I'm in a bit of a holding pattern here as I find myself waiting for some fabric to arrive in order to complete the fabric cutting for my fallish quilt... somebody (let's not get petty and name names here, right?) decided that a 2 am bout of sleeplessness is the perfect time to iron and cut lots of fabric (with a 60 mm blade, it could have gone oh so wrong... ahem) and lopped a pesky half inch off of many blocks needed for said fallish quilt. Oops. It's that gold flowery fabric... I have my heart set on it. Sigh, though fingers are intact!
In other news, I've been sewing up some test blocks in preparation for this quilt and my half square triangles are a little scary. I've tried a few methods... this one (from the Missouri Quilt Company) where you simply sew 1/4 inch around the block and then chop it in halves or quarters. Then I tried this one where you measure out a center line and sew 1/4'' from that line on both sides. My test blocks were... um... off... with first method. I'm a pinner and I think my pins were causing some issues. I attempted (don't giggle) to use my 1/4 guide foot for one of the test blocks and that was a disaster but ironically those blocks were more accurate than the first method ones. So I thought. I walked away from it. I purchased these Omnigrid rulers and now... I think I've got it. The life-saving rulers came in three different sizes, I place the middle line on the center drawn line on my blocks then draw a line on each side. Easy. I like this method because it is lending itself to chain piecing, which I really appreciate and my blocks are so much more accurate. Good investment I think as my love affair with triangles is undeterred by their wonkiness. Lesson learned.
Rob is away for work and I'm currently juggling the dog (who believes if she stares at the street long enough he'll appear or at least she'll figure out where he went), grad school classes, the onset of school... as a result of constant Powerball losses (the numbers are mocking me), different grad school classes and preparing to teach American literature for the first time in a looong time (I'm reading Huck Finn for the first time since I was in high school...). So things are a bit crazy here in this little corner of my world. Happily, sewing, loft organization and writing here have been lovely little distractions from the crazy... balance is super important I'm finding. Remind me of this in a few weeks when I add kids and grading won't you? Excellent. I hope you are finding calm and balance in the midst of your own storms and enjoying this Thursday, whatever it brings. Back tomorrow with some Etsy finds!
