Teeny Tiny Little Quilt Blocks

I'm taking a little mental health break from query letters this week (my worst rejection so far--"pass but god bless") and re-charging my creative batteries, so to speak. There's been a lot of list-making in the sketchbook (birthday ideas for my cousin Katie, projects I want to make and modify from ), lots of planning of crazy-elaborate projects I may or may not make (Will wanted a pretend birthday cake, so I was thinking some high-density foam, denim, piping, and Eco-fi felt applique decorations?), and hopefully some sewing to come soon (rainbow birthday buntings, help me make time for you!), but today, during Sydney's all-too-short nap, I had an extremely happy time watching the first four episodes of Dollhouse on hulu while cutting out blocks for my postage stamp quilt squares swap over at Craftster:For those of you not CRAZY like I am, postage stamp quilt blocks are 1.5" square; when pieced, these blocks will appear to be 1" square. I do already have a ton cut out from a previous swap, but I've been afraid of touching them for a really long time after I somehow messed up piecing them, I do not know how, and ended up with a bunch of quilt blocks whose finished size when pieced was 1"x1.25". I'm still scared by the fact that I DO NOT KNOW what I was doing wrong.

The fun thing about cutting out postage stamp quilt squares is making fussy cuts, so that you preserve the image of a flower, or a kittycat face, or whatever, in your tiny little block. The challenging thing is cutting extremely accurately. A gridded self-healing mat and a gridded clear plastic rule make this much easier:See how, at the left edge of the picture there, you can line up the clear ruler on the gridded mat at the appropriate lines so that the fabric to the right of the ruler is cut accurately?

Good times.

In other news, Willow took a photo of the first flower of springtime in our yard:Since she's just started using my camera this winter, I think this is her very first photo of a growing flower. Ever.

How cool is that?

P.S. Check out my list of art museum web sites that offer interactive children's activities--it's over at Eco Child's Play.