{"id":2063,"date":"2015-05-02T15:22:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T22:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2015-05-02T15:24:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T22:24:42","slug":"a-not-so-new-toy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2015\/05\/02\/a-not-so-new-toy\/","title":{"rendered":"A not-so-new toy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago I bought a tool and a pattern at Susan Cleveland’s booth at the Houston show. As\u00a0happens all too often, both ended up in a drawer with a promise of using them “someday”. Then last year I came across a little bundle of linen rectangles, each a little smaller than a fat quarter\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and they also ended up in that drawer. Yesterday I ran across all of those things, and I decided that “someday” was now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0418\"<\/a>What was the tool? It was the Prairie Pointer<\/a>, and I’d heard great things about it, but I just hadn’t gotten around to making prairie points. Now I can say that it works really well, though I still haven’t done any prairie points with it. LOL! But, as you can see from the photo, it has a very nice tip for pushing out points\u00a0\u2014\u00a0without poking a hole into the fabric. On top of that, it’s metal and so the iron’s heat really penetrates and gives a nice sharp finish to that point.<\/p>\n

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\"IMG_0420\"<\/a>So, if I didn’t make any prairie points, what did I use the tool for? I’m making a\u00a0Dresden Plate quilt, and this tool gives beautifully sharp points at the tips of the spokes of those plates! The pattern<\/a> I’d purchased so long\u00a0ago has spokes with points at both ends, eliminating the need for an appliqu\u00e9d circle in the center of each plate. I’m not ready to show you my version of the pattern, but here are a few leftover\u00a0Dresden Plate pieces. These aren’t stitched together, but look at those sharp points! I’d hoped to use turquoise for the plates, but I didn’t have enough intense\u00a0shades\u00a0\u00a0on hand (pale ones wouldn’t have shown up at all!), so I switched to batiks in reds, oranges and yellows that I did have on hand. They’ll be appliqu\u00e9d onto a pieced background of linen, which should be interesting; the dual feed on my Bernina 780 has really helped to keep\u00a0that stretchy fabric under control!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago I bought a tool and a pattern at Susan Cleveland’s booth at the Houston show. As\u00a0happens all too often, both ended up in a drawer with a promise of using them “someday”. Then last year I came across a little bundle of linen rectangles, each a little smaller than a fat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,299],"tags":[202,217,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-2063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-piecing","7":"category-quilting","8":"tag-bernina","9":"tag-piecing-2","10":"tag-tools","11":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yzuO-xh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4246,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2020\/07\/20\/further-steps\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":0},"title":"Further steps …","author":"Sandy","date":"July 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I've mentioned before that I'm doing a series of classes -- given by one of my favorite teachers, Philippa Naylor -- online. Class #8 was a couple of methods of doing trapunto. I used some boring beige fabric I happened to have in the right size for this, thinking I'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free motion quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Free motion quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/free-motion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"trapunto hearts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_1157-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5177,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2023\/10\/26\/stitch-by-stitch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":1},"title":"Stitch by Stitch","author":"Sandy","date":"October 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The title of this post is actually the title of a class (and project) developed by Susan Cleveland; our guild brought her here last week for a lecture, a trunk show, and a couple of classes. One of the classes was to learn her Dresden Plate technique, which I've used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Small (11\") quilt with \"blocks\" done in heavy thread. Added prairie points embellished with wool balls and buttons.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMG_0028-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5613,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2025\/04\/05\/how-does-this-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":2},"title":"How does this happen?","author":"Sandy","date":"April 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My \"bird project\" is supposed to be something I'll work on during sewing days sponsored by my guild. Somehow, though, I just couldn't resist making the third in the series at home a few days ago -- and it's a very good thing I did! The designs are paper pieced,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Piecing"","block_context":{"text":"Piecing","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/piecing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paper-pieced block of a robin with orange head and white and grey body. It is sitting on a brown branch with a blue background.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0896-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4318,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2020\/10\/10\/curved-piecing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":3},"title":"Curved piecing","author":"Sandy","date":"October 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I took a few days off from working on my clamshells and finished another of the online classes I've been enjoying. This one gave techniques on designing curved blocks from traditional ones and then piecing them. I didn't design my own block, since one was included in the lesson, \u00a0and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Piecing"","block_context":{"text":"Piecing","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/piecing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"curved block","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_1216-282x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2050,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2015\/04\/21\/practice-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":4},"title":"Practice","author":"Sandy","date":"April 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had a difficult time getting going on a new project, but a couple of days ago I ran across a kit for a very small dresser scarf; I'd hidden it away a few years ago for future use. I\u00a0decided that the mindless piecing involved would be a good way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free motion quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Free motion quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/free-motion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0392","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/IMG_0392-267x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4013,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2019\/11\/12\/new-project-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":5},"title":"New project","author":"Sandy","date":"November 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I had some fun at the quilt shop as I picked out eight colors for my next quilt, which will be quite a bit smaller than my last one. However, it's going to have a lot more pieces! I'm paper piecing this one, a technique I've enjoyed for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Piecing"","block_context":{"text":"Piecing","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/piecing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"triangular block","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0973-286x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}