Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A little something for nature lovers and for quilters today...

This is one of Mama Squirrel's babies from the past summer. She and her babies can be seen Here Just scroll down to June 10th I think it is. Mama still comes to be fed and so do the babies. It has been sleeting this real fine mist a little bit today...everything is hungry and cold. If it is Mama Squirrel she will come running from across the street or down the street when I call her...this is her baby because it knows my voice, and perks up if I peck on the window. It knows to stick around for food. Mama will also come up on the back porch and hang from the storm door letting me know that she is hungry...she will sit with me at the picnic table or I can sit on the edge of the porch and she will sit beside me and eat....but she will not allow me to touch her still. Though she still feels entirely free to grab my hand and pull it to her to see if there is anything in it.

Now to quilting, this is one of the best hints I have ever heard for quilting. I thought taking pictures would be the best way to show what I mean. I am not sure where I heard it first, but it is NOT something I thought of. And I have seen others do something similiar but they don't carry it this far. I have seen people mark their rulers by sticking post it notes on the top side of their rulers, but the very best thing is to use at least a stack of three post it notes and stick on the under side of the ruler on the exact line you want to cut.

When you have your fabric layered, and after you make the first squaring up cut, you just butt these up to the fabric. You can feel them meet almost, and for sure see easier. And you don't make near as many mistakes cutting the wrong size.

I have to have a 2 1/2 inch square but for my current project, I found it easier to use my little 4 inch ruler marked this way because it is easier to hold on to than to hold the little 2 1/2 inch ruler without moving it.


If I am cutting across the width of the fabric, I will use at least three stacks of post-it notes on the under side of the 24 inch ruler. And if it is bigger squares, I use what I feel comfortable with to get the exact size I want.



And this is one of the blocks I have made...so you can kind of see what I should be doing instead of playing on here.