Sorry for my ignorance, can someone tell me what does HST stand for?

According to the pattern I'm working on, it says to put 2 squares right sides together, then draw a line on the diagonal. Thereafter sew 1/4 seam to either sides of this line. Then cut along the line to form two triangles before piecing them together to form a pinwheel. Is this a good way to sew the pinwheels?

ok just realised HST stands for half-square triangles.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice. Now I finally realise where I had gone wrong....never knew that I had to cut the squares bigger. No wonder all my quilts with pointed triangles always turned out horrible!

Okay I tried the Missouri Quilt lady method you take 2 squares the same size, right sides together, sew around all 4 sides with 1/4 inch seam and the diagonally cut across to form 4 seperate pieces put them together and all of mine came together prety darned close!

HST=half square triangles
QST=quarter square triangles

make sure your seams are pressed to the opposite direction so that they but up against each other. then where the points meet make sure to mark them at the 1/4 to make sure when you sew that you are catching it so that you keep your points. I used to have the same problem and these were the tricks that were told to me and it works.

can anyone explain to my why a piece of clear plastic with measurements on it has to cost so much? I remain blown away by the expense of all these trimming tools in the quilting world.

I don't know. That is why when ever Joann's or Hancock Fabrick has their 50% off sale that is the area that I head; the notions section. Most of the material I can handle but to get good measuring items it's expensive. Now I hear that you should also stick to the same line because the measurements aren't always the same with different brands of rulers. So if you start measuring a project with a certain ruler keep the same line thru out the whole project. I think it's just another way to get our money and drive us crazy.

Hi, The website you recommended for paper triangle graphs came just in time, I just about used mine up making 376 1/2 sq. triangles. Great suggestion. Thanks

Do you know there is a software program that has them on thier CD and then what we do here is go to the Dollar Store and get tracing paper and print them out on it. It really saves money especially when you have large projects going on