Celtic Solstice Step 2 and Mis-step 1

I just finished the second step in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt.  Actually I'm two blocks short and they all need a bit of trimming.  Here's a picture of them on top of my fabrics for step 1.

You might be wondering why I haven't posted about step 1.  First, two disclaimers:

• Bonnie, if you're reading this, I am not whining.  My frustrations with step 1 were totally due to my own poor planning.  Your directions are great and you've given me several options.
• And Linda and Monkey at Inklingo....You are great and you have a great product. You provided fast responses to my emails and questions about using the system.  Again, I am the author of my troubles.

So, back when Bonnie first posted the materials list for this quilt I decided to use the Inklingo method instead of the rulers.  I really like this idea where you mount your fabric on freezer paper, send it through a printer and it comes marked with cutting and sewing lines.  It seemed to conserve fabric since there is a lot less trimming and most of all I thought it would give me consistent pieces.  I can be a bit rotary cutter challenged at times.  We can blame it on "old eyes" or inattention or whatever but getting 200 consistent cuts can be a bit of a struggle at times.  If I were on top of my game I would have tried out the system and gotten the process down before the start of clue one, but I didn't.

Only when I started to print my fabric for step one did I discover that my current printer does not accommodate custom sized paper.  There are probably many of you reading this and thinking, "Oh, she's wrong and just doesn't know where to find it."  Trust me on this, I've worked with many printers, I have a husband who has had a long career in computers since before the microchip was invented and this printer that I currently have can not print on custom sized paper.  My husband has a printer in his office which will do custom sizes and he graciously offered to let me use it.  But, I've been married long enough to know what a bad idea that would be!  I would be in his little room, getting in the way while he was trying to concentrate on his work or make phone calls.  I just couldn't see it working.  And without custom sized paper the amount of fabric waste would have been incredible.

So, I decided that my plan B would be to go to the local quilt shop to buy the ruler.  I called all the fabric stores in my town and discovered that only one carried the ruler but it was out of stock.  I guess there are a lot of mystery quilters around here.  They had no idea when it would come in.  I printed out the templates and considered going that route and I'm still holding that out as Plan D.  But for now we are waiting on Plan C to unfold.  I ordered the ruler online.  The first four sites I tried were backordered.  The fifth one has mailed my ruler and it might have even been here today if we hadn't had this winter storm which has slowed down the mail.

And that is my woeful tale of "mis"- step 1!  Hopefully I will soon be able to work on it between the other steps.  Often there are a few easy weeks around the holidays so maybe I can catch up then. 

I'm linking up with Bonnie's  Mystery Link-up Part 2.