Fun Facts To Know and Tell

I was so very excited to start on the pieced part of my dad's quilt today.
  I made 2 blocks and went to put them with the snowball block and guess what?
 The triangle corners on the snowball block were too big!!
 Now I learned something last year about putting a small square on a larger square and flipping it to make the triangle that I am going to share with you.
 DON'T CUT THE EXCESS OFF.
 Why you ask?
The reasons, for me anyway, are two fold.
 1- If you mess up and have to re do the block everything is still intact and can be saved and
2-It helps keep your block square.
 Kind of acts like a foundation.
 I would have been sunk today if I had trimmed like I used to.
 I took some photos to show you what I mean.

I left all three layers intact as you can see here.  

Sure made my life easier today! 

Now for some tips on reverse sewing. 

I don't know about you but I HATE reverse sewing.  

These are some things I learned that make it slightly less painful!

 First I break the threads with the seam ripper, about every 4-5 threads like this

Then I lifted the thread from the other side like this,

Which makes all the ripped pieces pop up.

 

Then I use a piece of tape to get all the little broken threads off the fabric.

  It keeps the work area clean and I feel it is probably less stressful for the fabric you are taking the threads out of. 

Another thing I learned today, since I had to re-cut all the corner squares from 3 7/8" to 3 1/2"was that  if I pay attention to the way I turn the square, I ended up with the previously sewn line off set. 

 I felt like that was better in that I would not have to sew directly on the old line. 

You can see what I mean here where you can see the old sewing line and now if I sew corner to corner it will not be over the old line, keeping the fabric stronger.

Did anyone happen to notice there is not a drawn line corner to corner on this square? 

 I hate drawing those lines so I found a tool to use so I don't have to.  

There are 2 out on the market that I know of, The Angler 2 and Clearly Perfect.

  I used to use The Angler 2  but now have Clearly Perfect. 

 I like it better because it

  I put my fabric where I want to start sewing and line the bottom "point" up with, in this case, the center line on the CP and as I sew I keep that "point" aligned with the center line on the CP.

Interestingly, you don't watch the needle but rather the "point"
 keeping it on the center line as you sew.
 Sure beats drawing all those lines!!
 It is also an awesome tool for making HST too, although you align your fabric differently.
The CP allows for making fairly large HST blocks b/c the lines extend quite a way.

One more tip I learned recently is that you should pay attention to how you load your bobbin into the case, if your machine has a bobbin case.

 By that I mean whether thread goes "over" the bobbin or comes from "under"

 (kinda like your TP roll). 

 If you hold your bobbin case and gently pull the thread the bobbin should spin clockwise. 

 For my Bernina it means I load the bobbin into the case with the thread coming from "under". 

 I never knew that!

Can you tell I am avoiding more reverse sewing?  LOL 

 Anyway, the pieced blocks are a snap to sew together and I have managed to get a few sewn together, hey it's a start right?

They are turning out soooooo cool!!

 I hope you are all having a better day than I am so far.  

The good news is I have all day to work on this! 

~XOP~