Sally Said Sew

Today I was able to work on a couple more blocks for Moda' Block Heads 3. I was waiting on some green fat quarters to arrive and they are here. Time to get sewing! I was able to complete blocks 2 and 3.  I got out my Bloc-Loc  rulers and went to town. I have come to appreciate the better quality of blocks I get when using them. They are very easy to use. To see videos of the rulers in action, go here . Today I used my 2.5" square and 1.5" x 3" flying geese rulers. Flying Geese block ready to trim My HST ready to cut in half HST ready to trim After trimming Need a smaller size than 2.5"? No problem! Trim two sides and then align to size need. Trim the remaining two sides and you're done! Re-aligned for smaller block size Here are the two completed blocks. Look at all the half square triangles (HSTs) and flying geese I needed. This is why I used my Bloc-Loc rulers. Block 2 - Sunshine Star by Sherri McConnel / Block Size 8&

Like many people across the country, we are still sewing masks at our house. Honestly, I will be glad to take a break from this. This weekend's project was finishing up 30 fitted masks to take to co-workers and their families. Our company provided 5 masks to each employee when we started operations back up earlier this month. They are the pleated medical style and they were made by our upholstery team (yay, team!). I prefer the fitted style myself so I have been using my own when necessary. I received many compliments on it and a few people asked for one. How can I say no? The task was made much easier by new acrylic mask templates I ordered and received last week. I purchased them from Shop Stitch Buzz on Etsy. I really liked that templates were very similar in size to the homemade cardboard ones I was using. The templates also included the cut line for making the lining. Acrylic Templates I did make an adjustment for using the templates. My cardboard pattern had an 1-

I am a Block Head, but it's not the "doh, you idiot!" type of blockhead. I am officially a Moda Block Head. Here's the backstory on how this came to be. I went to a quilting retreat back in late February before things got wild and crazy with stay at home orders. One of the ladies there finished up her Moda Block Heads 2 quilt. It is a sew-a-long where new blocks are released every week. It runs for about a year. I loved what she did. Laurel's Quilt - My Inspiration Then Laurel mentioned Moda was doing another round of Block Heads. I checked out the information on the Moda website here . Before the retreat was over, I decided to become a Block Head. It took a while to figure out what fabrics to use. I had taken an old Moda "A Stitch in Color" jelly roll and and charm pack with me to the retreat thinking I might do something with it. I liked the bright colors and thought it might work well for Block Heads 3. I purchased some Moda Grunge in m

Bias tape ties. Yep. I am really starting to despise those things for the masks we are sewing. Making those ties take as much time to make as the body of the mask, maybe more by the time you factor in cutting and sewing. Elastic is still in short supply and we continue to make our own ties. In a previous post, I shared a DIY tape maker I found online and constructed. While it helps somewhat, it still requires more time that I think necessary. My daytime job is in manufacturing and I have my green belt certification in Lean Six Sigma. No, I don't do karate or ju jitsu but rather I have taken training to learn basic process improvements that help us in manufacturing. My brain is always thinking of faster and better ways of producing masks. We essentially have a mini mask factory in our house. Any way, back to bias ties. I still have not found my regular bias tape maker tool and was using my homemade jig. I happened to see a video  posted by a friend on Facebook that got my attent