The Missouri Quilt Company has some super quilting tutorials on YouTube.com.  You can subscribe to their feed so when they make a new tutorial video, it comes to your email inbox.  I have found that I dream about making quilt projects, just because the Missouri Quilt Company has shined their light on a better and/or smarter way to quilt!

There has been one that has had me stumped for quite some time.  I was not going to stop until I figured out the fabric formula.  I have truly been practicing various sizes for half-square triangles, all with failure until (of course) I finally figured it out! Here is the video:

First, let me say that in quilting, you should always clip your corners.  This video does not do that and it drives me a little batty.  Especially when using white fabric, once the pinwheels are put together, you can see the corners through the quilt.  NOT.  COOL.  It takes just a few extra seconds of your time to use a sharp scissors or rotary cutter to clip them – and you end up with a way better finished block and quilt!  Here is a photo of two of my pinwheels that have the corners clipped and two that do not:

And here is the secret solution for the half-square triangle sizing.  My goal was to make that simple half-square triangle work for ANY size of blocks and not just for the charm squares that are shown in the video.  I set my sights on a 9″ (finished) pinwheel (9 1/2″ unfinished).  And the solution for what size squares I should use?  THREE (3) inches bigger than your unfinished block size!  This gives you a little bit of room to trim the edges of the half-square triangles so they are perfect!

There you have it!  Go tell it on a mountain!  Share it with your quilting friends…and remember, you heard it here first!