Hello...anybody out there?

So.  I have been missing the Friday Block Party for a while now.  I admit, I didn't make half as many blocks as I fantasized about, but I liked having something to aim for & I got curious:

Is anyone else out there missing the Friday Block Party?  If I were to commit to coming up with a block a month, say the first Friday of every month, would anybody else (maybe three or four elses) be willing to pick up the second, third, fourth & when applicable fifth weeks?

The Nines-week 24

I tried & tried & tried to get these posted earlier this week, but I only just got to sit down at the computer just now.  Anyway...I love 9-patches!

My most recent favorite 9-patch is Cut Glass Dish, which I have been making compulsively for a few ....uhmmm...months now.  I like to take a completely not-neutral fabric, use it as the main & use neutrals scraps instead for the 1/2-square triangles.  I don't know why I find it so appealing, I just do. 

& yes, in my world lime green is a neutral.  Also, if a little yellow goes a long way then a lot of yellow will take you even further.

Chocolate & pink heart

All I can say is in person this block really does look like a box of valentine candies. It took me a couple tries & in the end I decided to forgo the templates & cut the squares as measured & make the triangles the way I had been taught without exposed bias.  You can guess from this what a stretched-out mess my first try was. 

I cannot see myself making this block again, mostly because I don't even know what I am going to do with this one, but I am happy with the way it came out.

Unclogged cog block

In keeping with my going forward/going backward pattern (altho' I admit this time it was more like going backward/going further backward), I also cranked out two Cog Blocks from back in old twenty-ten,

They both went together quickly, look more complicated than they are but I cannot see myself using this one too often, but hey that's just me.  It is a nice big block (12" finished) so with some planning that center piece could be fussy cut t showcase something interesting.  I take it back, I guess I can see myself using this one again.

Variations on Fools Square

The first two blocks I changed because they were going to a person who wanted Star block.  It was easy enough to make the corners solid instead of 1/2-square triangles.

The second change (third time I made this block in two days!) was to make the 1/2-square triangles in the two main colors instead of with one & the background fabric.  I was trying to pump up the second color so it was more or less equal with the first.  Also, I knew I would be adding a border in the background to bring the whole thing up to size (we were swapping 12" blocks & this one is 10") & I just thought it would look better.

 


This means of course that none of them would be described as squares, but they weren't all that square to begin with.  That must be the Fool's part.

I'm on a roll!

After breaking thru my inertia to do a couple months old block, yesterday I managed to make the actual block for the actual week we are in!

The not-green fabric is actually a christmas print. A coyotes & cactus christmas print.  I choose the green because it was the most christmas-y colored, reads-as-solid fabric closest to hand that was not reflected in the pile of scraps I was pulling from.  I knew it would be busy, but thought it could still be crisp.

The block is a piece of cake.  I don't think it took me 30 minutes, working from oddly shaped scraps that I cut down quick & put together.  I am not crazy about the dominating green.  It is hard to see in this picture, but this is a BIG block & that is A LOT of green).  I will make this again in more blended fabrics, for sure.

Card basket week 37

Yup,  you read that right, I am just now posting week 37.  In even more embarrassing news, this is the first Friday Block Party I have done in 7 months.  Every week I faithfully print the pattern, put it in the file folder I have for FBP patterns & then the minutes tick away until I print the next week's pattern.  All I can say is Thank You, Thank You, Thank you for keeping this site open even to deadbeats like me!

It recently dawned on me I could use the FBP block for a block swap I am in & kill two birds with one stone.  I went back through the patterns to find one that me the dimension requirement & was (what I thought was) two color.  Then I proceeded o under-cut the center block, etc. etc.  I don't know what to say except there was nothing wrong with the directions, just my hurried interpretation.

Other than dimension (which is given by the  swap-master), the only other guideline I had was a preference for more modern fabrics, such as Amy Butler, which this is & unusual color combos, which this is not (the white fabric, while not so dull as a solid is a very conventional white-on-white pin dot).  Flipping the light versus dark was as brave as I could be. 

Now that this 2 birds/1 stone thing has occurred to me, maybe a stand a better chance of getting caught up.  or at least falling behind more slowly.   I might even make this very block again, given similar instructions, as I really like the way it came out.

Joseph's floral delight

I have not posted in a while; we have a small farm, more a petting zoo really & the weird winter has made extra work but when I saw Joseph's Delight, I know I wanted to make it.  Anvils/Thunderbirds really are a favorite of mine & I am always on the look-out for a variation.

The block itself was fun.  I think I would handle the open bias seams another way if I were making several & I am sure my corners would improve then (yes, I know they are not great, in my defense I made this blocks over two days in-between trying to get antibiotics into a dog-wounded emu, which is not so easy at it sounds).  I also wish I had seen the scrappy version before I cut mine out; that is definitely the way I will go next time.

Double cross for the end of the year

I am easily brain-scrambled & it took a bit for me to sort out what block I should have done week 49 & what block I should have done this week (week 52).  Naturally, I had them flipped & so here without further ado is week what I should have done before Double Cross

A funny thing about this block-these are the fabrics I had planned to make Cross & Ring out of, but I decided the green would just get lost, so I changed it for a dark purple.  This block has enough of both fabrics that the green can hold its own, I think anyhow.

No time to look back

I had hoped to do the current week every week & maybe a make-up week when I could.  It turns out this week I am doing the current week &...last week as the make-up week.  Oh well.

Last week's Indian Star is another one that is very soft, even in person, but the photo does not do it justice:

I don't know if anyone else noticed (I did only because I have an idea to put many of these blocks together as a kind of sampler) but this blocks fits nicely into the week 45 block-Cross in a Cross: the corner squares & the longer center center piece are exactly the same size.  I suspect I will be making a couple more in complimentary colors to make larger units.

The current block Cross & Ring was another pleasant surprise.  These kind of contrasting corners (in my head I call them "snowball corners") are among my favorites.  I expect I will do this block again, too.  I think it would work very well with a variety of bright scraps on white.  At least, that is how I see it right now.  For my first try I did rather the opposite-the corners are more or less a solid & the background is a large floral.

Somehow I got the impression this block was larger than it is & was all excited to use a larger scale print than I had been.  I am just glad I had enough of the purple left-over so the contrasting corners would show.  I had originally been thinking of using a softer green & the would have looked like nothing at all.

Colors too soft for a rainy afternoon

I am working my way backwards & forwards, trying to use fabric that will go together, or at least has gone together in quilts past, all with a vague idea of making a strange sort of sampler quilt at some pount.  & vague seems to be just the right word. 

First "thats my baby" which is a great big yawn.  Even in person.  I did not have much of either the gold or the purple to do much & thought this would be an ideal spot. The overall effect is uhmmmm restful *yawn*.  The squares were kind of small, but not a difficult block in my view.  If I were going to make it it 'in real life' I think I would use many random scraps for the little squares.

For every block forward I (hope, try) make a block going backwards & this is "cross in a cross".  I was not looking forward to it as sewing bias edges puts me off, but I actually kind of  enjoyed this one.  These colors look just as dull as the others (one is indeed in the other) but it has more snap in person.  I would make this block again, have already started thinking of other tone-on-tone scrap combos sitting in the scrap basket.

Star in a star - 12"

My first block for Friday Block Party & it took me almost three tries.  In the end I went with the 12" block because the 9" biases defeated me completely.  Not sure if it was the little stretchy pieces or the cold medicine I have been taking  although I DO blame the cold medicine for the first set of pieces in mis-matched sizes: the first two colors cut for a 9" block & the rest for a 12" block.

In the end I like the look of this block a lot, but I would probably recalculate for half- & quarter- square triangles made by sewing two squares together on either side of a corner-to-corner diagonal line, rather than fiddling with all the open bias edges.  It would leave me with quite a few scraps, but then again, so did doing it 2-1/2 times.