Today's Quilter - UK (2020-05)

2in

i

(^2) ⅞
in
45 ￿
90 ￿^45 ￿
2in
2in
2in
60 ￿ 60 ￿
1 ¾in
60 ￿
ESSENTIAL GUIDE lequilateral triangles
WHATIS AN EQUILATERALTRIANGLE?
USING EQUILATERAL TRIANGLES
Fig 1 Equilateral triangle compared to a right-angled triangle
Equilateral triangle Right-angled triangle
Thissampleshowsequilateral
trianglesusedinjusttwocolours
asa borderarounda block.The
cornersarecreatedwithsimple
squaresaddedtoeachendof
two of the border strips
Equilateraltrianglesarebest
preparedforpiecingbyusinga
templatetocuttheshape.Inthis
article,wewillshowyouaneasy
waytodrawanequilateraltriangle
andcreatea templatefromthis
drawing.Wewillthengoonto
describethemosteconomicalway
tocutthetrianglesandthebasic
methodforsewingthem.
Usingequilateraltriangles
inourpiecingis nodierentto
anyotherfabricpatch.Theycan
beusedasstand-aloneshapes,
suchasforbunting,andtheycan
alsofeatureinblocksorasunits
withinotherblocks.Sixequilateral
trianglescanbecombinedtomake
a hexagonblock.Thesetriangles
arealsoespeciallyusefulinrows
forbordersandinbandquilts.In
a futureissueofTo d ay’sQ u i l t e r, we
willlookat howtocreatecomplex
borders using triangles.
A
n equilateraltriangleis a shapethathasthreesides
ofequallength,witheachanglebeing60-degrees.
Thisis dierentfroma right-angledtrianglethat
mostpatchworkersareusedto,whichhasjusttwosidesthe
sameandtwodierentangles– oneof90-degreesandtwo
of 45-degrees.Fig 1 shows the two dierent triangles, with
examplemeasurements.Youcanseethatintheequilateral
triangle,theheightis shorterthanthewidth,whichmeans
thattheoverallshapeisnota square.A trianglecanbe
createdfroma square,butit won’tbea mathematically
‘true’equilateraltriangle, so in this article we will focus
on the true shape.