All Decked Out: Triangle Magic

Triangle Magic

Friday, March 23, 2012 1 Comment »

I do not advertise products, and heaven knows I'm not on the Blogger with Sponsored Producst list. I am, however, somewhat shameless about passing on information about products that I think are worthwhile and have made a positive inpact on my quilting. Triangle Magic, by Quilt Pro, is one of those products.

This little software program allows you to print out triangle paper on your own printer for HSTs in finished sizes from 1" to 7", in eighth inch increments. They are having a sale now; the program normally costing $19.95 is now $14.95. If you like using triangle paper to make perfect HSTs, this represents a significant savings over buying individual packs of papers. In addition, you can print out one sheet, for making just a few HSTs, or scads of them.

If you have not used triangle papers before, you might want to give it a try. Yes, you will have the extra step of ripping the paper off the back of the sewn triangles, but the resulting HSTs are perfect -- no wonkiness and no stretching from having sewn on a bias edge. I would not recommend them if you need to sew just one or two HSTs, but if you need to sew multiples, they are a great way to go. And with this program, you don't need to hunt through your collection of assorted triangle papers only to find that you have 20 different sizes EXCEPT the size you need right then; you just go to your printer and print out exactly what you need.

The triangle grids can be printed on standard computer paper, using a shortened stitch length (makes tearing the papers much easier) but I prefer newsprint, which is available from a variety of souces, including this one. The newsprint is thinner, and makes the tearing-off process even easier. Quilt Pro also has a similar program for quarter square triangles, which I have not tried. Some of their other products include foundation piecing software and add-ons for Carol Doak's foundation pieced blocks.

Here is that link again: Quilt Pro Triangle Magic. Click on the menu items at the bottom of the web page to see full explanations of what the program is and how it works. If you end up purchasing the program, let me know how you like it!