Doing Battle With Points
Christmas Blizzard in progress. Fabric is Solstice by Kate Spain, except the pinwheel background which is Moda Marble
Last Sunday I bopped down to Ladybug’s Quilts in Manteca for a class with Mo Gonzales. She was teaching “Summer Breeze” out of the book Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett. I have been working away on the Hearts & Hands strip quilt (5 strip sets done of 8 total), albeit with a bit of dissatisfaction about my fabric choices — it’s a bit too matchy-matchy for me, in retrospect, but I’m going to finish it even if I give it away. But even with all the washing and folding of luscious new fabric, I was a bit afraid to start cutting into something else — hence the class.
The stash so far. Hmm, I don’t think I have enough blues…
Which was a brilliant idea. I vaguely remember fussing and pinning the points in Magical Cats, but Summer Breeze (I think mine is going to be named Christmas Blizzard, stay tuned) has pinwheels composed of half-square triangles, and I clearly need practice with those. A lot of practice. Mo is a super teacher, right there when you need help (and the four of us in the class covered a wide range of experience). I also clearly need more practice cutting. The jelly roll (Solstice by Kate Spain) was straightforward as you would expect, but I really struggled with getting the background fabric on the correct side for my right-handed self, and then leaning on the ruler hard enough to not slip, and then leaning on the (brand new, so it’s not the blade) cutter hard enough to reliably get through 6 layers of fabric… well, it’s going together if it kills me. Which it might. I knocked off Monday night after sewing pinwheel #4, ripping it apart, sewing it together.. and realizing I’d made the same mistake AGAIN. Three pinwheels down, fifteen to go.
Christmas Blizzard in progress. Fabric is Solstice by Kate Spain, except the pinwheel background which is Moda Marble
3 Responses to “Doing Battle With Points”
Love the fabric collection- super cheery! As to cutting multiple layers, a swift stroke is better than cautious and slow. Are you keeping part of the ruler hand on the mat? Some other day I will mutter about points…
No, the ruler hand stays on the ruler, lest there be blood on the fabric (a tragedy!)
Yep, blood stains are yuck. Keeping the ruler hand always behind the cutting hand helps. As does wearing a fish filet glove. Also available is a handle that suctions onto the ruler, very cool. I have a long ruler with an attached, enclosed blade that is super for strip cutting. Will send a pic of my toys.