Friday, June 10, 2011

Dog Ears Explained


For Laurel (and other newbie quilters)...In answer to your question on my blog post about what "dog ears" are, hopefully this photo will help explain.

See those tiny little triangle pieces of fabric sticking out on the bottom left and top right of the half-square triangle?  (sorry for the really ugly fabric and the really ugly background). Those are known as "dog ears" in the quilting world. They should be trimmed off before this HST is sewn to other fabric. "Dog ears" show up whenever you sew any kind of diagonal seam, unless you use a template like this when you cut your fabric that eliminates those pesky little things. I think trimming the dog ears off is easier than using a template, but that's just my personal preference. They just get cut off when I'm squaring up the HST.

1 comment:

Stella Jones said...

That's a very good tip Anya. I didn't know that they had a name! and will forever remember it (LOL). In future I shall be cutting mine off too and hope for a better result.
More tips please?
I would like to know why my 4 inch squares never match up with the triangles? I know why in theory, but how do I avoid it? I am making a quilt with squares and triangles. The triangles are half the squares so obviously there is more wastage. Am I correct in cutting the squares down to match the triangles? or should I be making the squares smaller in the beginning?