Cluck Cluck Sew

First off, thank you for your patience with me after the Diagonal Seam Tape sold out… for now it is BACK IN STOCK!!! 

You can find the listing for it here, and I’ve opened up international shipping (read the description in the listing for more info). 

You can find the Diagonal Seam Tape website here with all the info about it, and my blog post about it here. 

I hope you love it as much as I do!

The last half of the summer was so jam packed I didn’t sew one stitch.  Instead I made some pretty fabric piles like this one that sat on my cutting table staring me down for a couple months. 

I used some Rifle Paper Co. florals that I’ve been saving, and mixed in lots of basics to make a Trellis quilt.   

My kids started school on the 4th and I spent allllllll afternoon sewing while Jane played and napped. 

I used Diagonal Seam Tape to make the blocks super fast, and I sewed….

and sewed….

and sewed.  

I seriously felt like a new woman.  The end of the summer was long.  ;)

I made the crib size of the pattern, and obviously I made the “ombre” version…sort of.  

The Trellis pattern can be found here as a PDF, or here as a paper pattern.  

Even though I didn’t get much sewing time this summer (hence the pile of fabric on my table), we did manage to get in a few sewing lessons for Sophie and the boys.  Sophie and I made a sleeping bag for her doll, and the boys made pouches and pillowcases.

Next up is piecing quilts for Mom!  ;)

Back in stock in my shop here!  

I shared a peek at this last week, but I thought it probably deserves it’s own post since it took me forever to develop!  

I’ve been using painters tape as a guide on my machine for years…I even wrote a post about it 9 years ago here.   I usually use it for sewing diagonal seams instead of marking lines, but I also use it for making HST’s.  There are lasers, or plastic seam guides you can buy and attach to your machine with adhesives, but I found them bulky and a pain to use.   

So I decided to make my own tape that is pretty, functional, and easy to use.  

Diagonal Seam Tape™ is washi tape that is tough but thin, and easily removable.   I made a long web page devoted to it here: 

How to Use Diagonal Seam Tape

It’s placed in front of the feed dogs of the machine, and the red line is the stitching line, placed in front of the needle.  The black lines are just a perk, they represent a 1/4″ seam allowance and are helpful when making HST’s, keeping strips straight while strip piecing, or even helping a beginner learn to piece.  

Mostly you’ll use the red line for making diagonal seams without marking a pencil line on your square, like when making a snowball block: 

Or you can using it when making flying geese units: 

You can use it anywhere in a pattern that tells you to “mark a diagonal line”, or anywhere you need to sew a diagonal seam.   In patterns with multiple diagonal seams like Chickens, Bats, Trellis, or Shimmer…using tape is what saves me the most time!

I could go on and on…but ALL the info and more is in the web page for the tape you can read through here. 

You can find Diagonal Seam Tape in my shop here.  

I’m thrilled with how it turned out after months of thinking about it and working out the details of printing (long story short… it’s a big fat pain and costly to have something so precise printed on tape!).   After using it on my own machines for a couple of months I can’t imagine not having it.   I don’t know if I’ll re-print it again, so I hoarded enough to last me at least until I’m 90… or until I get a sewing machine with a fancy laser guide built in (all machines should have them!).