Another (of the millions) of good things about retreat is that I realize that I probably am not as productive sewing around my world because what I sew really does take a lot of time. 
I have been working on applique with "You Can Build a Snowman." I have loved every part of this work and am now down to doing the blanket stitch. I discovered a cool tip quite by coincidence. Each row of this piece is very wide and not very tall. Applique on this long segments means I would be handling a lot of raw edges as I am doing all the turning. I backed my row with the Aqua Clean & Tear (which will be perfect for this project as I don't want to stress my stitching by all the pulling). As I cut off a loooong strip of stabilizer to back the row, it curled up and rolled the fabric into the roll. When I "let" the fabric roll inside the stabilizer, I realized that the long ends were now protected as I worked on the inside of my now-scrolled row of fabric. This is an amazing revelation and is doing a great job of protecting not only the raw edges of my applique but also the outer edge of my strip.
Another thing I tried out was that each row I cut was a different width. I hate standing at the cutting table and having to try to read and sort out all those different measurements. I usually then mis-cut one of them as I forget the number as my eyes go from the pattern to my fabric and ruler. So....I took my pigma pen and WROTE the size of the piece I was to cut on the selvage of each of the strips. Writing them on the selvage is just fine because when I finish the height and go to cut the width, I will be cutting the selvage off. WOW. How much easier that was! Hope you are retreating and sewing at least an hour today! All the Best to You, jill
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