4 creative quilt blocks using HSTs

Last month on QUILTsocial, we used the Brother Dreamweaver XE to machine quilt our nine-patch and snowball block baby quilt using a few of the machine’s decorative stitches. This month, as promised, I’m showing you a few ways to use up the half square triangle (HST) units that were made from the leftovers of the snowball blocks.

In one of my August posts, I showed you how to get HSTs from snowball blocks using the guideline marker (laser pointer) on the Brother Dreamweaver XE.

Here are a few different blocks that can be made from them.

When you make the HST units the way I showed you in August, they all end up with “dog ears” on two of the corners. Usually I don’t worry too much about these, but lots of people insist on trimming them off before sewing with them. If you have a guide on the side of your ¼” foot, you’ll definitely want to trim them off because the guide will get caught on them.

Just use your rotary cutter and ruler to trim them off, and while you’re at it, trim up your units so that they’re all the same size.

Block 1

Here’s the first block I arranged using my HST units. I like how it kind of looks like the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) symbol! All of the gray parts of the HST point towards the middle of the block, creating a circular appearance.

Block 2

Here’s the second block I arranged. The placement of the gray halves of the HST units results in a fun zigzag pattern.

Block 3

This third block is made up of nine 4 patch units of HST. As a result, it could be made as big or as little as you wish, just by adding more rows of 4 patches to the top and side.

Here’s the same block with all of the HST rotated 180 degrees. Now, the gray appears to be in the background and the patterned fabrics become the squares.

Block 4

This block just might be my favorite! I love flying geese, and by matching up the HSTs with one made from the same fabric, you get sections that look like flying geese.

As you can see, there are lots of ways that half-square triangle units can be arranged into blocks! In fact, if you google “HST quilts” you’ll see an unbelievable number of patterns that have been designed using this versatile unit.

Since it’s October, and lots of people are already thinking about Christmas gift giving, tomorrow I’ll start using HSTs to make a few quick and easy gifts using the Dreamweaver XE from Brother. Join me!