cbott wondered yesterday in the comments what size my 'tiny' 9patches were. They are made from 1.25" strips, so they are 2.25" finished blocks. 

I documented the beginnings of them in this post. 

The quilt I'm making has 16 tiny blocks set with 1" sashing into a 12. 5" block. 

I've dug out the leftovers and made some more 9patches; I need 80 to make 5 more blocks and I have 53 now. Another few nights sewing and I should have all of them done. Then I can finish the larger blocks.

Another query was whether we work in centimetres. Australia mostly quilts in inches; there are metric quilting tools available, but I don't personally know anyone who uses them. Our cutting mats are printed with inches on one side and metric on the other, I never use those markings, I depend on the lines on my rulers for accuracy.

I was in high school in 1971 when the metric system was enforced in schools, so I'm bilingual in inches and centimetres😁. My daughter has gleaned enough knowledge from my quilt room over the years to know what us oldies are talking about when we say things like, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile". My grandchildren say, What's an inch? It's 2.54 centimetres actually.

The last month has been a bit of a jumble, with a trip to Adelaide for a family wedding and the school holidays necessitating a trip to visit the grandkids.  Before I left I was poking around in the sewing room trying to decide on a major project to concentrate on, but nothing really appealed. My 2" strip drawer was too full to close properly, so I pulled them all out and started cutting for these little blocks. 

They finish at 4.25" which is a bit of an odd size, but they used up nearly all the short strips from that drawer, so it closes nicely now. I have no plans for them; I might build them into a bigger block, or use them as a border for another set of blocks. I'm just enjoying making them in fragments of time. 

They take literally minutes to put together, so there's a box of them by the sewing machine and I just sew a few when I want to.

Speaking of sewing machines, my dear old Janome 6500 is starting to behave quite oddly. It had a new motor fitted a couple of years ago, and is still holding up well, but it's started to make a 'boing' noise when I stop sewing. Like a spring being snapped. Well that doesn't sound right at all. Mereth is now sewing on my lovely vintage Bernina after her machine died, and I started to panic that I would be stranded without a serviceable machine. Much as I love my antique ones, I find it hard to maintain a consistent quarter inch seam on them, and I've sewn quite a few of them to a standstill when their electrics break down. It's almost impossible to find someone to work on the really old ones, so I can't depend on them.

So that led to the arrival of Scarlett, a Janome 6650. 

I didn't want an embroidery capable machine, and she has lots of pre-programmed embroidery stitches that I will likely never use, but she's just an updated version of what I've been sewing on for the last 20 years. 

I was grumbling that I couldn't seem to find a perfect 1/4"  seam with her, and then I noticed this on her screen.

Well look at that. No 7 is a built in 1.4".  And it's perfect. There's a 7 mm seam too, if you were inclined to be metric, but like I said, I don't know anyone who uses that. Maybe those young ones who can't interpret the old ways?

I haven't graduated to using her exclusively, but I'll swap the machines over soon, and the 6500 can go down into our workshop. And I won't need to panic anymore.