I am staying on course and have two more blocks done.

First a pretty pink star for the Tranquil Garden top.

And a pink Harpsichord block. It was such fun to sew two pink blocks in a row because, of course, I can never have too much pink!

Both of them pressed perfectly.

I now have these three different things on my fingers when hand piecing. You’ve seen the finger pincushions before – I’d be lost without one of those so have a little box I keep stocked with a small supply of them. They’re fun to make and I tend to have one in each project box, particularly if I have one that was made with a fabric that I think sort of goes with the fabrics in a particular project. But there are two new tools in this picture that I’m using when hand piecing and they’re tools that I’ve very quickly become accustomed to using.

First is this fabulous leather ring thimble. I use it to basically hold and control the needle while I load stitches and push the needle while hand piecing. I’m finding that loading stitches on the needle is much faster, I get smaller stitches and can push through even tight weaves like batiks without much effort at all. This leather ring thimble is absolutely worth its weight in gold!

The second new tool is the ring thread cutter. It took me a couple of evenings to get used to using it but now that I am, I’m absolutely sold. It definitely saves time as, when I reach the end of a seam and need to knot off and break the thread, I can do so without having to put my needle down to pick up the thread snips. I just pull the thread down over the little blade that’s on the ring thread cutter and the thread is cut cleanly and quickly.  I’ve very quickly realized just how much of a benefit this is as my sewing rhythm really isn’t disrupted for more than a second or two.

Edited to add:  Both these new tools can be found on Amazon by searching for leather ring thimble and ring thread cutter. I didn’t put in links as it can be different from country to country. I know for me, here in Canada, both of these items came from Amazon vendors in Japan. Yes, they took a while to get here but they arrived and I couldn’t be more pleased.

“Tools of the Trade”

I love this shot of Jake that I got on Sunday. He was staring at a kitty toy on the floor, just before he got down to go investigate.

Both of them were in the kitty tree at various points yesterday, watching the first squirrels of the year out on the roof garden. It was quite a sight, watching them watching those squirrels. By the time I picked up  my phone to get a shot of Jake watching, he had moved. But Baxter wasn’t moving, was barely blinking as he kept his eye on anything going on out on the roof garden.

There is another sign of spring out on the roof garden. The daffodils are just starting to come up. I know exactly where they are in the flowerbed on the roof garden and can see they’re just starting to grow. We’ve not yet seen a robin, but I’m hoping that happens soon.