{Pinetop Pattern} HSR Tree Tutorial

Alright, now that we've made the Herringbone trees, let's move onto the HSR (Half Square Rectangle) trees!

First, cut out your rectangles for the top of your small HSR trees as instructed in the pattern. We're starting with the small trees because I find them a littler easier to manage than the medium or large HSR trees. The method will be the same for all sizes, just the measurements will vary. If you don't have the Pinetop Pattern you can purchase it HERE!

I know of two different methods for constructing HSR (half square rectangles) but this one is my favorite and, I think, the most foolproof. You'll take one background rectangle and one tree print and lay them side by side. You want the tree print on the left-hand side, wrong side-up and the background print/solid on the right, right side-up.

At first it might be confusing to tell which direction the half-triangle shape of the tree will be going in after pressing, but a small trick I use to remember which side of the tree I'm making is to look at the diagonal line on the background fabric (instructions on that in a minute...). Whatever direction that line is going in, will be the shape of your tree half. So right now we are making the right side of the tree because the diagonal line is going from top left to bottom right.

You will make your markings on these two rectangles as instructed in the pattern....they will look like this when you're finished.

Now you will pick up your tree print and rotate it counter-clockwise so that the lines you just drew match up. I will sometimes also draw a line on the right-side of the tree print going in the same direction as the wrong-side to help match up those lines better. It's an extra, kinda tedious step, but it greatly helps with accuracy when matching things up.

To keep the two rectangles in place without pinning, I will carefully lift up part of my tree print rectangle, glue baste along the line of the background rectangle (More info on glue basting HERE) that is exposed and slowly match up my tree print line with the line on the background rectangle as I lay it back down. I repeat with the other side of the line too.

Sew a 1/4" on either side of the line, then, using a ruler, cut along the drawn line with your rotary cutter. I then press the seams toward the darker fabric. In this case, that would be the tree print.

You now have two right sides of a HSR completed!

To make the left side of the tree, you will do everything the same, except draw your diagonal lines in the opposite direction and rotate the tree print in a clockwise direction on top of the background rectangle. And like I mentioned before, you know it's the left side of the tree based on the direction the diagonal line is going in on the the background rectangle.

Continue with the same steps above and your two left halves will look like this...to reduce bulk in your seams, we recommend trimming off the "dog ears" on these blocks before sewing them together. Also, it is helpful to press these blocks the same as we did for the Herringbone Trees (refer to that post for further instruction).

Take one half of each side, then sew together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Press that seam open and the top half of your tree is completed!

Piece the bottom part of the tree as instructed in the pattern, join the top of the tree to the bottom, and you're finished! Not too bad, right? :) I hope you found this tutorial helpful! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions OR email me at penandpaperpatterns@gmail.com!