(Not) Going on a Picnic

This week the heat has been absolutely brutal, and the thought of doing anything outside almost brings me to tears. Unfortunately, or fortunately I guess, Diva is signed up for swim lessons and is destined to be a beautiful mermaid by the end of the summer. The unfortunate part is that I've had to haul Little Loo into the unbearable heat this week, and even though lessons are at 9:45am it has still been 90 degrees the last couple of mornings.

That being said, once I managed to get home getting into my sewing room has been last on the list of things to do. But I still managed to do it! I finished my block of the week entitled Going on a Picnic.

I also tried a new tool this week- the Perfect half-square and quarter-square triangles ruler by June Taylor, Inc. I actually bought this ruler for my cake decorating believe it or not... so since I had it I figured I might as well give it a go for its regular intended use. Maybe its because I already had a way that worked for me, but I wasn't a fan of this ruler. The way it works is like this: First you mark your sewing lines using the left side of the ruler. Then you sew down the lines, bring the stitched block to the right side of the ruler and cut the triangles apart, and press open. Then you use the grid in the center to square everything up.

At first I thought I really liked it. Drawing the lines meant I had a nice guide to sew off of, and cutting the square in half was a cinch too... but that damn squaring up nearly cost me my fabric. Something just wasn't working for me and I nearly lobbed off a quarter of an inch on one side. Oops. I'll give it another go...  but definitely on some scraps next time.