WonderCut ruler -- any opinions?

before you buy it, make sure you know that if you want to use strips cut from WOF, your resulting squares will have bias edges, as if you sewed two QSTs together on the long side. The way round this is to cut bias strips, which tends to mean you need more fabric, plus you are sewing bias to bias which you need to be ultra careful about. Strips from WOF would leave too much bias for me to even try it and I really wouldn't want to be cutting bias strips all the time!

Anne

I have no experience with the WonderCut ruler. However... I have lots of experience with HST!!!

I am a DIE HARD supporter of Thangles®. I have done several quilts that were horribly HST intensive. Rick's quilt was m;y first experience with Thangles... and it was my 4th quilt project over all. You can see it in my webshots folder (Kathy's quilts). The block is actually the Carpenter's Wheel block -- but my DS reworked the coloring.

I was AMAZED at how easily the corners came together. I think in the entire quilt -- there ended up just 2 or 3 points/intersections I was not happy with (and I'm pretty picky about my points matching!) Yes you have to trim and remove the paper -- but the ease of sewing (without pinning) makes it worth it to me.

I would avoid at all costs any method that would leave the sides of your HST's as exposed bias.... I can't imagine the nightmare you would end up with.

yup and here is a pix of it in use.

"Anne Rogers" wrote...

I've used thangles and gave my Mom some when we finished our Quilt(s) from Hades. I also used them on Bert's quilt. So easy to use and if I have to make a whole bunch again, the roll will come out again gladly and quickly. No rulers needed and for $8 I will be able to make 1000. Much cheaper than a ruler and if I get through the whole roll before I die, well, I'll spend another $8 or whatever it is by then.

Steven Alaska

before you buy it, make sure you know that if you want to use strips cut from WOF, your resulting squares will have bias edges, as if you sewed two QSTs together on the long side. The way round this is to cut bias strips, which tends to mean you need more fabric, plus you are sewing bias to bias which you need to be ultra careful about. Strips from WOF would leave too much bias for me to even try it and I really wouldn't want to be cutting bias strips all the time!

Anne

Is a HST, the same thing as flying geese? I *always* wanted to try Thangles for that. I love the look of flying geese but man-o-mister, can I ever make a mess out of them. The closest thing to perfection I got is when I used Elenor Burns flying geese ruler. But there are so many steps, it takes a long time, and you're limited to the sizes on the rulers. Your post convinced me. I'm buying some thangles.

Sherry

A half-square triangle (HST) is just a square, cut on the diagnonal, and sewn with another of a different fabric, to recombine into square. We all have different favorite methods. Here's one way to make them:

Flying geese are different. Here's my favorite method:

--Lia

And I discovered I really dislike using Thangles. Got rid of the ones I had after making one of the Thangles "Buck a Block" quilts. Biggest pain I ever had. If I were to try to use them again, I would probably cut my strips a bit wider than necessary and trim after sewing. I had so many problems with them it was almost a total mess. On the other hand, you say "rolls" Steve, I wonder if you mean Triangles on a Roll, which are great. You do get a lot on a roll. I have one quilt that has over 400 triangle squares in it that I did using Triangles on a Roll. Never would have made it without the rolls.

Pati, > I've used thangles and gave my Mom some when we finished our Quilt(s) from

Please clue me in - what are HSTs?

Half-square-triangles.

If you want to do some really fast HST, cut squares of your two fabrics measuring twice the size of your finished pieces PLUS one inch on each side. Put them together, RST, and draw diagonal lines from corner to corner. Sew a scant 1/4" away from the lines on either side of them. Cut the fabric in quarters, cutting horizontally and vertically across the centers. Then cut each of the four resulting squares on the drawn line. Press each of the EIGHT HSTs open and trim if needed. Neat trick, huh?

Maria in NE PA

them:

Thank you very much. :-)

Hi Maria, that's how I do it too. Great timesaver, you can double it up as well. Can't remember where I first learned that but was so happy I did...one of H. Hargrove's books maybe?

Hi Kitty, I heard about it on treadleon.net. It's a great source for all kinds of information about really old machines, as well as lots of sewing and quilting stuff.

Maria in NE PA