Fun New Tool

When I am at Houston, I am always looking for something new, and this year it was in the Robin Ruth Designs booth.

She has tools for strip piecing a Mariner’s Compass block….no paper-piecing required!!! And, THAT is a big deal for me!!

Linda and I were both impressed with the videos and other visuals that she had available to teach how to use the rulers.

I watched several of the videos and then bit the bullet and bought one…..

Yes, it looks a bit weird!!

She had a special going, so I purchased her angle ruler as well…..

Now……fast forward to a quiet day in my studio. It was time to give it a try!!

I picked four strips from my scrap bin

….and started following the detailed instructions!!

She even suggests things like how far to offset the strips so that you don’t waste fabric…..

The process is something like this…..

Sew two strips together and make a series of cuts…..

It took me a while to determine which lines and points to use, but once I did, it went together pretty easily.

After you get the new unit sewn together (the “pie” as she calls it), you sew the pies onto the next strip…..

….perform more cuts and sew onto the next strip…..

Are you getting the picture here?

Before long, I had a Mariner’s Compass block pieced…..

The design leaves a hole in the center that is covered with an appliqued circle….

For my sample practice, I chose to cut the design into a circle…..

….and inset it into a square…..

The entire process took about 2 hours, and that included a fair amount of time reading, and re-reading, and re-reading, and re-reading the instructions!!

I am excited about this ruler and have a project in mind.

STAY TUNED!!

If you are interested in piecing Mariner’s Compass blocks, I highly recommend any of Robin’s patterns. This is the one that I purchased…..

This pattern can be purchased on Amazon

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