I'M STILL HERE

Bet you all thought I had forgotten about these blocks. No way! I have been a bit busy on other things. I am now in catch up mode again. I pulled a load of fabric from the cupboard at cut it into strips which I thought were the most popular sizes used for these blocks and have been gaily chopping away. Here are the results so far....

Here are my strips...

and off I go...

Queen Charlotte's Crown - Week 31

Hearth and Home - Week 30

Mrs Morgan's Choice - Week 29

1930's Square - Week 24

1941 Nine Patch - Week 23

Z Cross - Week 26

Leap Frog - Week 12

Rally Round - Week 34

Envelope Motif - Week 28

Windmill 2 - Week 27

Rotunda - Week 3

Triangle Chain - Week 25

You may notice slight differences in my blocks and the printed ones on Quilter's Cache, I just decided I would do them a quicker way from some of the instructions given!!! Oops! Sometimes I went wrong too! Oh well, can't be helped, I am getting there though...off I go to make more of the backlog blocks.

Major Catch-up!

September was a busy month, with an out-of-town visitor and two weeks of travel -- so I fell woefully behind. But I'm happy to say that I'm now almost caught up! Here they are in order:

Northumberland Star -- week 33: I hated making this block, and I don't think there's enough value contrast between the red and the brown.
Rally Round -- week 34: I decided that the 9" blocks are now going to be made with Asian fabrics. This one was a pain to make, too, mostly because I did the little triangles wrong the first time -- but I really love the way it came out!
Castle in the Air -- week 35: One of my favorite blocks. Maybe it's the name?
Hope of Hartford -- week 37: I LOVE this block!
Nelson's (spotty) Victory -- week 38: easy to make, but I don't see much potential for it in a scrappy quilt.
Fool's Square -- week 39: I sort of like the "transparency" effect in this one but other than that I think it's sort of clunky...
Now I'm just missing weeks 29 and 36 -- maybe by next weekend I'll be done with all of them.

Back-up to Catch-up

Well, here I am again. The Big Behind. I've been sewing up a storm but not on Friday Blocks. I'm determined to do all 52 blocks during the year so in an effort to catch up yet again, I am going backwards until I get to one I've already made. (I just took a peek and realized I'm 10 weeks behind! Aaack!)

Week #35-Castle in the Air
Pretty straight forward block made with scraps laying on my cutting table.



Week #34-Rally Round
That center part was a pain to do. I like the block, though, just not enough to make
a bunch for a whole quilt top. Maybe a table runner...hmmmm



Week #33-Northumberland Star
I agree with QP that the pressing directions on this were bad. My poor presser foot struggled to get over those seems. I decided right at the start not to try to keep the plaids going in one direction. Good thing! It was hard enough to keep all the parts in the right position. I would have gone crazy trying to match plaid direction, too. Although I like this block, I can't imagine making more than one.



Week #32-Mosaic 3
A truly uninspiring block. I almost skipped it but I wanted to try the flying geese method. It's actually pretty slick. This block took all of 15 minutes to make, a record for me.



I've been reading all the posts as I go backwards and I love all the fabric choices and helpful hints. It also makes me feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one that gets behind. So with 4 done, I have 6 more to go. If you don't hear from me in a week, send the paramedics. I'm probably drowning under a sea of scraps!

All Caught Up

Now I'm all caught up! Here are week 34 and week 35.

week 34

Last week's block -- Rally 'Round.

I'm really pleased with how all the spots aligned in this block... I had to tear back a little (a couple of the HST in the corner blocks were backwards when I went to assemble) but it came together well.

Last Week's Block

Buzzin' round! That was me between the sewing machine and the iron. A lot of small bits of fabric to handle. I got there in the end!

Ros

Rally 'Round the Graph Paper

This is my Rally 'Round block. Nice, eh? But I cheated.

A good, quilting friend of mine (no blog) loaned me a book called "24 Blocks You Never Dreamed You Could Paper Piece". She knows I love paper piecing! I didn't think I would get around to doing any of the blocks in this book right now because I still have way too much on my 'to-finish' list. So I decided to try paper piecing this week's block. I drew some crude 3-inch blocks onto graph paper and just went for it. I could have used some nicer fabric, I guess. It's all from my scrap bin. But it worked! And I am happy with the way the block turned out.

Rally 'Round the Frog, Boys!

Since this is a nine-inch block, I decided to go with the Juvenile Fabrics and the Froggy theme that I had going on "back in the day". When I do the make-up blocks, I think I'll stick with the frogs for the small blcks and make a Valley of the Moon Quilt with them. Some child will like it, and I'll have improved my skills by making the sampler blocks in very bright colors... NOT my usual palette!

I really like the way the little frog faces show up, but if I was doing a whole froggie quilt I'd have to fussycut to get more frogs!

This is definitely a "Pay Attention" block because of the color placement - I got real familiar with my seam ripper on this one... guess I was too used to making multiples of a piece and then putting them all together! Watch out for the corners where you add the light fabric to the HSTs... you make two going in each direction to get the nifty big crossover shapes.

Week 34

This week's block is Rally 'Round, a 9" block