Week 42 - Baton Rouge

Here's last week's block which turned out a bit wonky on the edges but it will do since I will be adding sashing to all these 10" blocks before they become a quilt top. It's one way to ensure that the final size of all the blocks will be the same.

I did look at this week's block but when you have measurements like 11/16" or 3/8", that's getting a bit too intense for my liking. I know I've come a long way with my piecing but I know there is no way that I can cut something that accurately.

Hetty you did a great job at paper piecing this week's block, unfortunately I'm just learning that side of quilting and am not quite sure where to start in creating my own patterns. I think that will be something for later down the road.

A Crappy Fool's Square and the Cat's Meow Envelope Motif

Here is my crappy Fool's Square. I had a hard time with this one, I even had to rip apart the 9-patch and re-do it. When I was putting the final sections together none of the points were aligning and by this time I had ripped apart so many seams I had enough. It's done, and it's not a favorite. I suspect part of my problem is that I'm recovering from a nasty migraine headache that hit me yesterday, and even though the headache finally left this afternoon, I'm still feeling a bit out of sorts.

Even with the trouble I had with this week's block I decide to sew up week 28 Envelope Motif and I had much better luck with it. A few of the points are slightly off, but over all it went together much better and no ripping out of seams.

Nelson Goes Funky

I hope I'm not disrespecting anyone by making Nelson funky. It was just using up some pre-cut squares that I had since it was getting late and I didn't want to start cutting fabric. I didn't have any red, white and blue pre-cut squares so it was a matter of what was on hand that I had enough of that went together. I can tell it was getting late since I didn't even manage to photograph the block straight. I guess it's time for bed.

Hope of Hartford

I was amazed as to how quickly this block came together and even the bias seams were a breeze. I had mentioned the last time we had a 10" block that I should dig out all my 10" blocks and take a picture of the group of them.

So here they are. The very first block we did was a 10" and mine was a bit short so I may have to redo that one or figure out something different for that block when it comes to putting this quilt together. I probably will need another 7 10" blocks to have enough for a lap size quilt with borders, since right now it would only measure 30" X 30" without the borders. If I took it to a 40" X 50" and add borders that would make it a decent size. Any ideas or suggestions?

Butterflies in the Double Quartet

I'm back at the party with this week's block. I went through my box of pre-cut squares and found some colourful butterflies and a vibrant orange. Since the background of the butterflies was black I decided to go with a spotted black for the third colour. Well you sure can't miss this block and it was a nice easy one to get back into the game. I still have 6 blocks to do from various weeks and hopefully will get them done before the end of the year. Things are going to be a bit busy for the next little while and I figured I'm just going to move forward with the FBP blocks and when I have time I will go back and do the ones I've missed.

Vicki's Mosaic 3

Here is this week's block and I actually used the instructions that were given for the block. I did notice a bit of stretching but overall not bad.

I also want to give the gals on this blog a heads up that I'm having my 100th giveaway post tomorrow on my blog http://felinesandfibrearts.blogspot.com/ . It will be posted sometime in the early evening (EDST) after I get home from work. So if what I'm giving away is of interest please feel free to enter and I will ship to international locations.

Vicki's Week 30 & Week 31

Here's week 30 - Hearth & Home

And week 31 - Queen Charlotte's Crown

I'm finally doing a bit of catching up and the easiest was to do the 10" blocks since my plan was to make all the 10" blocks with the turquoise, mottled pink batik and the dark indigo floral outline fabrics. So at least I didn't have to spend time thinking about what fabrics to pick. I had to make a few modifications to these two blocks since the original patterns only called for 2 colours of fabric. Both went together fairly easily and visually are interesting. I think the next time there is another 10" block I will have to gather all of these blocks and take a picture of them to see how they look together.

By the way it's been quiet here at the FBP this weekend and for those who are not from Canada, it was a long weekend here so that probably in part explains the lack of activity over the last few days.

This block should be called Maddening Cross

First I ended up cutting several of the pieces of fabric several times over because for what ever reason my mind wasn't paying attention and I cut the squares too small - ARG!!!! I had my HSTs finished, the block was all laid out, and it was correct. But as I picked up the pieces, I managed to flip some of them and sew them wrong. So out came the seam ripper several times but I finally got the darn thing done. It does look good in my fabrics that I'm doing all my 10" blocks in, but after all that I decided that was enough sewing for one day. I think I'll just go and read a quilting magazine and relax for the rest of the day. I hope the rest of you have better luck.

Off Kilter Triangle Chain

Here is my triangle chain. the points look good but my measurements were off so the various pieces of the blocks don't fit properly. You can see along the edges where there are sections that are either too big or small. It seems that I have a mental block when it comes to measuring anything in eighths. This has happened on a previous block as well. I'm OK with halves and quarters, but those eighths get me every time.

The sad thing is that I work with numbers for a living so you would think I could do the math and get it right. But I guess the brain has had enough of numbers after working with them all day and says "what are you trying to do to me?" LOL!

Caught Up Again - Here's the blocks from week's 23 & 24

I was able to get caught up this weekend and here's the block from last week. I did add a 3rd colour to this one as well but I played with subtle colour changes. At first glance you almost don't notice the difference but then your mind thinks hey there is something else going on here.

Here's is this week's block also with a 3rd colour. I was also experimenting with using a non-white background but I'm not sure if I really like this pale yellow or not.

Week 22 - Scrappy Starflower

Well I got last week's block finished today so tomorrow I will still only be 1 week behind. I just went into my scrap box of pre cut squares and pre-made HSTs and pulled together this. The one corner in the middle didn't come quite together but the block was all finished when I notice and I wasn't about to rip it out.

My Mind Was On Some Other Corner

As the title states my mind was on some other corner when I was doing Hayes Corner. First I managed to scorch one of the HSTs so I had to make another one. With all the quilting I have been doing this past year this has been the first time I have ever managed to scorch fabric. I didn't think I had the iron on it that long. It was rather bizarre.

Then when I was sewing on the black strips to the HSTs I managed to sew one part to the red section and one part to the white section for both HSTs. Then I was looking at the instructions and was wondering why mine looked so different. So out came the seam ripper. For a simple block this one became a lot of work. Still it looks pretty good in B&W with a pop of colour.

Modified Pinwheel

I finally got some time this evening to get this week's block completed. It's a slightly modified version because of the way I ended up selecting my fabrics. I like the way it turned out and it was a fairly easy sew.

Union Square Didn't Want to Come to a Union

Well this block proved to be a challenge and I had to get the seam ripper out a couple of times. The points just didn't want to come together. I took liberty with Donna's improvisation of a 2 colour version and I like the way it looks, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

Vicki's week 18

Like Hetty I also had a bunch of HSTs already made up in my stash so I figured I might as well use them up. This block really doesn't do much for me but looking at some of the others it can look good. It all depends on the fabrics selected, how they are placed and then the contrast between them.

This is what's so great about the FBP is that you get to see a whole bunch of different variations of a block and how things work given the selections made.

Psychedelic Chain & Cross

Thanks Marlene for the suggestion of using fusible web and sticking on a piece of shoe fabric to the middle block. This works for me and the block looks more complete than the one below.

I had this psychedelic shoe fabric that I wanted to use and thought that this just might work in this block for the corner squares. The shoes would have been too chopped up in the strip portion of the block. Once I got the block finished I wished I had cut out a shoe from the shoe fabric for the small centre block, but too late and I wasn't about to rip everything out just for one little block. I followed the instructions from the web site but I had problems with the long narrow strips stretching some even though I did starch the fabric. Still a fairly easy block to piece despite the stretching.

Dakota Gold

This one went together nice and easy. I can't believe we are on week 16, boy the time sure does fly.

Here's Butterfly Betty

Thanks to Kathryn's quick trick this block was easy to put together. Everything is nice and pointy, I like the fabrics but I'm kind of neutral on the block as blocks go. I don't know if I would make this block again.

Vicki's Week 14

Here's my block for week 14. It certainly turned out quite nice but I really don't like her instructions. At one point I really got confused and realized just look at the picture and figure it out, don't read what she has written. I'm not sure what I will do with this, but maybe put a pretty border around it and then it can be used as a place mat of sorts.

The Queen's X - nothing fancy

I'm glad that it was a nice and easy block this week since I came down with a nasty head cold on Fri and I haven't been feeling all that well. I didn't even go looking for anything fancy in my stash, I just went back to my original fabrics from the beginning and kept it simple. Now that I've got this done I think it's time for another nap.