Sunday, April 7, 2013

Hands2Help - Time for Tutes, Tips and Tasty Things!



Hi, all!

Sunday has rolled around again, and that means it's time for a little Hands2Help action!  Tonight I'm hoping you'll all link up and share your favorite on-line tutorial, tip or snack recipe that gets you through all your quilting!

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I want to share about two tools I picked up recently and finally put to good use last night - and wow am I impressed!!  I absolutely love half-square triangles in quilts, but absolutely hate what you have to do to get them - drawing the line diagonally across half your squares, sewing them, cutting them apart, and then squaring them up before you can proceed with your piecing.  What a pain!

But last night, because I really wanted to make some half-square triangles, I decided to break out a tool I bought about a year ago, stuck on my pegboard wall and forgot - 

The Angler 2...


Got it all set up on my sewing machine (that took about ten minutes but will go much faster in the future!) and started on those HSTs...


Lined it up...


...started sewing...


...then turned it around and stitched the other seam.

I did 81 sets in about an hour.  Woohoo!  It would have taken me that long to draw those stupid lines!  

Cut them in half and pressed them open before bed.

This morning I got up and pulled out a tool I picked up in Lancaster - the Bloc-Loc template.  This very cool template has a 1/4" rut routed out of the backside...


...that runs from corner to corner.  You lay this on top of your HST, with the seam in the rut.  It locks on top of the block...


...and you trim the right and top edges.  Then you twist it (the channel holds the block in place under the template!), slide the template to the other side...


...and trim the last two sides!  So easy - I squared up all 162 blocks in about two hours!!  So now I have a lovely pile of HSTs all ready to be made into a quilt top.  

Where have these two tools been all my life???

(PS This is not a paid advertisement for these tools - no compensation from the companies that make them.  But I highly recommend them if you love HSTs 
but hate to make them!)

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And now it's your turn!  

Share your own tip,
tutorial,
or snack recipe!

You can link to someone else's tutorial or tip
or one you wrote yourself.

Same thing with recipes!
(PS Anything with chocolate is my favorite...)

I can't wait to see all the tutes, tips and tasty things!

Hugs!

Sarah

10 comments:

  1. I have the Blok-Lok on my wish list - my SIL brought me some chocolate covered pretzels today - we devoured them!

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  2. WOW! Both tools sound wonderful. I will have to do some looking for them.

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  3. I have the Angler 2 that I bought a long time ago too. The other day I was looking for it to make some half square triangles but I lacked motivation to find it so I did all the markings by hand. I really need to find it. Sure would make my life easier.

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  4. I could really use that Angler tool right about now!

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  5. I've wondered about the ruler, thanks!

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  6. Love the review of your new tools. I have the Angler (1) but haven't found it that useful... the 2 might be more so. The Bloc Loc looks great though. That would be a big help when trimming blocks.

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  7. Okay, I need one of those. I just suffered through a whole bunch of HSTs and life would have been nicer if I'd had that tool!

    Can I just say another thank you for organizing the H2H? My daughter asked me what I was working on. I showed her the quilt blocks, then showed her the website for Quilts Beyond Borders. She's going to help me with the ones I'm working on. Love that I get to show my girl how blessed she is, and I get to let her help out other, less fortunate, children.

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  8. I LOVE my Block Lock! I've had mine for about a year now. I prefer to use Triangulations for my HST's. Nice, slow, hand cranking on my machine (hand crank of course) is great. No trimming afterwards, since they are all the correct size.

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  9. I just added the Block Lock to my wish list. After making HST's all week the old way, I'm ready for a new way!

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Comments make me smile!! If you want a PDF of a pattern, PLEASE leave your email address in your comment, or email me directly at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com!