Must-Have Ruler

I got sew much accomplished yesterday but last night I got very little sleep...wrecks all my plans when that happens! I am almost through with this day so I guess I'm doing an okay job of just pressing through it. Being tired like this always reminds me of when I had a new baby to take care of all night...some memories never fade!

I want to share my favorite new quilting tool. It is a bloc-loc ruler for trimming half-square-triangles. A quilting friend from the Breakfast Club in Anchorage recommended I get one this summer. (Thank you Megan!) I am very glad that I did. I absolutely love this ruler and as I recall the normal retail price was a little steep but I got it on sale!

I used a method for making 8 HSTs at a time that I learned from Carrie Nelson's book, "Another Bite of Schnibbles." I took a 6 1/2" square of the two fabrics I'm using. Drew two diagonal lines from corner to corner and stitched a scant 1/4" seam in each side of the line.

Cut like so...

Press open the eight units and  trim with the Bloc-loc ruler. There is a recessed channel on the underside of the ruler where the seam allowance nests against the diagonal center line.

Flip it and trim to the final size.

No more try to hold a ruler in place while it wobbles over the seamline when trimming. It made a huge difference to work with this ruler rather than a standard one.

I made 192 HSTs. The camera flash on the acrylic is making it difficult to get a good photo of the full ruler. 

I forgot to show you the gift I got from my niece...she got the ideas from reading my blog.

I got a little cross stitch project, felt balls...I've been planning to make a fancy felt ball pin cushion for months...and DMC floss...the most popular 36 colors. I know I will use those.

Love my wonderful presents and my niece who was so thoughtful!