Life got in the way this week and we (my family) have been called to other projects. So I did not quilt until Saturday and then only for a few hours. I did work a little on the studio though. Well very little. I need to get busy in there if I am going to get organized by the end of the month.
I didn't work quite as many hours this week and I found my mood improving as the week went on. I still find I am very tired by the time I get home. I am hoping that vitamins will help with the exhaustion. Vitamins and better sleep. I need to give a shout out to my sister in law Brenda. (Because I know it was her doing) She and my brother sent us essential oil diffusers and oils for Christmas. I have been using the oil for sleep and I really think it has helped. In fact the nights that I haven't used it, I didn't sleep as well. But this is about quilting and not sleeping.
So on Saturday, I started to cut up my blocks. I decided the way to go was to do about 4 blocks at a time. This way I gave my back a break from cutting and I could keep the squares straight. First I cut off the dog ears. Then I should have squared up the block but I didn't with this first one. You will see why squaring it up is important later.
I took the the squares and cut them into fourths. That gave me four little squares that were 2 3/4 inches.
As you can see the four little squares are made up of 2 half square triangle blocks and two solid blocks.
To give the block a little variation I turned the half square triangle a 180 degrees. and sewed it back together.
I then squared the block up to a five inch square. I am a little excited to get these done and laid out for the quilt.
These worked up pretty well once I started squaring up the original block to 5 3/4 inches before cutting them into fourths. But when I skipped that step, I got this funky mismatched block. Fortunately I was able to square it up to five inches. It could have been too small and I would be down a block.
Always take the time to square things up. Taking short cuts could be disastrous. Fabric is too expensive to waste because you want to get things done. The old adage "Haste makes Waste" is very true.
I was chatting with my friend Cindy, and she told me she hates pre-cuts. She always has a problem with accuracy. If I was as accomplished at piecing as she is then I would blame the mismatched points on the pre-cuts. But I have to be honest and say I am probably to blame. It is an area I need to work on.
Jenny Doan says, No one has ever turned down one of her quilts just because the points don't match. I never had that problem either. I think as I get more practice I will improve. I am trying to make the points line up. But I am not going to tear my hair out over it.
So I have 80 blocks to cut apart and sew back together. I managed to get 16 done this weekend. Doing sets of four at a time and doing a set each night, I figure it will take a couple of weeks just to get the blocks sewn together. I am trying to not get bored with it. So I may work on some other projects along the way. But I will work on this project every night. That is my current goal.
What do you do when a project gets boring?
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