Jacobs Ladder HST time saver!!
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kansas City area USA
Posts: 421
Jacobs Ladder HST time saver!!
I have made a dozen Jacob Ladder quilts over the years and always use this method to make 4 1/2 inch HST...sew 2 4 7/8 peices of fabric together, pencil down the center, sew 1/4 inch from pencil mark and cut on pencil mark...WELL, last night, I had some time and went scrolling through the Tuterial section of this board and found ''quick way to create half square triangles'' ( the name to look for under Tutitorial ) and let me tell you....this method WORKS!!!! I used one 7 inch square of dark scrap fabric and one 7 inch square of light fabric...well starched first....layed them RST, sewed 1/4 inch around the edges and then sub cut from corner to corner and Viola, I had my 4 HST for one Jacobs Ladder Block!!! These 4 PERFECT HST, can also be put togetther in a scrappy type quilt as the 4 blocks put together, will give me a 8 1/2 finshed block. There is a ''formula'' on the 3rd page of the tutitorial, on how big to cut your dark and light squares, but I find it is always better to ''practice'' on scraps before I cut into my good fabric. Off now, to start another Jacobs Ladder for Christmas....in July!!!!!
#5
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kansas City area USA
Posts: 421
I totally agree.....I have always used Magic Spray sizing before I ever cut a piece of fabric to begin a quilt. Spray and iron back and forth, sideways, up and down....any way I feel like doing to that full size piece of fabric....then and only then....will I begin to cut my strips or squares of fabric. I get very little to NO shrinkage in a final quilt with out all the hassle of prewashing, drying and then ironing my fabric....color catchers stop any bleeding. For a small quilt, I use about a can of Magic sizing and I just finished a King size quilt that took almost 2 full cans. I also use sizing every time I set a seam but then I do NOT iron back and forth but just press the seam. Less than a dollar at Walmart!! If you can find the green can of sizing, it is the heavy duty sizing and IMO, better for this type of bias edge work, you are lucky!! Walmart only carries the blue can here, reg. strength and my grocery store carries the green can for double the price...still a lot cheaper that anything my LQS carries and it does NOT gum up your iron like startch does....spray and iron....no waiting!!
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Clay Springs AZ
Posts: 3,229
For 4 1/2 inch use two squares cut at 10 inchs. draw an x and sew 1/4 in down each side of lines. Cut in half both ways then on lines. You will have 8 HSTs with no bias edges. Square up with Quilt in A Days triangle square up ruler, done with one cut, amazing.
#8
I have made a dozen Jacob Ladder quilts over the years and always use this method to make 4 1/2 inch HST...sew 2 4 7/8 peices of fabric together, pencil down the center, sew 1/4 inch from pencil mark and cut on pencil mark...WELL, last night, I had some time and went scrolling through the Tuterial section of this board and found ''quick way to create half square triangles'' ( the name to look for under Tutitorial ) and let me tell you....this method WORKS!!!! I used one 7 inch square of dark scrap fabric and one 7 inch square of light fabric...well starched first....layed them RST, sewed 1/4 inch around the edges and then sub cut from corner to corner and Viola, I had my 4 HST for one Jacobs Ladder Block!!! These 4 PERFECT HST, can also be put togetther in a scrappy type quilt as the 4 blocks put together, will give me a 8 1/2 finshed block. There is a ''formula'' on the 3rd page of the tutitorial, on how big to cut your dark and light squares, but I find it is always better to ''practice'' on scraps before I cut into my good fabric. Off now, to start another Jacobs Ladder for Christmas....in July!!!!!
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