An Unexpected Sewing Aid

My new favorite tool in the sewing room is the humble Post-it note. When making the First Communion dress, I did a lot of samples to figure out what stitch settings or seam allowances would work best for various parts of the dress. In this case, I had to experiment with the blind stitch on my machine in order to get the most invisible hem possible.

But now that I'm middle aged, I have a brain like a sieve. So I carefully wrote the settings on a Post-it and stuck it to a corner of my sewing machine table so that when I finally got to the hem, I'd remember the stitch width that had worked best.

(By the way, the little pin cup in the corner is a feature of the Sew-Ezi table which I bought last January. I'm always careful not to sew over pins, and I find it so handy to drop the pins into that little indentation. It's much easier than trying to shove them into a pincushion.

Jedi Quilting

I saw a picture of this "Soothing Eye Pillow" in the current Connecting Threads catalogue. (It was on the same page as the ergonomic seam ripper.) And what popped into my head was an image of young Jedi Quilters practicing their sightless rotary cutter technique under the supervision of Jedi Masters. ("You've taken your first step into a larger world with fewer fingers!")

This Spinning Star from Come Quilt With Me caught my eye during Jo-Ann's "50% off quilting supplies" sale. Normally, I'm a template-free, rotary cutting girl, but curved piecing is another story. I love curved piecing, especially since discovering that it's easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy when you do it by hand. But I hate making my own templates, so I thought I'd give this one a try.

Previously I've had very good experiences with Ardco templates. Their metal window-templates are the best ever if you don't mind tracing with a pencil and cutting out with sissors. (They say you can use their templates (which also come in non-window versions) for rotary cutting, but the mere thought gives me the willies.) Since the Come Quilt With Me templates are thick acrylic, I decided I'd try rotary cutting with it and -- gasp! -- machine piecing the block. The little slots should make it easy to mark and join the pieces accurately.

As for fabrics, I haven't decided yet whether to go for modern brights or '30s pastels.

Quilting Frustration and a New Rotary Cutter

My quilting buddy recently returned after a six month stay in Montana, and we resumed our weekly sewing sessions. But I wasn't sure what I could work on with my bad arm. Even scissors are pretty much beyond me right now. Then I remembered my string pieced stars. I had already traced the diamonds onto paper and I have a drawer full of strips and strings. Perfect! No fabric cutting required! I'll just have to delay trimming the diamonds until I'm completely healed.

Which reminds me, the other purchase I made at Road to California was the Martelli ergonomic rotary cutter. I saw the vendor demo its use, cutting through twenty layers of fabric. I took a couple of tentative cuts, but couldn't really get a feel for it since I didn't dare put much pressure on my hand. However, this cutter was recommended by a couple of people on Quiltvillechat, so I decided to risk $20.00 on it. Of course, I won't really know if it will be compatible with my own particular problems and style of working until my tennis elbow has healed enough for me to try it out. When it does, I'll give a complete review.