The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

I couldn't resist hanging some of the stockings I made at the fireplace for this photo, even though I had to take them down right after I took the photo so the twins wouldn't grab them. The twins are using anything and everything to stand up these days, whether or not it's steady.


This photo shows only seven of the stockings, but I actually made 11, and they are all finished! No using ziploc bags as stockings this year because the stockings aren't finished :-)


Since I finished the stockings a little faster than I thought I would, I decided to work on trimming up a few of the green string blocks for the Orca Bay Mystery. I cut all the squares in half this morning, and my hands were very numb when I finished. I started trimming tonight, when I could feel my hands a bit. (numbness is not due to the cutting, but is aggravated by it)

I knew I only had a limited time to cut, since the numbness in my hands is getting so much worse. I tried to come up with a way to make the most of my cutting time, and I came up with this technique. I put my Gypsy Gripper on my Companion Angle ruler, to help me hold onto it. I tilted the string triangle at an angle, and I could cut the two sides in one fairly constant motion. I was standing at my workbench while cutting, if I had been sitting or working on something at a bad height, I don't think I could have trimmed them with the same motion.

Here is a trimmed triangle, and the cut off section, which I threw away guilt free. You have to draw the line somewhere on saving scraps, and for me, anything trimmed off a string block or crumb block is trash. I left the paper on for all of the trimming, and I'll take it off sometime this week, when one of the kids talks me into watching a movie.