Painter's Tape Seam Guide

Ever have one of those days when you just want to sit and sew without thinking too much about it? Yesterday was one of those days for me. I found a bunch of cut pieces that I hadn't sewn because I didn't want to get the ruler and mark each little square. Since the time the squares were cut, I have found a great way to avoid marking for triangles! You can use painter's tape!

See how the lower, left-hand corner of the white square is on the middle line on the painter's tape? No more marking. Here how I put it on the machine:

I positioned the 1" wide tape between the marks on my machine's throat plate. I then drew a line down the middle of the tape that is also where the needle sits. Then I drew a line 1/4" on each side. Be sure to put the tape right up to the feed dogs. For flying geese blocks and blocks like the ones I'm working on, use the middle line as a guide! For squares that you use to make two half-square triangle blocks, use the outside lines and cut between them when sewn. No more marking! I stitched up quite a few of these blocks without marking:

They are the bottom part of some tulip blocks (and the one I'm showing you isn't trimmed). There are 30 blocks in the quilt and that means 120 little white squares just for the bottom block. I did not want to mark 120 squares! While I was doing this, I put a photo of it on Instagram (still trying to learn to use that) and because of the comments I got, I thought I'd just share this with you. Hope it's helpful. It is a real time saver! Have a great Sunday! XO from Bev