2+2=8?

Sometimes I ask myself  'how can I be a quilter when I'm sooo bad at math?'

I like to believe I'm a reasonably educated woman yet put rotary cutting instructions for a quilt block in front of me and I'll stare at you in fear like a deer in the car headlights.  I'm completely hopeless. I blame my 7th grade math teacher, Sister Champlain, for scaring me for the rest of my life when faced with a mathematical question. Sister Champlain was a force to recon with.   She stood all of 5 foot 2 and in her habit (yes, I went to an old school Catholic school) yet to me she was a 10 foot tall monster.  Sister C liked to use intimidation and embarrassment as a motivator to insure her students studied the math formulas she taught.  Which, if after you studied the math and understood it (this is key here) might be ok.   But if, as in my case, no matter how much studying I would do it just didn't sink in, this was not an effective teaching method.  After a lot of tears and parent/teacher conferences I was transferred out of her class. But the damage was already done.  Which brings me to now.....

In an attempt to finally get that monkey off my back, I read and re-read the rotary cutting instructions for Barbara Brackman's Civil War block of the week determined to figure out how to use that ever elusive ruler. I'd like to report that I met the challenge successfully - but no.  After an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out where exactly 7/8th is on the ruler, I gave up before my head exploded.

In summary, I recognize my limitations and have found every math struggling quilters savior - Electric Quilt!  I just draw in the quilt block and print the template. The program does all the math for me.

I LOVE modern technology.



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