Little Blocks

Here are my Pink Lemonade blocks for Lori’s quiltalong. I had fun selecting the fabrics from my stash. I’m happy with what I found.

I’m listening to John Adams by David McCullough on CD while I sew. Because I’m using an old boom box, I have to listen to a whole CD before taking a break – I can pause it, but I’m not sure I can turn the thing off and be at the same place when I turn it on again. I could test it, but won’t.  ; c ) I’m getting more done in one sitting than I used to. It’s a long book - 26 CDs. I read it many years ago and loved it and now my book club is reading it. I knew I wouldn’t sit down to read it again (too much happening in the sewing room). This is the first time I’ve listened to a book while sewing and I don’t think it will be the last.

These are my 9-patches for the block exchange I’m organizing. I must be about as good giving directions, as I am following them – not so well. I received a lot of questions about my instructions and at the meeting last week we discovered that one woman had made all her 132 blocks exactly the same. We have 22 participants and we are making 6 sets of 22 blocks in order to get enough for a lap quilt of 132 different 9-patches. The blocks will finish at 3”. She had already put so much work into it so we told her we would use what she had. She had pinned and chain pieced them at the meeting and when she got home she asked her mother to pull out the pins and snip the threads. When she came home from work she found the blocks totally taken apart and she now had a bunch of 1 ½” squares. Her mother misunderstood and ripped out the seams! OMG! She said she had to excuse herself from the room. I think I would have done the same to cry and then to laugh at the absurdity of it. She emailed me and said those blocks just were not meant to be. She has since started over! I feel so bad for her and hope in the end she is happy with all the 9-patches she receives. Our exchange is later this month and we may do it again in February. Some of us want a bigger quilt.

It really is time for me to get back to my lone star. I’m really pushing myself with this project. I’m not crazy about the fabrics anymore, but I found in the past that I learned from projects like this. Because I don’t absolutely love it I’m willing to take more chances and sometimes loving it in the end because of those chances.