And now we return to our usual programming

After yesterday's disasters, a much better sewing day today.

I finally managed to catch up with the GenX Quilter's Moccasin block of the month by finishing off block 6, a Dresden plate.

The only issue with this block was the (for me anyway) bespoke size of the blades. I have the EZ Quilting Dresden blade ruler which measures blades from 2" upwards in 1/2" increments. The size and angle of each size blade ensures that a certain number of blades makes a full Dresden circle.

However the Moccasin block required blades which were 4" high but the side angles of which corresponded with the 3" template on my ruler. A bit confusing! So I cut my fabric 4" wide, started to cut the blades using the 3" mark on the template until I ran out of ruler at 3" and then manually extended the cuts down to the end of the blade. I guess thus is how the block designers managed to get 20 blades to fit in a 9.5" block. It works!

Ironically, the Ultraviolet blocks of the Gravity quilt from Jaybird Quilts ended up being simpler block of the day, despite having partial seams! This block comes in two colour ways, purple and yellow.

Despite having one partial seam, the blocks came together very quickly. I used Carol Doak's technique of basting matching points with a quick 4" basting stitch first before sewing the seam normally to ensure that the points matched up beautifully. The basting stitch is quick as I only baste the points and pulls out easily once the seam is sewn.

One odd thing about the purple block though- three of the fabrics displayed a weird polarized effect when photographed. The other fabrics seem fine.

I'm sure there's a simple technical explanation for this (Julie at Jaybird says she's had it happen to her with photographs before) but it certainly made the block seem even more out of this world!

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong? There's no milk left for your morning coffee, the handle breaks off your mug and you can't find a parking space?

I had one of those sewing days yesterday. Nothing dramatic happened but there was an endless stream of niggles.

I finished the Pine Needle Basket from the Craftsy Jinny Beyer BOM project and it went fine. Not great, just fine. It took me a good few hours though!

As always with these Craftsy blocks it came out 1/4" too small all around but I can fix that at the sashing stage. French homework is done!

I also finished up the two block 5s for the GenX Quilter's Moccasin BOM. I think I'm almost caught up now (May is block 6). Again these weren't particularly problematic (apart from trying to tear copy paper out of the paper foundation; I'll always use Cadol Doak's paper in the future) but took a good few hours.

Hopefully today is a new day and I've left the trials and tribulations of yesterday behind!

The epic saga continues

Today I finished off Celestial from the Gravity quilt by Jaybird Quilts.

Happily the neon pinkness (I call this colour "acid Barbie") of fabric A was toned down by the other salmon and skin pinks. Not my favourite colour but it'll look great in the finished quilt.

I also started the Moccasin quilt designed by GenX Quilter's. I umm'd and ah'd about starting yet another BOM but the beautiful southern colours and modern design called to me! The only problem now is that I have some catching up to do!

First up were the two First Lady blocks.

Then came the curved windmill. 

Oh dear. I think I must have mistrimmed my drunkards path blocks as I missed all the matching points the first time around. You gotta admire my consistency. Time for a bit of unsewing...

 Much better! Ok, so I still missed one point but I'm not redoing it again!