Playing, Birthday Blocks, and Quilt-Along

I hope everyone has enjoyed the tutorials on The Learning Curve ruler posted thus far.  After posting the tutorial for Method 2 this week, I continued playing and experimenting....my way of preparing for the future tutorials to come.

My new toy (the ruler) is giving me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.... by learning to use the ruler and making blocks for the online Birthday Block Swap I joined this year at the same time.

I mailed off the blocks last week heading to the two July birthday quilters (both birthdays are in the first part of the month).  One set headed to Texas and the second set headed to Australia.  Can you believe there are no birthdays in the month of August and only one birthday in early September. :)  Guess what!  I finished the birthday blocks for September.  I just hope I don't lose them between now and time to put them in the mail! LOL

I think what amazes me the most about this ruler (besides the fact that I can finally sew curved seams), is the accuracy of size for the finished blocks.  I always square up my finished blocks and if need be, trim off a sliver here and there to make a perfect 12 1/2" unfinished block.  So far, EVERY SINGLE BLOCK I'VE MADE using The Learning Curve Ruler has turned out to be a perfect 12 1/2" square without need of trimming or squaring up.  Simply amazing in my book!!!!

It may be hard to tell in the photos, but the center blocks in each of the finished quilt blocks have curved seams also!!  (The square in a square, and the windmill!)  The curves are subtle because of their small size, but you can definitely see them in person.

On an entirely different subject, if you are participating in the Aiming For Accuracy Quilt-Along, the official first lesson was just released.  I REALLY didn't want to be behind from the start of this, so I pushed myself to cut out the background/neutral pieces this afternoon.

This was our first assignment in preparation for the first lesson.  I posted this photo on the Facebook group page that was set up for everyone participating in this...and literally 15 minutes later the first lesson was officially posted.  Talk about getting caught up in the nick of time! LOL

Here is the link for the first lesson...

Aiming For Accuracy Quilt-Along Lesson 1

If you are reading this post from an email version, the website address is:

http://quiltinggallery.com/2013/06/27/a4aqal-lesson-1-unit-c1/

I better close for now and work on lesson 1 so I don't get behind.....YET! :) :) :)