Blocks Galore!

I've made a lot of blocks this month (for me, anyway, lol).  Not only did I have the Birthday Block Swap blocks to make for the month of February, I volunteered to complete six angel blocks for participants who were shorted in 2009.

First up, the lavender 5.5" blocks for suziecurls  Apparently, I am pastel-challenged.  Seriously.

I had to pick blocks based on the number of lavenders in my stash, which was a grand total of four, before an order from www.fabric.com arrived, and even that brought my total to five.

Ah, well, I digress (and make a note for when I go fabric shopping again).

The top block on the left is called Birthday Candles.  I though it appropriate.  It's also almost wholly comprised of HSTs, which is so right up my alley at the moment.

I forget what the bottom one is called.  It's paper-pieced, and I'm a little scared that it came out as well as it did.  The pattern came from Jinny Beyer's new book, which doesn't give you piecing/cutting instructions on any of the blocks.

This being the case, I looked at the block, and immediately felt that I could successfully paper-piece it.

So, I hunkered down and hand-drew the paper-piecing templates.  The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2010 is still affecting me, as I lost my installation of Adobe CS3, so nothing gets the digital treatment for now.  Admittedly, I forgot to mirror image the block, but that proved fairly inconsequential as I'm really pleased with how it turned out anyway.

And now for the angel blocks.  I'll only post one photo of the Depression Blocks requested by maydela.  I volunteered to make two, thinking I had far more burgundies than I really did.  Funny how that works out, right?

I did discover that I've been collecting a lot of tone-on-tone creams, which was a bonus for this block.  I'm also really liking the look of mixing all of those diverse creams.

Yet another HST block.  Again, so digging those right now.  And, I'm totally in love with the secondary pattern that emerges when Depression Blocks are made in a planned color way and put next to each other.  I might have to do this for myself sometime soon.

Next up, Wagon Tracks blocks for sewingjo.  She requested blocks comprised of browns, blues, and greens.  Brown should used in place of the instruction's Fabric C.

This is another where block where I'm digging the secondary pattern that comes out when you put a bunch of them together.


Now, I just have one more set of angel blocks to do, and then I'm good for the month of February.  With any luck, I can hammer out the paper-piecing patterns for the star blocks I want to do tomorrow morning, and get those puppies moving.

The blocks I want to do are a little more complicated, so I'm a little leery of hand-drawing the sections out. With any luck, I'll be able to install Adobe CS3 back on my computer tomorrow, an I'll be able to draw it out digitally, and ensure better accuracy.

You know, as I go through the year, making these blocks, I'm actually surprised at the success I've had putting these blocks together.  Somewhere along the way, I had convinced myself that I am a very inaccurate piecer.  Doing all these disparate blocks, and with so few problems, I'm realizing that is not the case at all.  Maybe it's that I did all sorts of home repairs with my father growing up, and he lived by the carpenter's axiom of "Measure twice, cut once."  And that 1/4" foot definitely helps things, especially the new one I have. It's helping me judge scant 1/4" seams a lot better than I was.

Well, whatever.  I'm glad to see that my piecing skills are getting there.  Now, if only I could be so confident when I'm machine quilting!!