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So, you know when you have to draw diagonal lines on squares? Sometimes I don’t have a fancy water-soluble pen handy, and chalk rubs off if you’re doing hundreds of squares at a time (ask me how I know)… but if you try to mark with a sharp pencil, especially a regular 2B pencil, sometimes it snags and stretches the fabric:

So, um, I might be showing something TOTALLY obvious— in which case, skip down to the end, and see some more finished quilt tops and another bag— but here’s how I use a regular pencil and ruler to mark my diagonal lines:

See how it’s almost parallel with the fabric? No snagging, and a nice dark line….

I may or may not have had LOTS of time to experiment with technique this weekend, as I made a bunch of blocks like this:

I can’t show the whole quilt yet, but here’s the lovely side view of the stack:

that’s a “Modern Asian floral” quilt on the bottom (which, though not my usual style, was GORGEOUS, and that yellow fabric is like SILK. SOOO SOFT!), and the Lorax quilt in the Brights colorway….

Oh, hey, so last night, I played hookey after making this bag (I’m gonna work on the pattern right now):

…and I was sitting on the sofa, talking to Carrie on the phone, and my cat brought me a GIANT rat (like, a 7″ long body, not including the tail). So, uh, I didn’t get much done for the rest of the night. Just stayed up on the sofa, all curled up until my Knight in Shining Armor came home to remove it. I’ll spare you the picture.