Making the Cut

One of the most difficult things a quilter often faces is cutting into perfectly good fabric.

Orestes, was the subject of several Greek plays & ancient myths, back in the day, that were connected with madness and purifications. Those old records credit him with saying, "Often the test of courage is not to die, but to live."

For me, as I quilt, the courage is not setting something aside that isn't working for me, but it is finding my way through the problem. These squares start out as cut at 3.5", then get joined for the Half Square Triangle (HST), and are to be trimmed to a 2" square. That means four cuts to make them correctly.

What if it is wrong? What if I am not reading the directions correctly? I go one step at a time, trimming, pinning, joining, hoping that I am doing it right.

Even taking simple pics helps to slow me down. I have time to think, time to cut, more time to think again about what I am doing. Directions showed the darker squares & say to simply rotate the lighter ones and piece them.

I use the pic on the directions more than the words for my guide. It is pieced unit by unit until this grand block appears and the June block is done!!

All the HSTs were done and so it just needed to be laid out. This is the second layout and will be easy to piece after trimming and pinning. July block is done!!

There are five more blocks to go. It looks to need more black prints and so I am making a note-to-self to remind me when I make the next blocks. They don't have to finish off in the same order, so once all 12 are done, I might rearrange them for color.