Thanks, Henry!

Henry Ford is credited with the development of a production line. I personally suspect that he witnessed his wife or his mother using such a technique for quilt making, canning or laundry, or something similar.

My rotary cutter has kept my "production line" going the last few days. Counting the color 2-inch squares for Kissing Cousins revealed I'm close to the 1020 requirement, greatly assisted by approximately 400 Benartex Quilter's Candies. Last night, I cut most of the strips comprising the background, and I assembled my nine-block sample. I just love it! I hope to finish cutting the background into squares today, completing the "kit", ready to take to Camp in September, but in the interim, I may just assemble a few more blocks on those days when I don't want to think so much, but enjoy the rhythm of piecing at the machine, while I watch a movie.

I need to make some other samples for our Retreat. Next in my plan are some blocks which utilize nine-patches in some fashion. Sister's Choice and Weathervane are the first examples which come to mind. Also, merely pairing a 9-patch with a snowball block creates an interesting diagonal interest.

Our little group is launching a project of exchange to be completed in December at our Christmas party. Marguerite told us about seeing "trading cards" in Chicago, as well as a magazine story. They are to be approximately 2" by 4", with no embellishments deeper than a dime. My first thought was little tea pots, but, this morning, I was thinking about how I'm always accused of being a "digit head", and the idea of a credit card sized calculator made me sit back down on the bed and start laughing. I'll have to let the idea stew for a bit to see if I can actually implement it. It certainly would be funny!