Strings and things

Three things to be happy about:
(1) learning a new thing
(2) singing on-key
(3) knowing all the words to a theme song

I just learned a new thing!

I was watching the Today show last week and they did a segment on "things that we don't use correctly."  One thing that caught my attention was about how people use the hole in the handle of their pots... did you know in the front of your mind that you had that??  Most people use them to hang the pots (not me) but the lady said the "real" use was as a spoon holder, and you know what - it works!  I'll be doing that from now on!

In my never-ending scrap adventures, I've been making 2-1/2 x 8-1/2 paper-pieced strips along with Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  For that project, each strip is pieced with small scraps so that each one is unique, for random scrappiness.  But I reached the point where I wanted to really wale on those strips! Move more, move em faster faster!

I took some telephone book yellow pages and paper pieced the strips horizontally, then I cross-cut them into 2-1/2" strips on my GO cutter - you gotta love that little doo-hicky!

You can get three strips from each page so you'll end up with three identical strips, but I decided that didn't really matter.  I can spread them out throughout the quilt.

Next I drew a pencil line down the center on the paper side, because I wanted to make a 45-degree cut and I wanted it to be centered as close as possible.

I discovered a really neat feature about that particular ruler - if you cut a block on the diagonal, it tells you the size square you should cut for the setting triangles - kewl!

Anyway, I made a 45-degree cut at each end of the strip, making it 7-1/2" long - my final block is 6-1/2" and this gave me enough wiggle room to square it down!

Adding the wings...

TV time was also remove-the-paper time before I sewed on the setting triangles.

I used white-on-white fabrics from my stash and large scrap bin, it's not all from the same yardage but that's okay!

Wasn't too long before I had a stack of 6-1/2" blocks with the scrappy strip running diagonally across the center!

They went together really fast and guess what - I still have strips!  Got more waling to do!


Have a great Monday - sew forth and sew on!