Trimming down "Afternoon Delight" blocks...



 Call me old-fashioned, and mostly I would agree with you.  There are a lot of new-fangled, modern quilting shortcuts that I embrace whole-heartedly.


But when it comes down to trimming hand-applique blocks, I prefer to be safe than sorry.  Especially when I am trimming down to an unusual size for which I don't own a plexiglass ruler.


Even though I still have handful of Sue Garman's "Afternoon Delight" applique blocks yet to stitch, I just could not wait to start trimming them to the unfinished size of 7-1/4 inches square.


I have a 7-inch and 7-1/2-inch commercial ruler, but no 7-1/4-inch size.  I made my own plastic template with lots of drawn lines to make it easy to find the center and line up the corners.



Because I have a tendency to slip when rotary cutting (especially when I am nervous trimming hand applique work), I got the template where I wanted it, then piled on my vintage pattern weights (I use them on the commercial square rulers, too!!).


Then, I draw around the template with my ultra-fine sharpie (or a Pigma pen).





Next I cut out my block using scissors to the inside of the ink mark.




Ta-da!  Yes, I know slicing and dicing with the rotary cutter would have been quicker, but I am completely confident with this method.  I typically watch movies or TV while I am working, and it is easy for me to make a terrible rotary mistake while trimming.  This old-fashioned, but sure method keeps me from hopping around the house, swearing...




I have been having trouble with Blogger...may be related to using Chrome as my browser.  I have not been getting email comments from all of you, which makes it hard to reply to thank you or answer your questions...SORRY!  And it makes me cranky.

Then, when I started this post 2 days ago, I could not upload photos.  MORE crankiness.  I just posted this using Internet Explorer.  It uploaded my photos, we will see if I get your comments emailed to me.  I want to do a give-away of goodies, but the comment to email thing needs to work again first.

Anyone else having this problem with Blogger?


In stitches,
Teresa   :o)




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