Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Good Fortune, Part 2

December 3

We had a BIG EARTHQUAKE three days ago. It was a 7.0 on the Richter Scale. Our power was out for three hours. I didn't get much quilting done that day. Some of our stuff fell off shelves and broke, but luckily, fabric doesn't break.

I could say that I had to clean up the mess from all the papers sliding off both of our desks, along with a cup of coffee, so I didn't have time to sew, but that wouldn't be accurate. 

My husband's desk is usually very, very neat, but not after an earthquake.

I absolutely had time to sew - once the power came back on. After all, this was the day Clue #2 came out.

So I did get some of the half square triangles for Clue #2 done. I used the Essential Triangle Tool. The test pieces didn't come out quite the right size, but I trimmed them down and they were fine, and I vowed to be more careful with future pieces. Actually, I thought I was being very careful in the first place. Careful measuring, and careful cutting, and careful sewing.

As I went along, they did seem to become more accurate and they didn't require as much - or any - trimming. That's a good thing, because I really don't know what else I can do to make them the exact size they need to be. (Don't tell me to buy an AccuCut system. Too expensive. It really ought to be possible to do this without an expensive piece of equipment.) 

I did find a good article on half square triangles here: How to Make Half Square Triangles

Here's a link to Bonnie Hunter so you can see what other people did: Bonnie's Link-Up, Part 2

Lessons learned:

• Don't leave piles of paper on your desk or on shelves or on top of filing cabinets
• Probably not a good idea to leave your iron sitting up
• Always unplug your sewing machine when you are done working. Who knows when there will be a power surge?
• Don't cut all of your strips before you make your test pieces. You might decide to use a different HST method.