Speed Piecing Quilts Part 3

Speed Piecing Quarter Triangles

Another common piece used in quilt block construction is the quarter triangle. A quarter triangle is formed by a square cut in half twice on the diagonal. Many blocks use quarter triangles joined together to form right triangles in their construction. The steps to speed piece quarter triangles is very similar to those of speed piecing right triangles with the following exceptions: 

• The initial strips must be cut the finished square size plus 1 1/4" for seam allowances instead of 7/8". For a square composed of quarter triangles to have a finished size of 4", the initial strips must be cut 4" finished size + 1 1/4" seam allowances = 5 1/4" wide.Instead of drawing on your fabric, you can also use Easy Piecing Triangle Templates
  
•  After cutting the sewn strips apart on the marked lines, each unit must be cut in half again from the corner, to the middle of the longest side. 
  
•  Each marked square will result in four pieced quarter triangle units. 

There are many different way to speed piece quilt blocks than those described here. The quilter interested in speed piecing techniques should check one of the many books on this technique currently available.