Have You Tried This?

Even with my new Accuquilt Go I am still going to have to cut with rotary cutter and ruler -- think of the expense of all those dies?  I remember seeing a teacher  talk about cutting her strips this way and decided to try it again.  

I was cutting 3 1/2" strips.  I have my large 8 1/2" ruler placed to the left of my fabric end.  Then I used a smaller ruler to actually measure the 3 1/2" strip.  Once I determined that the measurement was accurate at top and bottom, I removed the small ruler while carefully holding the large ruler steady.  And then it was time to cut. 

It worked like a charm!  It saved the step of flipping the fabric after I evened up the edge. I think I will use my 6 x 12" ruler from now on as it has a larger straight edge to align the large ruler.  Here's where these borders went to: 

Most of these fabrics with the exception of the cream background, the border and a few of the brick fabrics, were part of a bigger bag of fabrics I got at the last retreat for FCQ.  Someone had donated fabric to be used for a challenge.  I got a bag of (excuse me if you love these but) awful fabrics. Ugh.  Too busy. There were several color ways of hummingbirds, strawberries, raspberries and flowers. We had to use some of the fabric on either the front or the back.   I saw the Stacking Brick pattern at Jo's Country Junction and drew it in EQ to make it a bit bigger. (Easier to count how many bricks I needed to cut.) It was a snap to make.  All the rows are made the same. On the end of each row you add a square instead of a brick.  When you lay it out you flip the row so that the square is on the left, next one on the right... etc.  Tres easy!  

Back to the challenge fabrics. I didn't make much of a dent in my fabrics and I sure didn't want any leftovers.  So, I picked several untouched fat quarters and some of the leftovers from the blocks and pieced the backing.  I tried to put less busy fabrics next to the busy ones but honestly, there wasn't much I could do to calm it down.

First row done. 

Backing complete.

Hopefully it will be fine on the back.  I believe these quilts will be donated to Project Linus when completed.  Hopefully this one will be done to hang in the FCQ quilt show in April.  

Do you live in the Mid-Atlantic states?  Watch out then.  Here's the snowfall predictions for the storm that is moving in tomorrow.  Do you see Richmond down there?  We live a bit to the left of it.  About where the 3 to 6" turns into 6 to 12".  Our kids both live in the 12 to 24" area. Yuck.  Done that, been there and really don't want to do it again. 

So we are prepping our house and lives for a snowy weekend.  Gas is available for the small generator we have.  Water is available for drinking in case we don't want to run the generator for long periods of time. (We have a well.)   Food is available that doesn't have to be heated up.  Ice is packed into the freezers to help keep the food cold.  I keep charging the electronics so that I can have something to read on. (I have an old cell phone I only charge up when I will be somewhere that may not have electricity to recharge for a while.)  And, I've got lots of fabric I can cut up on my Go if the power does go out.  We have a gravel driveway so we don't have to clear that although, we probably won't be able to leave for a few days either.  Our streets get plowed early on because the local sheriff lives in the neighborhood.  Stay warm this weekend and sew to your heart's content! I'll be firing up Ruthie this morning to quilt some quilts today and tomorrow, hopefully. 

I'm linking up with Really Random Thursday, Let's Be Social, Needle and Thread Thursday and Can I Get a Whoop? which I'll add once it is up. 

Happy Quilting All! a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank">