This is commonly used as a center sub block for many designs. Half rectangle triangles or HR Ts are not as commonly used as the other blocks, and they can be a bit trickier to construct in piece. They're a bit like half square triangles, but rather than the finished block being a square, it's a rectangle. A diagonal line from corner to corner creates the two triangles. A half rectangle triangle can be any proportion, but often they're twice as high as they are wide. There are many traditional blocks that are constructed using triangles. For example, the saw tooth star block is constructed from a square surrounded by four flying geese blocks. The pin wheel is made of four half square triangle sub blocks. Triangles are such fun blocks to work with. My emergence quilt pattern is created entirely from squares and half square triangles. My Don to Dusk wall quilt pattern was designed using half square triangles and flying geese blocks. This lotus quilt features a square in the square block in the center, flying geese and half square triangles. The thistles and thorns quilt pattern that I designed features a variation on the bare paw using half rectangle triangles. The possibilities are virtually endless. Let's talk for a minute about what it means when a block is finished versus unfinished. These are two words. You'll hear me use a lot throughout these lessons, and it's an important concept to understand in quilting. The finished measurements of a block. Refer to what size the block is once it's sewn into the quilt. The unfinished size is the size of the block before it's sewed into the quilt, and it includes the seam allowance. Because there's a seam allowance of a quarter inch on every side of a block, the unfinished measurement will almost always be a half inch larger than the finished measurement. So for example, if you're constructing a half square triangle that's intended to be 3 " by 3 " in the quilt design, when you actually create the block, you'll be creating a block with an unfinished size of 3.5 " by 3.5 ". If that sounds confusing to you, don't think too hard about it. It'll start to make sense as we go. I promise. Now that you have an overview of the four different triangle blocks that we'll be working with, let's get started. In the next lesson, I'll show you a couple of different methods for creating one of the most popular blocks in quilting, the half square triangle. 5. Half Square Triangles: In this lesson, I'll be sharing a couple of different methods for constructing half square triangles. Half square triangles are so wonderfully versatile. It's no wonder that it's one of the most common blocks used in quilting. Let's begin with the two at a time method. This method, you'll begin with two squares of fabric, one of each color, that are cut to be the same size. To determine what size pieces you'll need to cut. Refer to the half square triangle two at a time cutting chart, which is on page two of the mastering triangles workbook. If you're following along with me and making the manifest quilt, which is available as a free pattern download in the resources section of this course, we'll begin with two squares of fabric that are each 4 " by 4 ". If you're following along with another pattern, refer to the instructions for that pattern to determine what size squares you'll begin with. Place your two squares of fabric together, right sides facing so that all four raw edges meet. Then using an acrylic ruler and a marking tool. Mark a diagonal line from one corner to the other. Next, take your fabric to the sewing machine and sew a quarter inch line of stitching on each side of the diagonal line. A. Once you've sewn your two lines of stitching, use an acrylic ruler and your rotary cutter to cut the fabric between your two lines of stitching. That's why it helps to have a sharp rotary cut. Then take these to your ironing board or pressing mat and you'll press your seams open. And there you have two half square triangles. We still have to trim or square these up. But let's move on to the eight a time method, and then we'll worry about trimming all of our half square triangles at once. The second method allows us to create eight half square triangles at a time. This allows for a lot of efficiency, especially if your pattern requires a lot of a half square triangles. For this method, we'll also begin with two squares of fabric. To determine the size squares you'll need to begin with, you can refer to the half square triangle eight a time cutting chart on page three of the mastering triangles workbook. If you're following along with the manifest quilt pattern, you'll begin with half square triangle blocks that are 8 " by 8 ". Just like we did for the half square triangles two at a time. We'll begin by placing the two squares on top of each other so that all of the raw edges meet. Using a ruler, mark two diagonal lines from corner to corner, forming an x. Then bring your fabric to the sewing machine and sew a quarter inch line of stitching on each side of both diagonal lines. Bring your fabric back to your cutting mat. To finish our eight half square triangles, we're going to be making four cuts, one along each diagonal, one vertically, and one horizontally. It's important to use your to make sure that your cuts are straight. I generally start with the diagonals. Being careful not to move or shift fabric as I cut. For the vertical and horizontal cuts, you'll want to line up the marking on your ruler that shows half the width or the height of the square. Since this is an eight inch square, I have the four inch marking lined up with the side of my square, and my cut mark will intersect the exact point where the two diagonal cuts meet. Then I'll do the same thing horizontally. Making sure my ruler is perfectly square, lined up with the four inch, marking on my ruler and making sure that the line I cut intersects right in the center. You should end up with eight pieces. Take each of these to your ironing border pressing mat and press the seam open. Trimming your half square triangles to the proper size is super important in order to maintain accuracy and your piecing. When you trim, you'll need to refer to the unfinished block size. This is the size that includes the seam allowance. My pattern indicates that the unfinished size of these blocks is 3.5 " by 3.5 ". Line up the 45 degree mark on your square acrylic ruler with the diagonal line in the middle of your half square triangle. Holding the ruler down firmly. Trim the top and the side so that the block measures slightly larger than the desired unfinished size. M Then turn your block 180 degrees. Again, line up the 45 degree mark of your acrylic ruler with the diagonal seam line. This time, make sure the side and the bottom edges line up with the desired unfinished measurement for your block. In my case, 3.5 " by 3.5 ", and then trim the excess from the top and the side. And there you have a perfectly trimmed and squared up half square triangle. Take some time to finish trimming all of your half square triangles. If you followed along with me and practice both of these methods, you should have ten half square triangle blocks. Once they're done, you can meet me in the next lesson, where we'll learn about how to make flying geese blocks. 6. Flying Geese: In the last lesson, we constructed half square triangle blocks, using a couple of different methods. This lesson, I'll show you two different methods for constructing flying geese blocks. In the first method, we'll construct a single flying geese block. In the second method, we'll construct four at a time. We'll begin with the single block method for creating flying geese. For this method, you'll begin with a fabric cut to a rectangle and two squares. You'll find the cutting chart for the flying geese block on page four of your mastering triangles workbook. If you're following along with me and making the manifest quilt, you'll need a rectangle piece that's cut to 3.5 " by 6.5 " and 23.5 inch squares. Begin by placing one of the squares on top of the rectangle so that the short edge of the rectangle lines up with one raw edge of the square and the top and bottom edge is a line as well. Then using one of your rulers and your marking pen, you're going to draw a diagonal line from one corner of the square to the other. Then you're going to sew a line of stitching right along that line that you just marked. All right. So there's my line of stitching. I'm going to use my acrylic ruler to trim off this excess. And I want to make sure that I leave a quarter inch seam allowance from the line of stitching. So I'm going to line up my stitching with the quarter inch mark on my acrylic ruler. And then using my rotary cutter, I'll make my cut. Next, I'll bring this to my pressing mat, and I'll press that seam open. Next, I'll repeat that same process using the second square of fabric. I'll place this fabric square on the other side of the rectangle, making sure everything is properly lined up. I'll use my acrylic ruler, mark to mark a diagonal from corner to corner. Then I'll take this to my sewing machine and sew a line of stitching right on that line that I marked. Then using my acrylic ruler, I'll place the quarter inch mark along my line of stitching, and I'll trim off the excess, leaving a quarter inch seam allowance. Now, as a note, this method does produce a little bit of waste. One thing that I've done with these leftover pieces is to sew a line of stitching a quarter inch from the end, pressing them open, and you have two half square triangles to use for another project. Once you're done trimming off the excess, take this to the pressing map. And press it open. And here is the finished flying geese block. Just as a side note, if you are making the manifest wall quilt, you'll be making two single flying geese blocks, one with fabrics A and B, and another with fabrics B and C. For the flying geese four to time method, you'll begin with five squares of fabric, one large square of fabric, and four smaller squares that will end up being the background. Determine the sizes to cut these squares, you can refer to the cutting chart on page five of the mastering triangles workbook or refer to the pattern that you're using. For the manifest quilt pattern, I need a 7.5 inch square of fabric A and four, four and a quarter inch squares of fabric B. Place the large square in your working area, and place two smaller squares at opposite corners of the large square. Making sure that the raw edges match. The smaller squares will overlap slightly in the middle. You'll mark a diagonal line from one corner to the other. Making sure that line intersects both the small and the large squares. Once you've marked your line, go ahead and pin your pieces of fabric together. I find one pin on either side of the line just helps keep the fabric from shifting. Then you can take this to the sewing machine and sew a line of stitching, a quarter inch from either side of the marked line. Bring your piece back to the cutting mat and remove your pins. Then take your acrylic ruler and cut your two pieces apart directly between the two lines of stitching. Then bring each of these pieces to your pressing mat and press the seams open. You can set one of your pieces aside for now. Take one of your squares and line it up with the remaining corner of the large square. Making sure the raw edges match. Then with your acrylic ruler, you'll mark a line from one corner to another along the line of symmetry, essentially dividing this piece in half. You can pin the fabric in place to prevent it from shifting. Then just as before, take this to the sewing machine and sew a line of stitching a quarter inch from either side of the marked line. Remove the pins and cut these two pieces apart right in between the two lines of stitching. Take this to the ironing board and press the seam open. Repeat this with the other side, and you'll end up with four flying gese blocks. Trimming or squaring up flying geese blocks can be a little tricky, but attention and accuracy at this step will ensure that they look perfect when sewing into your quilt. I've created a full written tutorial for trimming flying gese blocks that's available in the mastering triangles workbook on page six. When trimming flying geese blocks. I always begin by trimming the top. We want to be sure to leave a quarter inch seam allowance at the tip of the triangle. Otherwise, when you sew it into the block, that tip will be cut off. Now there are a couple of points on your ruler to pay attention to to make sure your flying gese block is squared up properly. First, line up your 45 degree mark on your ruler with one side of your triangle. Then shift your ruler so that the point of the triangle meets at the quarter inch mark of your ruler. Once you have those two markings situated, hold down your ruler firmly and trim the excess from the top. We're going to be using this cut to square up the rest of the block. Next, we'll trim the bottom. I'll flip my block over. I want the unfinished size of this block to be 6.5 " long and 3.5 " tall. I'm going to line up the top edge with the 3.5 inch mark on my ruler, and then I'll trim the excess from the bottom. Now we just have to worry about the sides. When I trim the sides, I want to make sure that this point is exactly in the center of the block. Since the unfinished size of this block is 6.5 ", half of that is three and a quarter. I'm going to line up the point of this triangle with a three and a quarter inch mark on my. Then I'll make sure that the top and bottom raw edges are aligned with the top of the ruler and the 3.5 inch mark at the bottom, and then I'll trim the excess from the side. I'll do the same thing with the other side. Lining up the point of the triangle with a three and a quarter inch mark on my ruler. And then lining up the top and the bottom of the block with the corresponding marks on the ruler as well. Make sure everything is perfectly square. Hold down my ruler firmly and I'll trim the excess. There you have a perfectly trimmed flying geese block with a quarter inch seam allowance at the top and a point that's perfectly centered between the two sides. Once you have all of your flying geese blocks constructed and trimmed, you can meet me in the next lesson, where we'll create the square and a square block. 7. Square in a Square: In this lesson, we'll work to construct a quilt block called square in a square. You most often see this block as the center of a quilt block or perhaps even the center of a medallion quilt. So we're going to create a square in a square block using what's called the stitch and flip method. So for this method, you'll need one larger square of the fabric that will be the center fabric, and then four smaller squares. And this fabric will become the triangles that are set in each corner. To determine the specific measurements for this fabric, you can refer to page seven in your mastering triangles workbook, where you'll find the cutting chart for the square in a square block. If you're following along with the free downloadable star quilt block pattern, You'll need a 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch piece of fabric A, and 43.5 inch square cuts of fabric B. We're going to begin by marking a diagonal line from one corner to another on all four pieces of our small squares. Using my acrylic ruler and marking pen. I just going to mark a diagonal line on all four of these pieces. You can set two of these aside, and we're going to place one small square in opposite corners of the larger square of fabric. So that the diagonal line runs from the midpoint of one side of the large square to the midpoint of the second side of the large square. That is, you don't want the diagonal line that you marked on the s square to match up with the corner of the large square. Once you have those, you can go ahead and pin them in place. And then we'll bring these over to the sewing machine and sew a line of stitching right on that marked diagonal line. Bring your piece back to your workspace, and we're going to trim the excess from the corners. Line up the quarter inch mark on your acrylic ruler with the seam line that you just stitched. And then with your rotary cutter, trim off the excess. Repeat this with the other side. Press these two seems open. We'll then repeat that process with the other two corners. Placing one small square in each of the remaining corners. Again, making sure that marked diagonal line doesn't come from this corner, but rather connects one side of the square to the other side of the square. Pinning those squares in place. Then you can bring this to the sewing machine, sewing a line of stitching along each marked line. You can remove your pins, trim off the excess fabric, leaving a quarter inch seam allowance from the line of stitching. Press these two seams open. And that's it. You've created a square in a square block. In the next lesson, we'll work to create half rectangle triangles. 8. Half Rectangle Triangles: By now, we have quite a collection of triangle blocks. The final block that we'll be constructing together in this class is called the half rectangle triangle. This is probably the least common block that you'll find in quilt patterns, and it has a reputation for being a little bit trickier than the other blocks. A half rectangle triangle block is constructed from two right triangles that are sewn together along the diagonal to create a rectangle. The thing that's the most important to pay attention to when creating a half rectangle triangle block is the orientation. Because it's not a square, it can't be rotated in any direction. You have to be extra mindful with how you sew them together to make sure that your half rectangle triangle is oriented properly. You'll see what I mean as we get started. To make a half rectangle triangle block, you'll begin with two rectangles. To determine what size you'll need to cut your rectangles, you can refer to the half rectangle triangle cutting chart on page eight of the mastering triangles work If you're following along with me and creating the star block pattern, you'll need to cut four rectangles of fabric A and four rectangles of the background fabric. That measure 4 " by 8 ". To begin, we'll stack one rectangle on top of the other, making sure all of the raw edge is align. Then with a long acrylic ruler, we're going to cut a diagonal line from one corner to the other. Now, I'm using solid fabric that doesn't have a right or a wrong side. I don't really need to pay attention right now as to which way I cut the diagonal line. If however, you are using a pattern fabric that has an obvious right side and wrong side, you'll want to pay attention to which way you cut the diagonal. You'll see what I mean in a minute. When I'm done, I'll have four triangles. Now to piece these together, I need to make sure that I know which way I want the diagonal to go. Because once these are sewn together, they can't be placed in any direction. If I look at the diagram in the directions of the pattern, I know that these are going to be the points of the star. Therefore, they're going to be reflections of each other. I want one half rectangle triangle with the diagonal running from the top left to the bottom, right, and I want another half rectangle triangle with the diagonal line running in the opposite direction so that they're reflections of each other. With these, it's important to make sure they're oriented properly before you sew. Because if they're sewn the wrong way, because these are reflections of each other, you can't simply rotate them to get the orientation that you want. Let's start with this one. Now that I have this oriented properly. I'm going to flip these two pieces right side together along this long diagonal line. Just like that. When I do this, you'll notice that they'll be about a quarter inch of the skinny corner sticking out here and also on this side. That's okay. Our line of stitching is actually going to start right at this point where the two fabrics meet. You can go ahead and pin this in place. As long as I'm here, I'm going to do the same to this one, flipping these two pieces right sides together along this long diagonal line. I have a little skinny parts sticking out here and down here, that's fine. It'll all work out in the end and stick a pin to keep those in place. Now I'm going to sew a line of stitching along this long end, a quarter inch from the raw edge. And I've brought these half rectangle triangle blocks right over to my pressing mat. I'm gonna remove the pins and press these seams open. Next, I'll trim these. I know I want each of these half rectangle triangle blocks to be 3.5 " by 6.5 ". Now, we can't use our 45 degree marker on our ruler like we did for the half square triangles, since this angle is not for five degrees. If you're creating a half rectangle triangle that is twice as tall as it is wide, then these two angles should be degrees. And 60 degrees. My acrylic ruler does have a 30 degree and a 60 degree mark. I could use that to help me square up my half rectangle triangle. If your ruler doesn't have these marks, don't worry about it too much. Just do the best you can to square up your half rectangle triangle to the desired size. But since I do have these marks, I know that I can line this up with the 60 degree mark on my ruler and trim it like I would a half square triangle. And that's it. If you haven't already, take some time to practice constructing some of the different triangle blocks we've covered in this class, and make sure you have enough of each for whatever pattern you're following. In the next lesson, we'll begin to sew some of our triangle blocks together, and I'll share with you some of my tips and techniques for matching points and seams. 9. Matching Seams: Now that you have all of your triangle blocks ready to go, we can begin sewing them together. There are three primary factors that will impact the accuracy of your piecing, trimming or squaring up your triangle blocks, seam allowance, and matching seams. We've already discussed some best practices for trimming or squaring up your quilt blocks. You should be good to go there. When it comes to seam allowance, it's really helpful to have a quarter inch foot to make sure you have a perfect quarter inch seam. If there's any variation in your seam allowance, that will begin to impact how your blocks line up. In some patterns, you might come across something called a scant quarter inch seam allowance. This is a seam allowance that's just of a quarter inches. Essentially taking the width of the thread into account. If your pattern does call for a scant quarter inch seam allowance, think about a quarter inch seam allowance minus the width of a piece of thread. It can take a little bit of time to get used to a scant quarter inch seam allowance, but if your pattern calls for it, it's worth practicing because it can really make a difference in the accuracy of your piecing. In this lesson, we're primarily going to focus on that third factor that impacts the accuracy of your piecing, matching seams. Learning techniques that ensure the seams of different blocks line up will help you achieve a flawless looking quilt. There are two techniques that I generally use to match points or seams. Pinning or nesting. I'll be covering both of those in this lesson. The pinning technique is really useful for matching up the points of say two flying geese blocks, or if you really want to press your seams open to reduce bulk. So I'm going to begin by using the pinning technique to help ensure all of my points and seams line up for the star quilt block pattern. First, I've sewn together the four pairs of half rectangle triangles that will form the points of the star. For each of these four blocks, I've gone ahead and pressed the seams open. I've also gone ahead and pieced together the top and the bottom rows of this quilt block. Now we're going to use the pinning technique to piece together the center row, which consists of two of the half rectangle triangle blocks and the square in the square block. First, lay out these three pieces in the way that you want them presented in the quilt top. We're going to be using the pinning technique to match the points. Take one of your half rectangle triangle blocks and flip it over on top of the square and the square block, right sides together. You'll then take a pin. And place it directly at the point of one of the blocks. This point should be a quarter inch from the raw edge. Make sure that when the pin comes out the other side, it exits at exactly the same point on the other triangle. You can open up your block to check and be sure that the two points of the triangles meet exactly and adjust if necessary. Once you're sure that the points of the triangle are lined up on both sides and secured with the pin, and you've checked to be sure that those points are matching. You can go ahead and bring it to the sewing machine. The seam line should intersect exactly where that pin inserts into the fabric. Repeat with the other side and press your seams open. We'll use the same technique to sew the three rows of the quilt block together. Lay out your three rows in the same way you want them to be arranged when your quilt block is sewn together. We'll place pins at each of the seams and at the points where the two triangles meet. Place two of the rows together, right sides facing. Then beginning with the center points, place the pin directly at the very tip of the two points that you'd like to match. If you've trimmed your blocks properly, this point should be exactly a quarter inch from the edge. Open up your fabric to be sure that those two points are matching exactly where you want them to, and adjust the pin is necessary. Now, when matching the seams, you want to make sure that the pin enters and exits exactly where the seam line is on both the front and the back. You'll also want to make sure that you insert the pin a quarter inch from the edge. This is where your line of stitching is going to go through. You don't really have to worry about matching the seam anywhere else, but you want to make sure that that seam is exactly a quarter inch from the edge. Be sure that that's where the pin enters through the front and exits through the back, right on that seam line. Once I have the pin through that seam line, I like to open up my fabric to check that those two seams are indeed matching. N, and that looks good. Once I have everything pinned and secured, I'll take it over to my sewing machine and sew using a quarter inch seam allowance. Being really mindful to make sure that my line of stitching crosses exactly where each pin inserts into the fabric. Press your seam open, and repeat for the remaining row of your quilt block. Even knowing and using this technique, your seams might not come out perfectly every time. You can always rip out your seam and adjust as needed, or just embrace these slight imperfections as part of the beautiful handmade look. The second technique that I like to use is called nesting seams. While, in general, I like to press all of my seams open because I think it helps give the quilt top a nice flat look. I make an exception when I want to nest my seams together. Rather than pressing the seams open, I'll press them to one side. And when I do this in an alternating fashion, when I place the rows of the quilt top right sides together, the seams will settle or nest right into each other. Let's try it. I'm going to be using the nesting seams technique to piece together the manifest wall quilt. First, I need to sew together all of the rows. Here, I've laid out some of my rows in the same way that I want them arranged in the quilt. To create the rows, I'll place these blocks right sides together, and so using a quarter inch seam allowance. Don't press your seams yet. We're going to press them strategically so that they nest together. Now that I have all of my rows sewn together. I'm going to press the seams in an alternating fashion. For row one, I'll press the seams to the right. For row two, I'll press the seams to the left. Row three, I'll press the seams to the right, and so on, alternating right and left for every other row. I'll then take row one and row two and place them right sides together. You'll notice right away that because we didn't press the seams open, they're not flat. And when we place them together, they settle right into each other. This is what we call nesting. What I'll do is I'll nest each seam, making sure the seam lines of each piece are flushed against each other. Then I'll place a pin to hold them in place. I'll do this for each seam along the row. Once I have the row pinned and secured, I'll bring it to the sewing machine and sew using a quarter inch seam allowance. Now that my rows are sewn together, I'll bring it to the pressing mat and press the seam open. Repeat this for each of the rows. Because we alternated the direction that we pressed the seams, each row should nestle nicely into the next. Helping make sure those seams match up beautifully. O. Take some time to piece your triangle blocks together using these two different techniques. You might find that you prefer one over the other. And the next lesson, I'm offering a bonus tutorial, where I'll show you how to create a pillow cover out of one of your quilt blocks. 10. Pillow Cover BONUS: In this lesson, I'll show you how to take your quilt block and turn it into an envelope style pillow cover. For this demonstration, I'll be using the Str quilt block pattern that's provided as a free download with this class. This method, however, will work with any 18 inch by 18 inch quilt block. To turn your block into a pillow cover. These are some of the materials that you'll need. You'll need some batting that's cut to approximately 24 " by 24 ". You'll need some fabric for the back of your block, cut to the same size as the batting 24 " by 24 ". This fabric is going to be hidden inside the pillow, so you can use any scrap fabric that you like. Also need two rectangles of fabric for the back of your pillow, cut to 18.5 " by 14 ". I'll generally use the same fabric that I used as the background fabric in the block. Base and quilt the block using your preferred method. If you need a refresher on how to do any of these steps, feel free to refer to the basting and quilting lessons in part two of this series. When you've finished quilting, square per block, trimming it to 18.5 " by 18.5 ". Next, we will he one long edge of each of the 18.5 by 14 inch rectangles. Place one of these rectangles on your ironing border pressing mat and fold over one of the long edges a half an inch to the wrong side. Press along this fold. Then fold it over another half inch to conceal the raw edge creating a hem. Press along this fold, and pin the hem in place. Then take your piece to the sewing machine and sew along the edge of the first fold, securing the hem in place. Repeat this with the other 18.5 inch by 14 inch rectangle. Place your quilted pillow top on your workspace, right side, facing up. Then take one of the hemmed backing pieces, and place it on top, right side facing down. Aligning the long raw edge of the heed backing piece with the top raw edge of the quilt top. Align the sides as well. Pin or clip this piece in place. Then do the same with the second hemmed backing piece, placing it right side facing down, and aligning the long raw edge with the bottom edge of your pillow top. The two backing pieces should overlap by a few inches. Pinner clip along the entire edge to secure the backing pieces in place. Bring your piece to the sewing machine and sew all around the pillow top using a quarter inch seam allowance. I recommend backstitching or creating a few back and forth stitches at the points where the hemmed pieces overlap for added security. When your entire piece is sown, clip the corners, being careful not to clip into the stitching. Turn your piece right side out. And stuff it with a 20 inch by 20 inch pillow insert. You're done. Join me in the final lesson. We're all share some final thoughts and offer some next steps for you. 11. Final Thoughts: You've done it. At this point, you should be a master at piecing triangles together. Or at the very least, hopefully you've learned a few new tips and techniques to help level up your quilting skills. Whether you've followed along with me and made one of the free patterns that are available with this course or created another design, I'd love for you to share what you've made. Take a photograph of your finished piece and upload it into the project section. This is a great way to share with our community what you've made and perhaps even inspire others who are new to quilting. If you're looking for more practice with triangles, here's a few suggestions. Perhaps use one of the patterns offered in this course to create a series of wall hangings, a table runner, or perhaps even a larger scale quilt. It might also be fun to play around with some improvisational piecing. Let your imagination run. If you loved this class, I would really appreciate it if you left a review. This will help others find this class, and your feedback will help me continue to create quality classes in the future. If you're interested in learning more about advanced quilting techniques, be sure to follow me on skill share. This way, you'll be the first to know when I release a new quilting class. If you're ready for more, check out the resources section where I have a link to part four of this class. In this class, we explore piecing curves. Thank you so much for joining me and for letting me be part of your quilting journey. Bye bye for now.