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| Six nine-patch blocks |
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| Block 2B |
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| Block 1A |
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| One of 88 nine-patches done, 87 more to go! |
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| All of the pieces |
About the time I started this project I was in search of a high quality extension table for my sewing machine. I did not find what I was looking for through the manufacturer of my sewing machine. I stumbled upon an adjustable extension table. By adjustable, I mean that it will fit pretty much any sewing machine, regardless of brand and model. The US company is call Sewing Mates and the owner is Barb Greer and her husband Dwight.
The Wizard comes with a cling on ruler, but I am already using a 'Clearly Perfect Angles" cling on guide. Below are some pictures with it attached to my extension table.
The Wizard seam guide lines up with my Clearly Perfect Angles guide. As you can see, I already have a line to guide my 1/4 inch seam
allowance. That made it easy for me to align the seam guide along that
line and tighten it in place.
This is my full setup. Another great feature of the Sewing Mates Sew AdjusTable extension table is that is is clear. I can slip my tray of tools underneath and have full access to them as needed.
The Wizard seam guide has a notch cut out to make room for your foot. It is fully adjustable to fit pretty much any machine.
The first tip I have is to practice with some scrap material. This was helpful for me to get used to a different way to feed to fabric to then needle. Once I felt confident the seam guide was securely attached to the extension table I was able to focus on the fabric at the point it was feeding under the foot. I no longer needed to watch the assist line with the "Clearly Perfect Angles" cling on guide. The result was that I had way less eye strain and I was able to sew for much longer.
My second tip is make sure the seam guide is flat all the way through the arm of the machine. If the bed is higher than your extension table you will notice that the fabric can slide underneath the guide. Each sewing machine is different, and I found that I had to raise my extension table a tiny bit higher than I had it. This little bit of pre-planning really helps later.
After I was satisfied with how to work with the guide, I zipped through sewing half square triangles, which will be used to complete the nine-patch blocks. I could not believe how quick it went! I stopped half way to double check my seams and was very happy to see that everything was consistent. Right out of the gate everything went smoothly.
I have decided that I will be completing all of the half square triangles before piecing the nine-patch blocks. This is the least fun part of my project, but now I am excited because with the Wizard seam guide it is so quick and easy.
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| Six completed nine-patch blocks and six ready to go |
My first impressions of the Circle and Seam Guide Wizard couldn't be better.
By the way, the project I am working on has 88 nine-patch blocks, each with many parts. I posted the picture of my design at the top of this posting. There are only 2 different block types, each done two different ways. So, there are only four different blocks. The triangles were what kept me from finishing it a long time ago. I was going cross eyed as I was trying to feed them straight into the machine. Now, using the Wizard seam guide, it is a breeze and no more eye strain!
My only caution is to maintain control of your work flow. I found that using the seam guide built my confidence and I started to rush. It is so quick and easy to feed the fabric to the needle that you want to just keep moving along. But on about a dozen occasions my machine wanted to eat the leading point of my triangles. AND once I fed too many triangles at one time!
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| Mistakes Happen! Three triangles sewn together. |
I have been using my Circle and Seam Wizard for a week, but only the seam guide feature. And I must say, I am very happy!
