Just before Christmas a number of years ago, I was working on two identical commissioned quilts. These quilts were simple 5 inch half square triangles (HSTs) arranged in a diamond pattern with a 5 inch border to finish it off. Seemed like this would be a simple enough project that work itself up very easily and quickly, boys was i wrong!
With 288 HSTs per quilt, I quickly realized this was going to take me slightly longer than I had originally thought and that I was quickly running out of time if i wanted to finish all my Christmas projects before the guy in the big red suit and beard showed up! I increased my productivity by using the four at a time method of making the HST, but trimming them was what was slowing me down. I had to be careful to the bias edges this method creates.
Ruth and the girls had previously introduced me to the Bloc Loc ruler collections. I thought they were cool, ordered them in, promoted them with videos and in store promotion but never gave them much thought after that. I wish I had known how amazing these rulers are through the first 150 HSTs. Late on a Saturday night after the shop was closed i went in an got a Bloc Loc ruler of my own. Trimming the remaining HST was a breeze!. There are many Bloc Loc ruler projects in my near future, and I can't wait to show them to you.
But if I am truthful, thinking it was quicker was not enough for me, so i put it to the test. I wanted to know if it just appeared to be quicker because it seemed easier or if it was actually quicker. I took two piles of 24 HSTs and a stopwatch and went to task. I was blown away !! It me a 1/3 of the time to trim my 24 HSTs with the Bloc Loc ruler then it took to trim without the Bloc Loc. Needless to say I now own a number of Bloc Loc rulers, from the HST ruler, to the Flying Geese ruler and the Strip Set ruler.
Helping you make memories one step at a time!
