Design wall of chaos

This is  what you get when you find ANOTHER box with all kinds of practise blocks. The sad part is, this isn't all that I found in the box. I plopped them up there to see what I had and see what I could do with them. So far I think I am going to quilt the Amish looking block and put it in my formal living room as a small table topper. The card trick block was used as a mitered border lesson so I am up in the air about it. I may put it in my orphan block box for later use. The bird applique will be made into a pillow at some point. Maybe I will give it to a sister. The leaves that are so gracefully tumbling down the left side will be set aside so I can add a few more, well maybe more than a few. That is my favorite leaf block design so I want to make an autumn quilt with them. The stuff in the middle is the center strips to my trip around the world. The top left is my civil war block from Barbara Brackman's new website and block of the week. I need to make this weeks block but was having too much fun digging in the box. The top right block is one my SIL made and it is a bit wonky. She hated it and gave it to me since I loved it. I think I will quilt it and hang it on the wall just for looks.

I got some rulers in on Saturday that I have been playing around with for a few minutes last night. I want to go play some more and report back. Have you heard of Deb Tucker at Studio 180 designs? She designed the Tucker Trimmer, the Wing Clipper and the Square squared rulers along with some more. The three I mentioned at the ones I ordered to give a whirl. So far I have made some 1 1/2 "X1" flying geese that are perfect and I square in a square that is spot on! I am impressed. Today I want to play with the Tucker Trimmer and see how I like it.
These rulers are designed to do something I have never advocated before. They let you make the block over sized then trim them down. I used to say that was a waste of time, just sew it correctly the first time. That was when I was younger and a bit arrogant. That attitude came when I had one machine, one ruler and no eyesight issues. Now that I am older and use more than one machine (seam allowance may vary), I use different rulers for different things, and I can't always see where my needle is going to come down I don't see a thing wrong with making them a skosh bigger and trimming them down. Now I know any ruler can be used to trim stuff down, but these rulers have Xs and Vs and diagonal lines to line up the points and lines that no other ruler has. So far it has been a good use of money. But I still have one more to try so I will post pictures and comments later.

Diane