Sucker for Scissors and Allie's block advice.

I love scissors and can hardly get out of a needlework shop without a pair....but for me the holes are just too small to be comfortable.... between farm work and arthritis my hands and knuckles are always sore and swollen... Somewhere I had read that the very best scissors for arthritic hands were the scissors made for tying flies because the holes were large enough for men's fingers... So today I stopped at a famous sporting goods store and bought a pair of Dr. Slick Tungsten Carbide Scissors (pictured in the center) and you can see the difference in the size of the finger holes.. They are extremely sharp and excellent quality and are sooooo comfortable... They had several blade sizes and styles but I chose these because the tension was adjustable..

I was curious about how Allie pieced out her blocks to get a 10" block and she was kind enough to send this reply: "As to the size of the blocks, there are 5 rows of 5 blocks each, so that is of course 25 blocks in all. I probably used foundation muslin that was 14" X 14" per block, pieced it out to 12" or so, trimmed them to 11" X 11", and then sewed them with a 1/2" seam allowance. Always it is good to piece way bigger than the finished block size to allow for wiggle room when trimming." That is pretty much what I do but since I tend to just work on single blocks, I will have to be a little more careful measuring for multiple blocks that need to be consistent.

I'm still determined to keep my quilt to nine 11" blocks... I had dozens of pictures in my suffragette file and have narrowed it down to 27 and still have to cut that down farther... it's close though.... Some I can use smaller and group 2 or 3 on a block.