New Toys (one purchased and one homemade)

I got myself a new toy! I read about it on Mary's blog, Through Rose-coloured Trifocals. She wrote about a tool manufactured by Fiskars, a squeeze punch! You can read Mary's post here. I thought I would like to get myself a punch but there are no craft stores in my area so I started with Fiskars. They weren't available on the Canadian site so I called was told they could have one shipped from the US but it was going to be expensive. So I looked around a little more and found one on eBay for about one third of the price in stores! Even with the postage it worked out to be much less expensive. My squeeze punch arrived today and here it is on my work station which right now resembles Bikini Atoll! Yikes! Need to do something about that.....later!

I've tried it out and it works like a charm! The size is X-Large and the hexagons are 1". I believe the Large cuts 3/4" hexagons so I'll add that to my wish list of toys!

Somewhere I've got a red acrylic value finder. It is used to check the value of different fabrics. Value for a quilter is the relative lightness or darkness of one fabric to another. A medium blue next to a navy blue will look light and that same medium blue next to a light blue will look dark. It isn't always as easy to determine value when the fabrics are different colours so that's where the value finder comes in handy. The red neutralizes colour so all you see is the relative lightness or darkness. It's a handy little tool.....if you can find it which I can't. So what's a girl to do? I can't buy one but since there are no craft or quilting stores in my area so I thought I would make a value finder. I have some red cellophane and my handy dandy new squeeze punch. I took a piece of card stock and folded it in half and punched out a hexagon. Here it is opened up.

I used my glue stick to glue a piece of red cellophane in place. The final step was to place glue around the edges of the cellophane and all along the edges of the white card stock. I closed it and pressed to make sure the glue held.

And here it is.....my second new toy, a homemade value finder! If I lose this one I can just make another in no time flat!

I continue to work on the hexagon diamonds for my Godstone Grannies quilt. I've started piecing my second block. I particularly like this one which is a good thing because there are two of them! There are still more blocks to cut out so I am reluctant to put fabric and hexagon accouterments away because they might  go the way of  first value finder! So for now I'll just keep cutting!

Lastly don't forget to enter my one year anniversary giveaways! There are two prizes, a $30 gift certificate from Superior Threads and a package of two one yard cuts of fabric that is perfect for fussy cutting or broderie perse!

To enter simply leave a comment but there are easy ways to get extra entries. You can read all about it here. I will draw the names of the winners at 9:00 am EDT on Friday, April 4, 2014. Good luck everyone!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H