Time Tip Tuesday: A box and a Flannel Board - no flannelgrams though

EDITED TO ADD: You can VOTE for my Scrap Nest tutorial at
Sew, Mama, Sew

until Thursday, October 29th.

You can vote for up to 8 tutorials, actually:)
Check out all 114 tutorials here!

This week features two tips - to double your chances of successfully finishing a block!


We last left our piles of triangles waiting to be pressed open at our pressing station. Once pressed they need a safe place to wait before being made into a block. They can't stay on the ironing board forever:)


This box I picked up at the grocery store fits nicely on top of my plastic storage unit. The half square triangles fit neatly inside of it, too. Here they wait and are kept safely stacked in fours until it's their turn.


Then it's onto the flannel design board. This I inherited from my husband's granny. It's perfect for these blocks - and most others. It measures 13 inches square and is quite sturdy. I've recently seen others making mini design boards by wrapping a piece of cardboard with flannel.

The board helps me keep my squares going the right way. I put the board beside my sewing machine and return the pieces to it as I sew. Sometimes I still sew a pair together wrong, but then I find out right away and fix it.



On days when I'm feeling particularly ambitious I will also lay out a second block - on deck. On my mini ironing board, that is. Then I simply transfer it to the flannel board and I'm ready to go again.

What you need to make this tip a success for you:

box or container to store waiting units

flannel board to fit one block

time to sew one block - or even one unit of the block!

Additional elements that may be required:

patience

a seam ripper

some chocolate

(perhaps not in this order!)

With Joy,
Sarah Vee