Cutting Session

 This has been lurking and growing for several days, so this morning I turned on the iron and tackled it.

Forty minutes later I had these strips, ready to trim down

as well as 42 more middle 4-patches and seven more 2-patches ready to add to the current Leader-Ender project.

I have enough of that brown to set it in the center of every Triple Treat block. That's the only deliberate planning I've done for this challenge.

As I ironed, knowing the amount of trimming I had ahead of me, I started to wonder if sewing individual squares to a strip was as efficient as I once believed. So I decided to clock how long it took to cut/trim the squares-to-strips vs strip-to-strip. Starting with strips onto which squares were sewn, I began cutting and trimming, and when I looked up exactly 5 minutes had passed. In those 5 minutes I had cut/trimmed sixteen 2-patches.

Next I timed how long it would take to cut sixteen 2-patches from the strip-to-strips. Not surprisingly, it only took 4 minutes. On a whim, I decided to count out 16 light squares and see how long it would take to sew them to dark squares. Five minutes!

It was a loose comparison, as time spent ironing things or cutting strips and squares wasn't factored in, but sewing the squares to a strip is the least efficient use of time. Not only was there time spent sewing the squares onto the strips, but an additional 5 minutes (per 16) was needed to cut the strip apart and trim both sides of each 2-patch. Live and learn!

I got a pleasant text last night from my friend. In preparation for our visit tomorrow, during which we'll brainstorm solutions to a fitting problem she's having (trying to alter a dirndl), she started going through her sewing box and found this "under a bunch of junk".

I haven't seen this in person yet, but it looks as though she got the bonus accessory kit with her machine. Whether I end up keeping the JX2517 or she takes it back (as of today, she'd rather not), either way it's nice to have everything together again!