The Spunky Diva

Here is the finished block… This is the most complicated block I have ever attempted, and it was fun!  I love how easy the triangles are to make using this chain method of layering to square pieces of fabric, stitching a 1/4” on either side of the diagonal line, and then cutting to create your triangle pieces.  It is super easy and quick! I used a tip I got from a Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting about chain piecing.  If you are doing several ‘chains’ in a row, cut your lead piece/thread saver off and add it to the end of the chain before you stop sewing.  Then cut your ‘chain’ of pieces off the thread saver, and you are set to start your next ‘chain’.  Saves just a few seconds, but it adds up when you are doing several ‘chains’. These triangles are ‘sew’ cute!  Love how they turned out. The one on the right is before squaring the block down to 3.5”.  It took a couple tries for me to get the block laid out correctly, but I made sure t...

I skipped Block 6 and went to Block 7 , since it seemed more straight forward.  Definitely a plus when in a time crunch.  Blocks 6 and 8 are next.  Here are a couple tips I picked up while putting together this block. When adding small pieces to the end of longer pieces, see if you can sew both ends at the ‘same’ time by chain stitching. The odd man out here is the strip with a piece add to just one end. After sewing and pressing, I double checked that my strips still had two straight edges. This did help in the straightness of all these long seams in the final piecing of the Stacked block.  The last tip is an old one… double check that you are putting the right pieces together. {Before Seam Ripper} The green strip at the top isn’t ‘supposed’ to be the top strip, LOL. {After Seam Ripper, and Restitching} Here is the finished puppy-dog Stacked Block!

Week 4 – Diamond Mine

Week 4 – Fourth Inning I think this block is the one I am most likely to recut and resew.  Not sure what went ‘wrong’, but almost every seam has a wave or bow to it.  It does measure the correct finished size, and I did only used the seam ripper to undo one seam.  But…  We will just have to wait and see how much time and material I have left at the end, and whether this block still bugs me when I pull it back out to put the quilt together.  My goal with this quilt-along is to finish, not have the perfect quilt. Here are a couple of my favorites that have been posted to the P2 Quilt-Along Flickr Group : Daisies Fourth Inning by Pink for Me; Teal and Green Fourth Inning by Nanners; and Orange/Teal/Green Fourth Inning by Nurseli4Aiden {just a few of my favs}

Hey there! I am in the process of getting Week 4’ Blocks completed.  Both of these blocks are super cool, and seeing all the variations posted in the Flickr file for this quilt-along as been very inspiring.  I love how crisp the Diamond Mine block looks in this refreshing ocean blue and lime combo . Well… onto my progress… I have all my triangles sewn for Diamond Mine.  Layering the squares together, and sewing on either side of the diagonal line makes piecing these a snap.  Here is the link to the details on this method from Week 2 that Ryan and Charlie posted.  I first saw this method watching Love of Quilting on T.V. from Fons and Porter . As for the Fourth Inning block… I have two layout options that I am considering.  Take a look and tell me what you think.  {This way my final block for this week will be a ‘big’ surprise} Option 1           Option 2 Thoughts????? Since I shared a tip last ...

Have you been wanting to jump on the Mug Rug Wagon?  Here is your chance!  The newest round {round 4} of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap is set to be open for sign-ups for the next 5 days.  Here is the thread with all the rules and regulations .  Hope to see you there!

Week 3 – Center Aisle , Finished!!! I have been storing these blocks with the quilt fabric in a 12”x12” scrap booking storage box.  With the fabric below the finished squares, the edges of the squares {finished block size is 12.5”x12.5”} tuck down the sides of the fabric.  It is nice to pull everything out at once, and be able to put it all back on this type of step-by-step project over several weeks.  Definitely something I will do with my next quilt-along too!

Week 3 – Biggest Fan is the block I finished Monday night.  It only took me an hour, LOL!  A lot less time than the first block.  I skipped over Block 2 {Center-Aisle} to get the more straight forward of the two blocks for this week done.  I am all about getting results.  The dark blue dog breed fabric is a series of squares that are set off very nicely by this block pattern.