Bali Pops

I get a news letter from an on-line quilt shop, Over the Rainbow, and they got this great information from a subscriber.

Here's an interesting note I got from customer Sandy...something I didn't know...

Hi Laura, I just got back from a wonderful trip to "Road to California" quilt show in Ontario.

Anyway, I took a "Strip Therapy" class with Brenda Henning, who has written all those wonderful books that use fabulous Bali Pops 2 1/2" strips. She pointed out something to us that none of us would be aware of if she had not told us. The Bali Pops are hand cut, they are not die cut or pecision cut. The result is that the strips are not always exactly 2 1/2" wide. On the little tag on the Bali Pops, which no one ever reads, in very small print it states that some variance in width may occur. You don't think too much about this until you find your project going all catawampus because your strips are not all the same width. But she showed us how to compensate for this defect, and I thought you might want to pass this along to your customers wholove these Bali Pops (they are so gorgeous!).

What she had us do was put a see-thru ruler on our sewing machine, under the needle, drop the presser foot, and gradually bring the needle dow (by hand) to the 2 1/4" mark on the ruler. Then you take a piece of painters tape or other tape and attach it to your machine right along the right side of the ruler, which gives you a line that is exactly 2 1/4" from the needle. When you sew your fabric, you line it up with tape on the right side, and where ever the needle lands on the seam, it doesn't matter, because if you guide it accurately, your resulting sewn strips will be accurate, even if the seam is not 1/4" all the way along. Does that make sense? I now have a permanent piece of blue painter tape on my sewing machine to guide me when I use the Bali Pops.

Keep doing what you're doing, you are the best! Sandy R. Livermore, CA.


Great information, don't you think?

Kathryn