Now, I have never actually had a spruce beer, but those I know who have, and from what I've read (ere now), they never put together the words, "a good spruce beer". Am I missing something? tj

When I lived in the suburbs I would get so tickled with my next door neighbor. He would buy the jap beetle traps and complain about having to change them everyday. Then he couldn't understand why I didn't have a jap beetle problem. I told him they must not like my plants. lol

I wanted to thank all who were involved in the DAT threads and especially Marcolo. I am planning on building a home from a kit home plan in a few years. One I love is a 1924 William Radford bungalow, but we will probably end up with a story and a half bungalow to get a few more bedrooms. I have been researching these old plans like crazy, and they are amazing. I have found a couple with a more 'modern' layout. When I say modern the kitchen only has two doorways (from DR and outside) instead of the four or five I sometimes see here. Marcolo said something in the Victorian DAT thread and again to Lavender_Lass which is where I originally saw it and then linked back. I was trying to figure out how 'authentic' I should go with the house. That comment was (I am paraphrasing) "I like the idea of seeing a vintage kitchen developing over time. It should represent every decade that it has passed." It made complete sense to me, and it is exactly what I want. I love history (I have an MLS and was waiting for a permenant position at the National Archives when the crappy economy hit, and I decided to be a SAHM). Marcolo had also said (and I do believe this was from the DAT threads as well) "Do not just assume the trends and materials used at the time. Actually do the research for yourself." I know it seems obvious now, and especially since I'm still a professional researcher. It took reading that however to think about our next home in a completely different way. I am now creating a back story for our yet to be built home to create a sense of history and to help determine the finishes. Every detail will be planned before we build because everything will be a piece of a puzzle. I hope to share the back story as well as the home when we are able to build. I do hope more people read the DAT threads because they are awesome. I learned a lot and have saved all of them for reference. I came late to GW to participate in those the first time around, but the collective knowledge and creativity in those threads are amazing. Thank you again everyone for putting in some extra time for those exercises. I have learned a great deal.

I don't know why patterns tell you to cut the square along the diagonal and then sew. I always try to do your method #2. If I have a lot of HSTs, I lay 2 strips on top of each other and then sew zig-zag. An illustration of this method is on page 2 of the Star Weaving pattern on Quilter's Cache. Here is a link that might be useful: speed piece HSTs