Arguably one of the most common quilt patterns out there is the half square triangle quilt.

And when you can get about a million different layouts from just one block it’s not hard to understand why. 

But with so many fun half square triangle quilt patterns out there, how do you keep the quilting from all looking the same?

Change up your quilting designs to get different looks with the same blocks, of course! 

I’ve been working on some practice quilting with half square triangles lately and wanted to show you all the ideas I collected to give you some modern ways to quilt half square triangles and try something new!

Helpful Tools

You’ll only need a couple of different tools to complete all of these designs:

• A marking tool like a Hera marker or an air soluble pen
• A ruler 

Many of these lines require straight lines, so these two tools are my immediate go-tos. 

Although marking seems like it takes a ton of extra time, I have never once in my life regretted doing it. My lines come out straighter and my designs more consistent. 

Related:
How to Mark a Quilt: 6 Right Ways and 1 Wrong Way

Marking is the trick that turned my free motion quilting (ESPECIALLY on a domestic machine) from just okay, to something I show off to any poor soul that visits my house. 

If you are hesitant to try or practice free motion quilting on larger size quilts, give marking a try and see if it makes a difference.

Straight Line

3 Lines parallel the seam

Short sweet and to the point, this one is a pretty minimalist look and only requires three lines of quilting that run along the center seam. 

The minimal quilting required for this one means that your quilt will remain soft and flexible when finished. A perfect for kids quilts and cuddling on the couch. 

Evenly Spaced lines perpendicular to the seam

This one is quick and easy consisting of spaced lines that run across the seam line of your half square triangle. 

If you continue to turn directions when you reach the opposite side of your block you can actually create a secondary design of square quilting. 

This is one of the few designs that does not require stitch in the ditch so if the idea scares you, this option is a perfect solution. 

Echo lines radiating from opposite corners

Not quite a dot to dot design, this one draws lines from one of the corners where a center seam ends, and radiates out toward the opposite side. 

These half square triangle quilting designs are best quilted by planning out a route through multiple blocks doing only one side of the block at a time. 

This one is a great one if you like making fun geometric secondary designs in your quilts. 

Lines that overlap in the corner

I love that this design gives you a minimalist quilting design without being boring.

My favorite way to implement this one is with nothing in the opposite side of the HST just like it’s quilted in the photo. 

Leaving the opposite side blank draws your eye to the quilted side and gives the densely quilted side some breathing room so you don’t end up loosing the detail.

This one will likely require some stitching in the ditch between blocks, so a free motion foot may be the best option for this one. 

Quarter square echos that radiate from the corner

If you are working with larger blocks, this smaller variation of an earlier design might be exactly what you are looking for to make sure your quilting stays dense enough according to your batting. 

Or better yet, maybe you are working with quarter square triangles and need something a little more tailored to that type of block!

Either way, this variation adds a little more detail breaking up the block in quarters before radiating lines in opposite directions from the corners. 

Related:
7 Easy Border Quilting Ideas
10 Quilting Designs for Beginners
5 Uncommon Quilting Design Ideas

Dot to Dot

Touch, Don’t Touch, Touch

The classic Angela Walters “touch, don’t touch, touch”. 

This design is a quintessential dot to dot design that can come in handy in multiple different blocks. Here I’ve used it to frame the center seam of the half square triangle. 

While you can use it on both sides of the triangle like I have, you can also consider using it on only one half. By pairing it with a denser design, you can make the dot to dot side the featured side. 

Or you can leave the opposite side blank drawing your attention to the area you left unquilted which can be a great option if you fussy cut one side. 

Be sure to stitch in the ditch down the center seam to get the full impact from this one! 

Fans from opposite corners option 1 & 2

The other standard dot to dot quilting design according to Angela Walters, who doesn’t love a fan. 

I typically like to more clean line half square triangle quilting designs like this one as opposed to curlier designs, so these two options pull at my heart strings and end up in my quilts often. 

The design can have a very different feel depending on which corner you choose to start from so these two designs show you the difference. 

You can do multiple fans side by side instead of a single nest fan if you like, the choice is up to you. Just keep in mind that the more detail you quilt in there, the harder it will end up being to see. 

Interested in seeing more of Angela’s Dot-to-Dot designs? You can learn them here!

There’s a tip I often forget when quilting this one: Less is more. 

Leaving more space around your quilted lines will draw your eye to it more and give you a bigger impact. 

Quarter square echos

A variation of “Touch, Don’t Touch, Touch”, this one breaks up the block in quarter squares using the same design in a smaller scale. 

Bringing a much different feel to the original, I like how this design gives you the sense of a frame around the block. 

To get this one right, mark a line from corner to corner (opposite the center seam) and use it as a guide to mark where to “not touch” at the tip of the design. Although you won’t stitch the seam, it’ll help you space the design consistently throughout the block. 

Geometric Fun

I can’t claim that I came up with this one on my own, I found it online at some point, but thought a much denser dot to dot option would be fun to include since you don’t see them very often. 

There is actually a way to make the entire design without stopping. Can you find it?

Free Motion Quilting

Minimal loop and fancy loops

I love the simplicity of these two half square triangle quilting designs. If I had an HST baby quilt I was making, I feel like the single loop would be a perfect option. It just looks so sweet like it belongs in a nursery. 

The multiple fancy loops option is its fun whimsical older sibling that would fit in perfectly for larger blocks that need a bit denser quilting, but are still bright and fun colors and patterns. 

To get my loops spaced out nicely, I marked out ahead of time just where I wanted the tops to hit along the edges. After that I just free handed them making sure to hit the marks at the top of the loops. 

Curvy bell shape

Another whimsical option using curves and pebbles. I actually think this practice swatch came out super cute with the pastel green block in this quilting design. Happy accidents haha.

Although you don’t necessarily have to mark this design out before starting, you can use various spools of thread to mark out the pebbles ahead of time. 

This one would pair great with some dot to dot designs in surrounding blocks. 

Whatever this one is called

I know this half square triangle quilting design has a name, and for the life of me I can’t remember what it’s called. If you know can you add it to the comments so I can update the title? 

This one is a classic arc designs bouncing around all three sides of the triangle. I especially love this designed when all of the seams are stitched in the ditch as well like in the practice swatch above. 

You can get different looks depending on how “thick” you quilt each arc. I tend to aim on the thicker side than the narrow side if that makes sense. I find that it tends to fill up the block a bit more and  gives you some breathing room near the seams. 

Curved Echos

A variation on an earlier design, this one uses curved lines to overlap at the corners instead of straight lines. 

The key to this one is getting the lines equally spaced and having the same arc if that makes sense. 

You’ll want to avoid having a “flatter” arc next to a “tighter” arc. By keeping them the same as much as possible, you’ll end up with a much more consistent and cleaner look. 

Free motion can get tricky that way so you can make this easier by marking out the first in either direction and then using the edge of your free motion foot as a guide to echo two more times. 

Getting the biggest impact

In many of these half square triangle quilting designs, stitching in the ditch around the quilted patch is imperative to getting the full effect. 

Stitching in the ditch has such a strange reputation, many quilters find themselves either afraid to use it, or they ONLY use it. 

In many cases, I find that stitching in the ditch provides the finishing touch to my custom quilting by putting a textured frame around the stitching in that particular patch. It’s that thing that can separate a design from the pack by emphasizing what you did in a particular area. 

That isn’t necessarily specifically for half square triangles either, so next time you are doing any machine quilting, consider how using stitching in the ditch to up your machine quilting design! 

If you want to learn more about stitching in the ditch, be sure to check out the full post here.

Alternative Half Square Triangle Quilting Designs

Quilting across blocks 

If you are working on a half square triangle quilt that makes up a particular design, similar to our Playful Zag quilt pattern, you can use adjacent blocks to continue a quilting design that follows the lines of the quilt. 

Consider using a bolder pattern in the colors blocks and something thats either more subtle, or more dense in the background. 

Using a denser design in the background will make the colored blocks puff up giving whatever quilting you did on the colored blocks a much bigger “Oomph!”

All over quilting designs

Not sure you want to take the time to quilt out every single block? An all over design ignores everything that happens in the piecing of the quilt and just gives you an over-all texture that is usually a much faster and “fuss free” machine quilting option. 

There are a few ways you can achieve this look, either with a meander that has no particular direction, or my personal favorite, a pantograph style that repeats in rows across the quilt. 

If you sitting here saying, “That’s all well and good but I don’t have access to a computerized long arm capable of pantograph quilting.” Then I would say me neither. 

So instead I decided to figure out a way to get the same look of a pantograph on my domestic machine and designed a machine quilting template that allows you to get the pantograph look with only a walking foot! 

Mark the design using a pounce pad and the stencil, and you can quilt away on your domestic machine, just stitch on the lines 🙂

Click here to grab yours!