I won't lie, the triangle in a square block is a bit tricky. Before being sewn into a quilt, the corners of that triangle just don't look as if they're in the right place. And then there's the construction: templates *horrors* and all those fiddly - and stretchy - bias edges. But I really needed that block to give me the steep, old-fashioned gables on my Homely Joys houses, so I persevered. The CakeStand method only uses a template to mark a placement line and - after stitching ¼" away from that line - a bit of flipping and trimming to give you a perfect block.
You can use the template from the pattern - traced or photocopied onto thin card - or make your own: my finished block will be 4" square when sewn into the quilt, so I have drawn a triangle with 4" wide and 4" high, then added the 1/4" seam allowance to each side. Note that I have squared off the tips so that it fits nicely onto a 4½" square...
EDIT: Those of you who have EZ Tri-recs Tools, Deb Tucker's V-Block Trimmer, Creative Grids Lazy Angles, Two-Peaks-in-One or Marti Michell's Peaky & Spike rulers could certainly use those to mark the feature square. Just place your acrylic template over the template in the pattern to see which guide lines to use.
Alternatively, if you have a lightbox, you can can TRACE your placement line straight from the pattern. You can see how I use mine here.
Or - drumroll please - you can buy my brand new CakeSlice template here!
...using the template mark placement lines on a 4½" feature square
Offsetting the diagonal by ½" from one corner, mark the cutting line on two 3" x 5" side pieces...
...remember to place them right sides together before cutting...
...which will give you two mirror image pieces, slightly oversized to give you some wriggle room
Position the first side on the placement line and stitch ¼" away before flipping 'open' and pressing...
...then place and stitch the second side, flip & press 'open'
Turn over to trim to size, using your feature square as a guide (or a Bloc-Loc Ruler, if you have one)...
...and you can also trim down the feature square if preferred
TA DA one perfectly sized block (the ¼" seam allowance is marked in blue)
Now start building those houses...
Nicola xx