Rachel "Ivy" Clarke

So after the fabric debacle, it took me a while to cut the pieces out. The actual cutting didn't take all that long, but it did take me a few days to get to it. First, I tried cutting with the mat and rotary cutter I had. The mat and the rotary cutter that I've had for, oh...about 15 years. The rotart cutter had a new blade, but the mat was warped and riddled with cuts and slashes (I don't care how "self-healing" they are...those mats give up the ghost eventually). I'd been wanting a bigger mat anyway, so armed with my 50% off coupon, I headed to JoAnn's and ended up with a new mat and a new rotary cutter (hey, they were on sale for really cheap and it has a much bigger blade and more ergonomic handle). When went to peel off the label on the new mat to begin using it, I noticed that it said "reversible." My old mat was the same brand, was it possible...? Indeed, my old mat was a little dirty on the reverse side, but other than that, it was perfectly fine. Hooray! Now I have two rotary cutters and two mats. I like to be prepared. So I started cutting. I didn't bother with the cardboard organizers suggested by Oh, Fransson. I'm anal-retentive and organized enough that I figure I can keep enough track of my pieces without cardboard grids. I *am* a cataloger, after all. So here's my organization system (a.k.a. "piles on my floor"):

 
Here's a closeup of the first four blocks, all organized "pretty side to pretty side" and ready to speed piece in the machine. Left to right: blocks A, B, C & D:

 
And here are the pieces for Blocks E & F; the way they are constructed doesn't really lend itself to prepping them in the same way. So they're just hanging out until I'm ready for them:

 
So normally I'd be all ready to start sewing...but I have this weird thing when I have a different color thread in the sewing machine for another project: I don't want to change it, even though it's really no big deal and takes like 30 seconds (or that I have a whole other machine I could actually use...). I think it's more about continuity and some subliminal fear that if I take that project's thread out, I'll have less momentum to finish that project or something. That was the case today, in fact. I had the machine threaded with red for a dress I've been (avoiding) working on. Working with the fabric was more fussy than I remembered from the previous project for which I'd used it, and the hem was just not cooperating. Strangely enough, I stumbled upon a blind hem tutorial in a blog post by one of the other quiltalong participants--there is a discussion in the Flickr group where members can share their blog links, and I've been looking through most of them. I saw the blind hem tutorial and thought: "that's what I should try for that red dress." I have a blind hem stitch on my machine, but I'd never used it, because I could never puzzle out how it should work. I can't believe I never knew there was a special technique.
So today, I went back to tackle the dress so i could get it out of the way and start sewing blocks, and of course I couldn't find that participant's blog post again! Not to be discouraged, though, I simply found another tutorial via Google and it worked great. Well, as great as could be expected for a first timer on some slippery fabric, but hey.

Not my best work, but that's not the fault of the blind hem stitch, and now that I know how to do it (and how easy it really is!) I'll be doing it a lot more from here on out.
And now that that's done (except for a bit of hand tacking), I can start on my blocks!