The Last Basket Block and Some Flock of Geese Play

Still haven't killed off my flowers in the pots by the front door! Usually by this time of year I've forgotten to water at least once and the lobelia dies away until I can't even revive it anymore. 

Enjoying my flower pots

Since I'm determined to start a couple new projects, I thought it would be a good idea to get this last basket from the Baskets Galore BOM done and out of the way. I took one look at the pattern and just cringed. Seriously. Wendy said she wanted to challenge us a little, but wowsers, this one looked tough. Oh I was so surprised when it turned out to be one of my very best blocks! Do I just rush the easy looking ones too much? I would have done a victory dance, but my quilting room barely has room to turn around in, so I had to make do with a very large, cheesy grin.

Block #12

I put all the baskets on the wall together and I think they are fairly well balanced in color. Now to figure out what and how to set them. I'm really leaning toward some alternating applique blocks, maybe in some red and greens?

All the baskets are finished!

Then I got my Flock of Geese and little bluebird blocks out to play. If I use this really toned down brown as the sashing fabric then the flying geese blocks sort of pop--in a confident yet really serene way. I especially liked it when the direction of the flying geese blocks got changed up a bit, making them go every which way. Lots of good energy there! The sashing would have to be 6" wide (the same width as the bluebird blocks) but I've been wanting a quilt with super wide sashing forever. And yeah, I was thinking of a wide sashing all along. It was The Plan.

Flock of Geese layout auditions.....

Always amazing when I stick to The Plan! I usually treat it like a sticky note that gets peeled off and thrown away. lol  Anyway, there would be lots of background fabric to quilt later, but hey, I can probably cross that bridge when necessary. No sense worrying about the stitching pattern until later!

Partial St. Paul Blocks and Sheer Madness

I picked up a oldish quilting book at a second hand store earlier in the summer. A block called 'St. Paul' almost jumped off the page at me while I was flipping through and that's all it takes for me to buy a cheap quilting book. Seriously, it had a really interesting antique-ish look to it that I looove, but looking closer at the details was all it took to kill my enthusiasm. Set-in seams? Not for this girl...

Partial St. Paul blocks ready to start sewing...

Then Ellen over at Little Jewel Quilts starting posting about her Winding Ways blocks which have a similar look to the St. Paul blocks. That made me go back and take another long look. Hmmm... Maybe? Just a few?  I considered a stack of fabric that I have been having difficulty finding a pattern for. I waffled about and then finally I made a test block because obviously I was taken over by alien life forces that day.

The first two test blocks

The St. Paul block actually has more piecing on each side of the block which sets it on-point--not what I wanted for this quilt. So.. after more consideration,  I graphed it out and made a much larger block just using the portion of the block that I liked. Well..., then it lost it's antique-ish look, the main draw for me. Once again, everything went on hold and I worked on other stuff. Besides, I do know my limitations and set-in seams are for the more experienced sewist. Even I know that.

Back to the original size and now sewn up in
my chosen colors....

Until one day I guess I forgot about my limitations. Because I just jumped in and started tracing the templates onto fabric and cutting like a mad-woman. I think my hand still hurts from wielding the scissors so much. It's beyond me how I ended up in this predicament. Who is this woman and what happened to her in the past several years? lol  You'll notice my first (blue & orange) blocks turned out okay. Not terrific because the seams are too smooshed together in the center. The second block is a bit better but then I have a wrinkly look towards the outside of the block. There is definitely room for improvement. Hello? We're talking about me and set-in seams, which I always avoid like the plague. Obviously....