FWQ Homestretch

Today I will be taking my sewing machine and 11 little baggies of quilt block pieces to Terry's for a marathon day of sewing. It is my hope to get as many of these remaining blocks done as possible. Eleven blocks is quite ambitious, but they are cut out and ready to go.

It took me quite a long time to do all that cutting out business, let me tell you. The process involved finding the correct templates, deciding and selecting fabrics, prepping fabric for cutting, then the actual cutting. Whew! My menopausal temps were in overdrive, as I often found myself sweating it out! (Quilting is such WORK!!)

Here is a look at my process. I pulled and auditioned fabrics, made decisions and labeled with sticky notes. Then one by one, I pressed and cut. Knowing that today could be entirely devoted to sewing, I wanted to have all of them ready to go. It took me most of Sunday and Monday morning to complete them all.

I do have 2 more finished blocks to share. Before the gargantuan task of cutting, I sewed these blocks which I had cut out on Sunday. One of them went together beautifully, while the other was a total trainwreck.

Rosebud, despite her somewhat puckery parts, went together like a dream. I could have been more diligent at the ironing board, but I love this pretty block. It wasn't on my original list of blocks I wanted to make, but as I perused the book, it grew on me, and now I'm glad it did.

While Rosebud was effortlessly assembled, Swallow, on the other hand, was not so easily managed. I do believe that every single non-bias seam on this block was sewn, un-sewn and re-sewn, much to my chagrin. Scant quarter-inch seams were necessary. I do know know why it had such issues. The cutting was quite straightforward; the piecing was not overly challenging. It sure was a headache, though. But now that it's done, I do love it, and I am happy with this block and the previous one in that I've adding in some zests of color. Too many of my blocks have been dull - boring browns. I think when the quilt is laid out, I will have more interest by distributing these pops of color throughout. Hope so, anyway.

That's all for today, Peeps! I've gotta' get ready to head out for Terry's.

Happy Quilting, Friends!