Marsh

I'm ready to cut my first HST on the 6.50" die. Have any of you done this, and then to you have to paper piece this triangles before sewing. Or do you press on stabilizer before you run through the die. I practiced this with muslin and when starting to sew the point would go down in my sewing machine. Don't know if it. was because of the type of fabric or if this will happen with all of the triangles which have been starched heavily.

LindaM

Using a 'leader' will help prevent the tip of the triangles getting eaten by your machine. A leader is just a small scrap that you start the sewing with, when you're chain piecing.

Bonnie Hunter's take on this ... http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2005/0...-and-hows.html

Charming

My best advise (this is what i do and been told by my dealer) is to use a single hole needle plate. I used to us the wide hole plate because of doing decorative stitches, but when i want to piece corner shaped pieces i use the single hole and the machine doesn't eat my fabric anymore.
Hope that helps

Marsh

Thank you Linda, I used the leaders when I practiced on the muslin, and it didn't help.

Marsh

Charming - I'll try that - I have a Baby Lock and it came with the single hole plate. What a good idea.

PaperPrincess

The problem you are having isn't because of the die, it's your sewing machine. Any triangle you sew is going to do this. A single hole plate will help, also make sure your needle size isn't too large, or you are using a dull needle. If you are still having problems, your idea to paper piece is good, but overkill. Don't need to have paper under the entire seam. Just try using a small square of tissue paper under the leading edge of the triangle, & let it stick out a quarter inch or so in front of it so you can sew a couple stitches on the paper then the paper & fabric.

hobo2000

I gave up on my Go Baby and went back to Edyta Sitars half square triangle papers. Always perfect and no wasted material. Two pieces of material, 6.5 x 21" equals 28 perfect 2" half sq. Triangles in about 10 min. Never a bad one! Material is getting too expensive to waste!

Prism99

I agree with PaperPrincess. My Bernina 1230 doesn't eat triangle points, even with the wide hole plate in it. Her suggestion to use just small squares of tissue paper underneath (if the single hole plate isn't enough to prevent the problem) is genius!

QuiltingByFiona

Interesting! Was going to buy a HST die, but might just stick to sewing two squares right sides together 1/4 inch from centre diagonal line, then cutting on the centre line....

Prism99

I like using the Go dies for HST's -- very accurate in part because all the "dog ears" are cut off. Makes lining them up easy. For me, these are more accurate than when I used to sew squares together; however, as I mentioned, my machine does not "eat" triangle points.