{Sew} Get Started: HST Mini Quilt tutorial

Can you believe this is the penultimate week of the {Sew} Get Started tutorials! No, me either! Today I am really pleased to welcome my lovely Australian friend Kirsten to FairyFace Designs. I first "met" Kirsten last year through Flickr and we chatted lots on email. Then, to my delight, I was her partner for the Solids swap last year, when she made me a beautiful sewing machine cover and HST mini quilt, both of which live permanently in my kitchen and make me smile every day. Kirsten blogs over at Gemini Stitches and you should definitely pop over and say hi - she makes the loveliest thing! I love the HST warm - cool mini quilt she made me so much that when it came to the tutorials, I asked Kirsten if she would do a tute for making one of these. Half Square triangles are so versatile and definitely an essential skill for quilters to have!

This is part of the {Sew} Get Started: Beginner Sewing Tutorials series. For more information and links to past tutorials please click on the button to link to the master page.

So Kirsten, its over to you!

Hi everyone! I would really like to thank Sarah for inviting me to do this tutorial which uses half-square-triangles (HST's) to make  a mini-quilt which finishes up at about 16 inches square.

You will need: 
18 pieces of patterned fabric cut into 3.5 " squares (I have used a variety of red, green and blue fabrics)
18 pieces of a solid fabric cut into 3.5" squares
a piece of backing fabric approx 18 inches square
piece of wadding at least 17 inches square
fabric for binding


1. Lay a piece of patterned fabric on top of a solid square right sides together.

2. Using your ruler, draw a pencil line along the diagonal from corner to corner. Do this for all 18 pairs of patterned/solid squares.

3. Stitch 1/4" seam on each side of the drawn line.

4.Cut apart on the pencil line which is halfway between your 2 rows of stitching.

5. Press seams - you can press them toward the dark side or open.

6. Trim all of the HST's back to 3 inches square

7. You will get 2 HST's from each pair of patterned/solid fabrics so you should end up with 36 HST's.

8. Place the HST's in a 6x6 arrangement - I am doing a pattern similar to this :

There are many design ideas for HST's though - here are just a few other options using the same amount of HST's (36):

9. Once your HST's are laid out in the desired pattern, pin and sew the rows together using a 1/4 inch seam (refer to Sarahs post for more information).

10. Press seams to one side - alternating directions between rows. (ie. Press row 1 to the left, row 2 the right, row 3 to the left , row 4 to right, row 5 to left and row 6 to right).

11. Pin and sew the first 2 rows together - by pressing then seams to the left and right, you will be able to "nestle" your seams so they lie flatter.

12. Continue joining the next set of rows (3 and 4)  together, and then rows 5 and 6. Then sew the 3 pairs of rows together to complete the quilt. Press the seams to one side and trim the quilt top back to square - it should be almost 16" square.

14.  Making the quilt "sandwich" - place the backing fabric right side down (mine is navy so it is a bit hard to see here), and put the wadding on top.  Lay your quilt top right side up over this and smooth out any wrinkles.

15. Baste your quilt to keep the layers in place - I have used special quilting safety pins but you can also use spray. 

16. Quilt as desired - I have just done echo quilting along the edges of the patterned HST's.

17. Once it is quilted, trim back the edges of the wadding/backing and bind. Binding has already been covered in these tutorials so please refer to them here. 

18. Step back and admire your finished mini quilt! 

I made up a couple of minis in different designs - pinwheels for this one, quilted in straight lines:

And then Chevrons which I have handstitched in perle cotton:

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions please leave a comment and I will get back to you. 

Kirsten.


Thanks so much Kirsten! I juts love those minis...they are all gorgeous! If you make a HST mini quilt, please add to the Flickr group. And don't forget to pop back next Thursday for our last tutorial where I will show you have to do a little bit of freestyle embroidery to wrap up our series.