Updated May 21, 2019.
As my friend Debbie would remind me trianglepoint is so fun and is a wonderful springboard for making a trianglepoint piece. You can see many of my pieces pictured through the article.
What is Trianglepoint?
Trianglepoint is a technique developed by Sherlee Lantz in the 1970’s which uses straight stitches to make equilateral triangles. Quilters might also call these 60 degree triangles, because all the angles are 60 degrees.
Unlike right triangles, these are not half a square or rectangle, so they aren’t as intuitive to make, but once you learn the basic technique, they are so fun. You can now make hexagons and put many of them together to make larger triangles and wide stripes.
Sherlee wrote a book, Trianglepoint, about the technique, which can often be found in used book shops and library and guild sales. Buy it if you find it.
A single triangle is diagrammed above. There are two important things to notice about it. First, it must have an odd number of stitches, commonly 5, 7, or 9. Second, the stitches differ in length by two threads. Remember these two things and you’re on your way.
You can make lines of triangles by alternating the direction of the points (up and down) and you can build larger triangles by making several rows of different lengths.
That’s the key to Trianglepoint. You can large triangles and then divided them into diagonal stripes. That’s what I did in several of the pictured pieces, including the one above.
This diagram shows you how this is done in the smallest possible diagonal striped triangle.
You can find several free Trianglepoint designs on Nuts about Needlepoint. Just enter the term”trianglepoint” in the search box near the top of any page.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
I’m trying to find out if there is a pattern that shows the trianglepoint design on the pillow. I love that and have looked all over your site to find this. I would love to have this pattern. Kim
As far as I know there isn’t a needlepoint version of this quilt pattern, although I’m thinking of doing one.
Pretty much the biggest source of Trianglepoint patterns is the book Trianglepoint. There are also one or two in my Scrap Bag Needlepoint book.
Keep Stitching, Janet