Arc-out

All 194 arcs are complete and I told Rob yesterday we needed to pick a background.  If we're going with gray, it needs to be a warm gray.  I laid arcs out on a couple, but I didn't have a medium gray that was warm, so we'll need a trip to the fabric store.  Oh, no, not the fabric store.  Oh darn.  

Here's a quick review of how I make an arc.  Unfortunately, I didn't start taking pics until the last arcs were already in progress.  

I'm using freezer paper piecing instead of regular paper.  That means I don't sew through the paper and I can use templates over and over (about 6 times).  If you do regular paper piecing, you're going to notice that I trim at a weird place.  

First, I center the first wedge of the template on the wrong side of a fabric square, making sure it covers all the seams and edges, then I iron it to stick them together.  Next, I match a second square to the first, right sides together and fold the paper back along the seam line and sew along the fold.  The 2.5" squares are convenient because I can just line them up along the side when attaching the next piece.  

Then I use my add a quarter ruler to trim the seam allowance.

Then I unfold the fabric and the paper and finger press the seam fold and iron it down from the front.  You're just forming a crisp fold at the seam line.  Don't iron the whole piece of fabric and be sure not to touch the iron to the freezer paper.  

Ironing from the front won't adhere the paper to the fabric very well, so I also iron from the back, making sure I only adhere fabric to paper up to th next fold line.  I'll need to fold at that seam line in order to attach the next piece.  Notice that I haven't trimmed that.  I'll use that extra fabric to line up the edges of the next square.  

When all the pieces are attached, I trim all the way around with scissors.

And, then peel the paper off.  Be sure to peel in the direction of the seam allowances.  If you go against that, the seam allowance will ravel.  

Doing it that way, I was able to make 194 arcs in three weeks.  I estimate it took about 35 hours.  I made 20 templates to start with, but accidentally ironed a bunch of them together, damaging them.  4 didn't last long and I made another 8, but 16 of the originals made it all the way through.  You can see from the one above that they collect lint.  Eventually they'll pick up so much lint that they won't stick anymore.  

This is the most expensive fish I ever bought.  The woman at the fish store was treating me like I was a moron when she sold him to me (she's 90% of the reason we don't go back to that fish store.  the other 10% is because a third of the fish I bought there died, a day or two after their warranty expired), but I'm glad I bought him.  I never know where he's going to be hanging out...and by that, I mean literally hanging by his mouth.  He loves to hang upside down from the underside of a rock.  Here, he's hanging on the side of one.  

This weekend, we cleared out the garden.  It's a perennial garden, so dies back every year after the first good freeze and I cut it to the ground.  This year, we're sealing the fences again, so it was double important that I get it all out of Rob's way so he can move freely.  While I was digging around, this little guy decided he'd like to see how bad he could scare me.  He was wildly successful.  

We are entering week 3 of the horror show.  I keep reading on social media that someone should do something and I keep wondering who could do anything and what could they do?  I think we're all sitting here with stunned looks on our faces, watching the nightmare unfold, waiting to see if those checks and balances that we learned about in school are going to work.  

Rob thinks I should be more careful about what I say on here.  He didn't say that because he wouldn't, and that approach wouldn't have worked.  But, he conveyed it nonetheless and I know he's right.  No need to draw attention to myself.  Online is not anonymous.  

But, I can't resist this one.  This is the DEI that we don't need.  

Everybody have a great week!  I have to go to the office on Thursday.  Excuse me while I go hunt for my excitement.  But, I'm learning that this is just one day and I can easily get through it pretending.  I'm a good pretender.  But in my heart, I still yearn for retirement.  

Lane