← Alana Martin

Birds in the Sky

The 11-page HST pattern, rewritten to actually follow. Finished size 48" × 72". Check boxes as you go, they save automatically.

What you're making. A scrappy triangle quilt: fields of colour that read like a flock crossing a bright sky. No repeating block to memorize and no single background fabric. You make a big pile of triangles, then arrange them to match this photo.

TL;DR

The whole quilt is 168 triangles, and every one is made with just 4 cutting moves and 2 sewing moves. 72 are two-fabric half-square triangles (HSTs), from 12 clean fabric pairs. 96 are plain single-fabric triangles (72 small, 24 large). Cut everything, press well, then lay it out on the floor against the photo and sew in sections. That's the whole thing.

The one thing that unlocks this pattern

TideStitch printed it as 11 pages of dense lists, which makes it look like dozens of different steps. It isn't. There are only two kinds of piece in the entire quilt, and a small set of repeated moves. Here's the quilt from big to small:

Quilt = 48" × 72" finished, pieced entirely from triangles

Two piece types, that's all

Half-square triangle (HST) = two fabrics sewn into one square, split on the diagonal. 72 of these, each trimmed to 4½". (4" finished)

Plain triangle = one fabric, a square cut once on the diagonal. 96 of these — 72 small (4") + 24 large (12").

The whole recipe (read this once)

There are only four cutting moves and two sewing moves in this quilt. Learn them here, then the checklists just tell you how many of each.

Big triangles. Cut a 13" square, slice it once corner to corner. 2 large triangles per square.
Small triangles. Cut a 5" square, slice it once corner to corner. 2 small triangles per square.
HSTs, 4-at-a-time. Layer two 7⅛" squares (one of each fabric), sew all four edges, cut both diagonals. 4 HSTs per pair.
HSTs, 2-at-a-time. Layer two 5" squares, draw one diagonal, sew ¼" each side, cut the line. 2 HSTs per pair.

Every HST gets trimmed square to 4½" after sewing. The plain triangles are left a touch oversize on purpose and squared up as you sew. Do these moves the number of times the checklists say, and you'll have all 168 pieces.

The cutting moves, drawn

These four little diagrams are the whole cutting story. Everything in the cutting checklist is one of these.

fabric A fabric B dashed = sew line · solid diagonal = cut line

The two triangle sizes, to scale

Left: a 4½" HST or small triangle (finishes 4"). Right: a large triangle (finishes 12"). The big ones make the wide open fields; the small ones make the flock.

The "birds in the air" look

Rows of same-facing triangles read as birds crossing the sky. Your exact placement comes from the photo up top, not a fixed grid, so feel free to shuffle on the floor until it feels right.

Before you touch the fabric

The ¼" seam is the whole game. If it drifts, HSTs won't trim to 4½" and nothing lines up later. Sew two scraps, press, measure before you start for real. A ¼" foot or a tape guide helps a lot.
Every edge is bias. Triangles and freshly-cut HSTs stretch like crazy on the diagonal. Handle gently, don't tug, and press (lift and set down) instead of ironing (dragging).
Trim, don't skip. Squaring every HST to exactly 4" is what makes the top lie flat. Oversize-then-trim is slower but it's why this method works.
Chain piece. Feed pairs through one after another without cutting the thread between. When you're making 72 HSTs, this saves your sanity.
Checkpoints. The green pills show the target size after a step. Off by more than ⅛"? Stop and check your seam before you make 15 more of the wrong thing.
Shorthand: RST = right sides together. HST = half-square triangle. WOF = width of fabric.

⚑ One fabric to eyeball: your light one

Swatch 48 is a pale ice-blue, much lighter than everything else. In HSTs it pairs with 45 (magenta), so it'll pop as the "sky" against it, which suits the theme. It also makes 6 small triangles. Just lay it next to 45 before you sew the pile, so you're happy with the contrast. If it disappears more than you want, I can help you re-map it.

Your fabric key

This is the only place fabric numbers get names. Match by number at the cutting table. Type is auto-read from your photos, so a mottled batik might read either way, tell me and I'll flip it.

Cut guide: one fat quarter per fabric

Every fabric is a fat quarter (about 18" × 21"). There are only two layouts: one for the fabrics that make a big triangle, one for the fabrics that make the small triangles. Squares are drawn to scale on the fat quarter, then subcut on the diagonal as the moves above show.

Dashed diagonal = where you'll subcut. Leftover fabric is normal, the fat quarter has room to spare.

Cutting checklist

One group per fabric, one row per cut. Tick each as you make it. Tip: bag or clip each fabric's cut pieces with a sticky note showing its number. 24 small labelled piles beats one big confusing one.

Make the pieces

Two piles to build: the 72 HSTs (two fabrics each) and the 96 plain triangles (one fabric each). Everything below is just the four moves from the recipe, repeated.

Put the quilt together

Layout follows your design. This is a scrappy triangle top, so your reference for what goes where is the finished photo at the top plus the seam-lines template in the original PDF. Arrange on the floor first, photograph it, then sew.

Sort your pieces. Separate into three trays: 72 HSTs, 72 small triangles, 24 large triangles. Having them grouped makes the floor layout far less overwhelming.

Lay it out on the floor to match the photo. Get the big triangles placed first (they anchor the fields), then fill with HSTs and small triangles. Shuffle until you like it, then snap a photo so you can rebuild it.

Sew in logical sections — rows, columns, or quadrants — with a ¼" seam. Alternate the press direction between neighbouring sections so the seams lock when you join them. 📏 keep checking against your photo

Join the sections into the finished top, nesting the pressed seams. At the busiest intersections, press those seams open or spin them so the bulk spreads and it lies flat. 📏 48½"×72½" raw

Layer and baste: backing, then batting, then your top. Smooth and pin or spray baste.

Quilt it. Straight lines or stitch-in-the-ditch are friendly and forgiving and let the triangles do the talking.

Bind it with 2½"-wide strips. Something dark or high-contrast usually frames a scrappy top crispest. Done. Hang it where the light hits it.

Built from the TideStitch "Birds in the Air" HST pattern, reorganized to follow start to finish. Piece counts are cross-checked against the pattern (72 HSTs + 96 triangles = 168). Your progress saves in this browser. Print it if you'd rather have paper by the machine (everything expands automatically when printed).