Quilt Studio Improvements

While I am thrilled at the amount of quilting I have been doing, it's very frustrating that I can't show you, because they are Mystery Quilts.
On the other hand, I'll have a lot of new stuff to show you next month!

A great help in being productive was the re-do of my sewing machine tape. It had become so bad it was actually catching on the fabric.
Here's my new tape:

The line between the two colors is where the needle is (in center position). I'm getting ready to make a "sew & flip" triangle here, so I'll put the top and bottom corners of that white square right along the tape line and then sew.

Yes, I even do that with really large peices and just sort of eye-ball it until the corner nearest me gets up to the edge of the table!
Chain-piecing this way saves a lot of time. Use your needle-down setting if you have it. That helps to keep the corners under control going from one unit to the next. Our machines seem to like eating the corners. A single-hole throat plate will also help with that.

I have also drawn a line 1/4 inch away from the needle line (you can see it marked there). It's good for just plain old sewing, but also for making half-square triangles two at a time.

For those, you have 2 same-size squares. Line up the corners on the 1/4" line and sew.

Turn the unit around and repeat...that gives you two seams 1/4" away from each side of the diagonal center, without drawing a line first. To finish, cut apart, press open and trim....I'll have to do that with pictures sometime again!

The pictures you see here are just that sew & flip triangle, like for a snowball block, where a triangle is formed in the corner of a larger square.

Another amazing thing in my studio is that I got the cutting table as cleaned off as it ever gets!

The best thing about getting cleaned up is I am inspired to get it all messy again!

It's a thrill to cut fabric immediately without moving 10 things out of the way first....and then having to move those same things back to use the space I moved them into!

Oh, there's that cute little trash container I got at the dollar store. It has a special purpose now. It's collecting small batik scraps for a friend who is going to Africa to help at an orphanage. This trip she'll be teaching the children how to make fabric beads.

I hope your studio is messy beacuse you're into a good project. I'll give you another peek at mine when it's in a more "natural" state.

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to go to Gwinnett Co. in Georgia next week for "Pot Holder Therapy" and "Blooms for Beginners (& Other Flower Lovers)". 

I also owe you two book reports, which I'd better get done soon, as Cherry-Cherry has been waiting since November to borrow them!