#1 Block Orphan

After coming home from the retreat, I pinned all the parts to the blocks because I left the site before finishing the first of my blocks. I had taken a number of photos, so pulled one of them up to discover that I had laid the square block (forming the triangle) on the strip pair going a different direction. Its not that it was wrong as much as it was different and didn't follow the pattern. Women who bought fabric for this quilt got all their darks in one color using different fabrics, and all their lights in one color using different fabrics.

Admittedly, I panicked. The paper pieced cat blocks are still waiting in my front room because they represent a puzzle that is more than I can take looking at. So to do yet another one for myself just freaked me out. 

My fabric selections will make a scrappy quilt using the scraps from my stash rather than going to store and purchasing coordinating colors and patterns. If I hold to the quilt pattern as its written, it will look just fine. One block is too soon to tell if it will work or not. So I re-counted. There is enough to make up another block going in the direction that the pattern calls for. I panicked anyway and realized it was outside my comfort to make it flipped.

I re-pinned a few blocks and started piecing them. It takes less than 5 minutes to piece 1/8 of the block and countless minutes to assemble it, and in fact, its not going to be further sewn until I decide how it will look. What I see in the print copy for the pattern is that the look can get lost if the fabrics fight for dominance or fade. Its another one of those random quilts that needs a bit of thoughtfulness. Not over-thinking, which means looking at it with soft eyes.

Yet, with a little re-arranging, the star blocks showed up more. These 8 blocks are the only ones pieced, and I think I will take the time to layout the colors to see how placement will make it work better on the eye. As long as the 4 sections of the stars are not pieced, its all like playing a game. My plan is to join the triangle pieces over the strips and lay them all out to see what I like. Its an easy block to make that goes together with just a few points to match.

Mysteries. Dang! Funny thing is that I am enrolled in a BOM mystery. They push me way beyond my comfort levels, and for that, I am grateful.