100 Days – Week of Shapes – Tutorial

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Half Rectangle Triangle Tutorial

This tutorial is for Half Rectangle Triangles or HRT’s. This will add another tool to your quilting toolbox and hopefully you will be able to create some fun modern quilts using the HRT.

This tutorial will result in 4.5 x 6.5″ final block size so that you can easily follow along to learn this technique but, ANY SIZE rectangle will work as long as you use the same size rectangles.

Supplies

2 – 5 x 7” pieces of fabric
Fabric Marking Pen/Pencil
Rotary Cutter & Mat
Ruler

Directions

1. On wrong side of one piece of fabric, draw a diagonal line from the upper right corner to the lower left corner of the fabric.


2. Place the two fabrics right sides together with the marked fabric on top

3. Lift the top piece and rotating slightly match the upper right corner to the upper left corner of the bottom piece of fabric. Match the lower left corner of the top fabric to the lower right corner of the bottom fabric. If desired, pin lightly to hold in place.

4. Using the diagonal drawn line as your guide sew seams ¼” on either side of the drawn line.

5. Using your rotary cutter and ruler cut along the drawn diagonal line.


6. Open each new rectangle and press your seams open. Square up to 4.5 x 6.5″ for a final block size of 4 x 6″ when sewn together.

7. Now you have two HRT’s ready to be used.

Note: Unlike Half Square Triangles, your diagonal line will be in the same orientation on both of your finished Half Rectangle Triangles no matter how you turn it. To make a set of Half Rectangle Triangles with a diagonal line in the opposite direction you will have to reverse the above steps.

Directions for Opposite HRT

1. On the wrong side of one piece of fabric, draw your diagonal line from the upper left corner to the lower right corner.


2. Place the two fabrics right sides together with the marked fabric on top.
3. Lift the top piece and rotating slightly match the upper left corner to the upper right corner of the bottom piece of fabric. Match the lower right corner of the top fabric to the lower left corner of the bottom fabric. If desired, pin lightly to hold in place.


4. Using the diagonal drawn line as your guide, sew seams ¼” on either side of the drawn line.
5. Using your rotary cutter and ruler cut along the drawn diagonal line.

6. Open each new rectangle and press your seams open. Square up to 4.5 x 6.5″ for a final block size of 4 x 6″ when sewn together.

As with Half Square Triangles, Half Rectangle Triangles can be used in countless arrangements to make fun and interesting quilts.

Here is a glimpse of a quick quilt top that was put together to show the versatility of the HRT! We hope you enjoy playing with this block and come up with some fun new quilt designs.

 

35 thoughts on “100 Days – Week of Shapes – Tutorial”

  4. Never thought of this…thank you so much for teaching us this!! Love it and now know what I’m going to do next with some left over pieces.

  5. I LOVE this! It’s so simple, but something I probably never would have thought of. Thanks for sharing!

  6. This is brilliant! Can’t believe I’ve never seen this before (or realized how it was done). And different size/proportioned rectangles will make an infinite number of unique designs! How cool! Thanks MQG!

  7. Love this idea – something to do with being a math teacher as well as a quilter. Great stash buster idea.

  10. Thank you so much for this very cool tutorial. I’m echoing Joan S. I have been quilting a long time and have never seen this before. My test pieces were cut at 7″ by 4″ and I ended up with 6 1/2″ by 3 1/2″. I’m off to make some more!

  14. I’ve been waiting for just the right shapes for my christmas fabric. I have a stack of fat quarters of solids with gold pattern printed on them. It will be excellent against black! Thanks!!

  20. Fantastic block. Thanks for sharing. I love using quick methods and sharing them with my quilt guild. May I use this for the block of the month to be published in our guild newsletter giving you full credit for the block?

  25. I tried this and it worked perfectly! I just happened to need a rectangle 4 x 6. How did you come up with the 5 x 7 initial cutting measurements? What is the formula for any other size rectangle? Do I just add an inch to each measurement? What if the sides are a different ratio such as 3 x 4?
    Thanks,
    B. Miller

  30. What a fantastic pattern ! Really like it. I have just one question: if I wanted to have the bocks a bit bigger, how do I calculate how to square the block up ? Thanks a lot !

  31. I’m sad, because this doesn’t actually work in all cases as the diagonal line varies. For example I just used this for finished size 9″ x 4″ block, so 10″ x 5″ rectangles. It joins with a huge seam allowance on the shorter sides but on the longer ones the point is so close to the edge it gets cut off if adjoining to the other side. I’ve solved this problem by tripling the inner seam allowance but I doubt this will work for all cases, any idea on a maths formula to fix the seam allowance issue? Thank you!

  34. I’m sad too Kerry – you are 100% right – it turns out exactly the way you say and my friend and I spent a sleepless weekend trying to work out how to succeed with it. My friend came up with a maths formula which seems to work. I’ll try to post it later. Has no-one else but us had any problems?? I can’t believe that it has worked out exactly right for everyone who has posted on here??!!

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