Rotary Sharpener, how I love thee!

I lost my sewjo this week.  I've been sick for nearly 3 weeks now, the kids have been unwell too and sleep is a distant memory.  All week I was near my fabric stash and sewing machine but nothing was happening.  On Friday I decided that I needed some instant gratification to get me motivated so I made a cute ribbon wand for a friend who just turned 5.  I've since had to promise one to each of my kiddos.

One ribbon wand didn't seem quite enough (not much sewing involved there!) so I decided to get on board with The Oz Material Girl's current charity drive and sew some 9" blocks.  There are a number of ways you can get on involved; sewing blocks, donating fabric, sewing the blocks together or quilting or binding the quilts.  The quilts will then be donated to a number of charities.  They hope that this will be an ongoing activity and this time around we're aiming to provide quilts for women and children.  I made some blocks for the ladies,

the girls,

and the boys.

You'd think with 2 boys of my own I would have made a few more!

Once all the sewing was done I was a bit surprised at how much pink I'd used.  I'm not a big one for pink, but I was trying to appeal to popular taste.  I hope my blocks fit the bill :)  If you want to get involved you can find the information here on their blog or join their Facebook group here.

As I mentioned my sewjo had gone missing so I decided to break the blocks down into do-able stages.  Friday I cut all the fabric (100 squares and then 80 of those in half). Saturday I sewed the inner square to the first 4 triangles and then today I sewed on the last 4 triangles.  I don't really enjoy sewing in this kind of production line style, but it did the trick and got the creative juices flowing again :)  I felt productive and that felt good!

With all that cutting on Friday night I was extremely grateful for a recent purchase, a rotary blade sharpener :)

How cool is this baby?  I purchased it online here (and I must add the service was great, I'll be back!), you can get sharpeners that will fit a number of different sized blades but I didn't want to part with too many $$$ so just bought the 45mm version.  First you find your blunt rotary cutter.

Unscrew the blade and place it in the turning wheel.

Secure the blade in place by screwing the two parts of the turning wheel together.

Place a drop of water on the sharpening surface and then place the blade on the sharpening surface (there are two, a rougher and a smoother surface, this is the finer side, you can see the coarser side above, it's darker).

Then twist 10-20 times (no photo of this part of the process as I don't have 3 hands).  I'm not sponsored in anyway by the shop or the producer of this nifty device, but I'm telling you, YOU NEED ONE!  I am glad I have one because I'm participating in a rainbow swap and about to cut these pretties into 50 bazillion 5" charm squares (yes, I'm blue).

My blogging, quilting, online buddy Fiona at Finding Fifth has a weekly link-up, Sunday Stash and whilst I've had good intentions for awhile this is my first time joining in because I know all you quilty types who are linking up will appreciate this gadget :)

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