Cutting is done

I had a very productive morning! I even took pictures. Sharing here will save Tony from a play by play tonight. :)

Here you can see the strips I cut that I'll sew together to make the blocks for the quilt. (I am without sewing machine for the weekend, so this project is on hold until Monday...)

Notice there are two piles of black strips. After I cut out my "8 strips of dark material" I realized that I had the black folded in half... so I made two strips with every cut. I'll have to find a use for the extras.

Also, the new rotary cutter was totally worth it! And thanks to my mom, because she taught me how to use a rotary cutter a looooong time ago, and it all came back to me.

So here is the pattern I'm using. I was going to go for a rail fence, but changed my mind this morning and decided this would be more fun. We'll see how it turns out. I'm not noted for color selection.

Looking at the pattern, all of the middles of the boxes will be silver. The horizontal strips will be the red print and the vertical strips will be the black print.

Here is where I say "Never Again". Never again will I buy something so fussy to cut. Well, ok, if it turns out looking awesome, then it maybe was worth it. Cutting out the red strips, with little paw prints down the middle (school mascot is a panther) was a very time consuming task. I think the red alone took twice as long as the black and sliver together. Still, it looks good!

This is my scrap from cutting the red strips. They are less than an inch across, but I think I will find a use for them. Maybe in the border. I've never been one to follow a pattern 100%, and I think the border will be another deviation.

So, I'll be back on Monday with some sewing, I hope!