This post is part of the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along. For schedule of guest post pattern reviews, prizes, and contest rules, click here. Today’s guest post is from Kerry of verykerryberry. Kerry is a girl after my own heart as she loves quilting, garment sewing, and paper piecing. Also check out Sew-Ichigo, her collaborative paper-piecing site.
When Sara got in touch with a chance to test and review the Sidekick ruler and Rock Candy pattern for the Jaybirdquilts sew along, I jumped at the chance. I haven’t used many shaped rulers beyond an EZ dresden wedge and a 60 degree triangle and I always like to try something a little gadgety that promises to make my life easier.
I chose the Rock Candy pattern because I like diamonds. A Lone Star (or as I prefer to call it, Lonesome star) quilt is on my quilt to-do list and my only experience of sewing them was using English paper piecing. So, armed with the compact pattern instructions (think postcard sized fold-out size) and some layer cake pieces I got straight into the instructions.
Basically if you can cut a strip of fabric to a fixed size, you can cut a ton of diamonds with the Sidekick ruler. The Rock Candy pattern uses 2 ½” wide strips to cut the diamonds and you can stack strips and cut several layers of diamonds at a time. The ruler doesn’t slip and slide- I am a Creative Grids ruler fan and although this doesn’t have grips on, the printed lines and numbers add a little texture to the back and it stayed in place with no problems. The pattern suggests using charm squares but I found smaller scraps worked- e.g. 2 ½” x 4 ½”. I cut all my diamonds first and a few extras and played around with a scrappy layout. It is easy to fussy cut as the seam allowances are clearly marked on the ruler for all the different sizes of diamond. It’s a clever design, I noticed all the extra features to make half triangles and half diamonds that could be needed at the end of a row and also the diagrams on the right of the ruler that demonstrate how to place the ruler on a strip of fabric to achieve the different shapes- clever! Templates are included with the pattern so if you don’t have the Sidekick ruler, you can still sew the design.
The ruler is also designed to cut 60 degree triangles. Again you cut a 2 ½” strip and lay the ruler over the top, and for the next cut, you flip the ruler onto the wrong side to make your cut- you can also see Julie demonstrating this here.
I found the Sidekick a little slippy when reversed like this and needed to hold it very still when cutting. It flips to the right side for the next triangle and the triangle cutting continues like that.
The pattern instructions are crystal clear with neat diagrams so even if you have no experience of piecing triangles and diamonds, all the info is there and I found the whole thing went together very straightforwardly. Julie has posted extra tips on piecing diamonds which make it even easier. Ultimately the star is made in two halves and when I came to join the two halves together, both halves had a straight seam on either side with no distortion.
I chose to make a pillow instead of a table topper so I followed the pattern to step 4 and then added extra material at the edges to square the hexagon off. I did think that there is potential to make a quilt of giant star hexagons- another idea for the quilt to-do list. I kept my quilting fairly simple with straight lines echoing the star within a star, and added a little hand quilting with 3 strands of Cosmo embroidery floss.
The finished pillow was around 21″ square, and I finished the edges with a yuwa tape measure print. If you are in the UK, I found the Sidekick at Creative Grids along with the Rock Candy pattern. For USA folks, its is available at The Fat Quarter Shop.
On Julie’s website, you can read and see much more about the Sidekick. Her website is a treasure trove of tips and tutorials. The Sidekick is a great time saving piece of kit, accurate and easy to use and the pattern is well written and easy to use. Thanky ou to Sara and Julie for inviting to be part of the sew along, I’ve really enjoyed it!
Kerry
verykerryberry.blogspot.com
What a beautiful pillow and great review of the ruler!
Thank you so much!
Great review. I didn’t see the hand-stitching until you pointed it out and immediately wondered how it would look in the red tone thread.
Gorgeous pillow.
I wondered the same Kathyh, I did try it but the contrast was a bit strong for me- good if you want the hand stitching to really stand out though.
Beautiful cushion and hand quilting!
Thank you Lucy!
You can buy the rulers through therunningchicken.co.uk too!!! They are really good…
Thanks for the very thorough review of the pattern and the ruler. I have the Hex and More ruler, but haven’t tried it yet.