Triangle Quilts

They're finally finished!! How long did these take me? Three weeks? I'll tell you how I did it in case any of you want to try your hand at them! They're so adorable. They're my favorite quilts I've made. I've discovered that every quilt needs a dose of white to quiet the pattern a little.

I ordered a yard and a half of six fabrics and 2 yards of the cream fabric for the triangles. I didn't really have a set size in mind for these quilts, I just ordered fabric, cut triangles and made them each as large as I could. They are almost twin size. I played around with a few triangle sizes on a paper bag and decided I liked 9 inch triangles best. At first I forgot my geometry a little and made the mistake of thinking that 9 inch triangles on all sides would also be 9 inches tall..not the case. I think they were about 7 1/4 inches tall or something like that. To cut them out, I cut strips that were 7 1/4 (you'll have to figure out this measurement for your own triangles, I just cut a 9 inch one out and measured how tall it was) and then cut my triangles using the 60 degree line on my cutting mat. I did remember that much geometry! All angles have to add up to 180 degrees. Cut one triangle right-side up, then one triangle upside down until you reach the end of your strip and repeat...a lot.

Then I laid them all out in two "quilts" on the floor and played with them until I liked them. I stacked them into rows and started sewing! First I sewed horizontal rows and then I sewed those to each other. To make the edges straight, you need to add a half triangle to the end of each row.

I don't have pictures of the rest of the process, but once you have the quilts pieced together, you can add a border if you like (I did). I was really proud of my smart decision to purchase two flat sheets from Walmart to use as the back of each quilt. Walmart sells twin flat sheets for $4.50 and you definitely can't buy that much fabric for that price! I used cotton batting in the middle, pinned all three layers together and sewed along some of my seams in hexagon shapes. Then I bound the edges with a cute gray polka dot. 

If you've never bound a quilt before, look up a tutorial online. If you can use an iron and sew a straight line, you can do it. I may post my own tutorial soon in reference to baby burp cloths!

I added personalized tags to the backs of each so the boys will be thoroughly embarrassed when they take their quilts to college. I just used a piece of scrap fabric, ironed the edges back and wrote on it with sharpie, then hand-stitched them to the back piece of each quilt before I sewed everything together. I ironed the writing before washing them to hopefully set the ink.

The boys love them!

Whew! Okay, so I don't know what's wrong with me but I have this need to complete every project I've ever dreamed up before this baby comes in June. I'll be working on re-upholstering some chairs, sewing some baby rompers and headbands, and hopefully some baby bedding too...nesting instinct, don't fail me now!