The winner of this giveaway is #30, Mimi, who said:
I love the combination of gray and yellow, but pale blue is a close second. Thanks for the chance!!
The house across the street. You can't tell (mostly because this isn't a video...) but the wind was really blowing!! See there on the right--it even blew over the garbage can.
So the other day I spent a good hour working on my 1/4 inch seam. I really thought it fine, there was a piece of tape on my sewing machine marking the spot and things seemed to be fitting together pretty well. Most of the time, at least. But I've been spending a lot of time with Farmer's Wife blocks, and some of those suckers have way too many little pieces. And then a new book by Judy Martin arrived in the mail and there was a tricky block in there that I really want to try. She had a paragraph on checking to make sure you have an accurate 1/4 inch seam, because "the right seam allowance makes everything fall into place." Hah, I thought. I'll follow her instructions and move on because I'm pretty confident of my 1/4 inch seam.
It turned out to be like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Her instructions are as follows:
Rotary cut nine 1 1/2" squares and a 1 1/2" x 9 1/2" rectangle. Join the squares end to end. Press seams to one side. Place the rectangle and squares face to face. If the rectangle turns out larger than the seamed squares, your seams are too deep.
Bummer. Too large--I know it doesn't look like much, but the difference multiplies with each seam you take. (Hey, that almost made me sound like a mathlete or something...)
If the rectangle is smaller, your seams are too shallow. 
Too small.
Cool gadget that has holes. You put your sewing needle down through the hole and then you can lay down your tape in the proper place. Forgot I had it--glad I found it because it turned out to be accurate.
