Accidental Discovery

I bought a new-to-me desk from the Habistore. I've been wanting a desk in my bedroom for my laptop for months now, and now I have one. This desk has a high sheen on it, and my computer mouse won't work on it's surface. I know, a laptop has a built in pad to use instead of a mouse, but I prefer using a mouse, so I do. I've been using my laptop all over the house up until now, and I don't own a mouse pad. I used to use my leg a lot, and my pants always made an adequate mouse pad. Now that I have this shiny desk, it looks like I need a mouse pad.

I looked around online for a mousepad, and they are either boring, or expensive, neither of which I liked. As I've been using my desk, I happened to move my mouse over DD#3 wedding quilt top, which is folded at the end of my desk. Hmmm, mouse works fine on a quilt. IDEA FLASH- Mouse Works Fine on Quilts! Guess who is now making a quilted computer mouse pad?

I mentioned in my last post I am planning a baby shower for DD#1. I chose a Little Golden Book theme, and with a book theme, I thought a fun favor would be quilted bookmarks.

I drew up some ideas for bookmarks, and this week I started cutting out parts for these. I'm planning the bookmarks to finish at 2x8 inches, so fairly small pieces. I had already decided to make my quilted mouse pad from 1" finished HST's, so I can work on both projects at the same time. The thing is, I'm not a huge fan of cutting 1" HST's. One of the things I LOVE about quilting, is there is always more than one way to do something.

I grabbed out some Thangles papers, looked though my scrap user system for 1.5" cut strips, and I started sewing up some HST's. I'm using the Thangles strips as leaders/enders for each other, and when I'm done, I'll cut them apart, take off the paper, and press. For bigger HST's, I have no issue using my Easy Angle ruler, but for these little guys, I just prefer doing them this way.

I ended up with a pretty nice pile sewn up today, and I should finish tomorrow. I'll have enough HST's for both bookmarks and my mouse pad. I decided I want my mouse pad 8"x10", which means 80 1" HST's or 160 pieces in my mouse pad top. Is that excessive? Who knows, just sounds like fun to me!