Just because...

... I need more projects!

Chrissy over at Sew Lux Fabric and Gifts is hosting a Scrap Attack Strings quilt-a-long that looks interesting, so I figured well, why not!  For her size project she's making just two 5" blocks a week for 40 weeks (80 blocks), which will give her a 44 x 55 quilt.  Since I make string blocks every now and then and toss them in a box, I thought I'd go with this quilt-a-long and see what I see.  So far, I've made 6 blocks and they went together really fast!

The one thing that makes these blocks differ from the ones I usually make is, we're using a white strip in the middle.  Chrissy gave a great tutorial on how to "semi-paper-piece" these blocks.  Paper foundations are great but let's admit it - the paper is a pain to remove from all those stitching lines.  Now, it may be a small, tiny minor pain, but it's still a pain.  The way she shows us, you only sew on the paper with that first seam...

You use a shortened stitch for that seam, then for the others you use a regular seam with a 1/4" seam allowance!  Then when you remove the paper, you only have that one seam to tear loose.  Great idea, wish I'd thought of it years ago!

I'm using phone book paper that Bonnie at Quiltville introduced us to, and I'm loving it.  I have a bunch of paper foundations cut and marked, ready to sew.   All I need to do now is cut some white strips for the center, and I'm all set! 

More adventures with the workmen next door, eyowww!  This time it was a good one; two men came around 10 yesterday morning to work on the air handling system.  I had taken some trash outside and saw these floor tiles they'd tossed out for trash, so asked for them.

Some had got broken when they tossed em, but there were still 9 good ones with no chips or anything so I took them all.  What in the world will she do with floor tiles??

I made a trivet!  I use an iron skillet in my oven and I don't like to set the hot skillet directly on my countertop.  Also, I have a glass-top range and an iron skillet would fuse the glass, so that's a BIG no-no!

I put something beneath this one to raise it slightly off the counter top so I won't have heat transfer - hey, it works!

Sew forth and sew on