This post is a prep post for a little puppet I made today. The first time I did pioneer points on a quilt, I cut a bazillion little squares, ironed them carefully and pinned them individually to the edge of my quilt. It was a royal pain. Later, I learned an easier strip method, which I would like to share.

Decide on the size of points you want. I made these for a very small project, so I did two inch square points, which ended up very small. For a normal baby quilt I usually do four inch squares. Whatever square size you decide to do, multiply that by two, and cut a strip of fabric of that width by the length of points you need. I started with a four inch strip. Iron it in half, and then cut to the fold every two inches on one side of your strip.

Next, stagger it starting half-way on the other side, one inch in this case, and snip to the fold again, trimming off the first and last little short pieces. I snipped by starting each cut with my quilting grid, and then finishing it with the scissors, so I had the accuracy of the grid, but I didn’t have to try to quit at the fold with a rotary cutter. Your snipped strip will look like this:

Next, fold your points. First, diagonally from one side,

And then from the other side.

It will look like this as it comes unfolded:

Now go iron each of those little babies down so they will behave themselves. They’ll look like this after you iron them:

Fold your points train in half, with the raw edges in the center, and baste together an 1/8th or a scant quarter of an inch from the edge.

Now you have those cute little triangles all ready to go.

You can also do a two-tone prairie point by sewing two strips of different colors together, which makes them alternate if you fold each point around the next one carefully.

Next up: something fun to do with these now that you have made them.