While cutting out sashing strips, I was noticing how run-down my cutting mat looked. It had visible gashes from the rotary cutter blade, with little linty bits of (mostly red) fabric stuck in the grooves.

I really love my Olfa 12″ rotating cutting mat, which Olfa seems to have foolishly discontinued a while back, and so I want to keep it in good working order for many years to come.

Someone on an online message board suggested rubbing a Pink Pearl eraser over the cutting mat – that the rubber in the eraser would pull the linty bits out of the cuts, allowing the self-healing mat to do its thing and close up those cuts.

I thought that sounded ridiculous and like it couldn’t possibly work, but, I had a Pink Pearl eraser on hand, and figured I didn’t have anything to lose.

And to borrow one of my Dad’s favorite phrases – “Well, I’ll be damned!” – it actually looks a whole lot better with just a few minutes of scrubbing. I’m definitely adding this tool to my arsenal.

In this batch of sashing, Block J6 was so old it didn’t have stitching lines marked around the edge. I think this was probably in the first 10 blocks I did.

But it was pretty straightforward compared to Block K6, which I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where the stitching lines ought to be. And reading back through the blog article from when I originally constructed K6, it’s no wonder that nothing is lining up!

I did end up bringing this sashing with me to coffee with the organizer of the craft group that I didn’t go to their meeting in July. But I thankfully sashed K6 when there were no witnesses to all my swearing.

And there was so much swearing before it was done. Ultimately I ended up not worrying about the overall size of the whole block, and just focused on making sure those little strips at the edges of K6 were about 1/4″ wide. I figured with the strips being so thin, it would be really noticeable if those were way off.

The end result doesn’t look half bad. And thanks to the Pink Pearl eraser hack, neither does my cutting mat.