A Challenge is Always a Good Thing!!

The new year has brought much renewed quilting enthusiasm.  Projects started and laid away have been picked back up with the desire to "finish".  I don't want to leave this world with many ufps (unfinished projects).  I am hoping that I can also use my blog to report as I make progress.  Maybe there will be something here of interest to you that will bring you back.  When I left my blog years ago (when Pops was diagnosed with cancer) I had a fair amount of followers but now---- very few.  I am hoping to find new friends and kindred spirits to share my quilting journey with.  If you see something here you would like to share on your blog, please feel free to do so and in so doing, help me to get word around that I am back.  I have not been so good at posting regularly but am trying to find a way to "get it all done".  I have a new computer--a Microsoft Surface Book and am learning how to use it.  I am trying to find out how I can use the pictures I take with my IPhone with said computer.  I have remembered that I have lots of pictures on Google that I thought I had lost  ~crazy woman~.

Excitement was experienced when I found 2 Challenges for the year by Quilted Moose Quilt Shop, 2018 and they still have patterns for their 2017 block challenges also.  The challenge is to make one block a week.  The same block week after week for one year, or as long as it takes to get the amount you want for a quilt.  At the end of the year they promise a quilt to encourage you to use your blocks.  They each have Facebook and Instagram pages where you can post your blocks and see everyone's blocks.  What Fun!  I love to see different fabric combinations.
Here are two of mine.  The Cake Stand (2017 Challenge) and 9 Patch.

 Piecing 9 patches in rows that leaves the rows connected is such fun and so much easier for me to get the accurate blocks that I strive for.

 One finished block that is totally scrappy.  I am thinking that I will start again and use one color fabric for each 9 patch within the 9 patch.  I have been watching on Instagram and using #52weekquiltblockchallenge--- you will be totally enthused to get started....without worry that you are completely behind ---Whoops!

Now for the Cake Stand which is the 2017 challenge.  I have completed one but have also cut pieces for putting together a massive amount at an upcoming quilt retreat  with friends on March 3rd.  If I get the pieces cut I can see some quilt results.  On Instagram use #52weekquiltchallenge or #cakestand.

 The block is 6 inch which makes it so stinking cute!  And the pieces are pretty quick to cut.

 Here are a few of my stacks of block pieces.  But I have cut many, many more by now.

What a mess is my fat quarter shelf stacked and unstacked as I dig and dig, deciding which two fabrics will make the perfect block.  I know, I should just grab and go with it----sorry, it ain't happening!

When cutting the pieces, pattern calls for one 3 7/8 inch square cut in half for the bottom stand plus 1 -2 3/8 inch square cut diagonally for the part of the bottom stand that is joined to the 2 x 3 1/2 inch background pieces.

 I discovered that after cutting the larger square in half that the other half would be waste.  I tried cutting the other two sections needed for the bottom out of the same fabric out of the other half of the 3 7/8 inch square (I actually cut mine 4 inches).

You can see that the top edge of the triangle is on the 2 1/2 inch mark on the ruler.  Visualize in your mind that this is the same as 1/2 of a 2 1/2 inch square.

 I turned the remainder around and made the same cut on the other side.  See the point on the 2 1/2 inch measurement on the ruler?  Only a small waste in the middle.  Approximately 1/2 inch.

I laid two of the cut pieces from another fabric on top of the larger triangle that they were cut from so you could visualize more clearly what I did.  I hope this helps.  There is a difference in the side which becomes the cross-grain rather than straight of grain, but since all sides are sewn into another fabric and not on the outside edge, I can't see that it makes a difference..

If you go to their challenge web page and decide to take the challenge, maybe you will come back here and use my cutting technique.  It probably won't make much sense unless you actually are cutting the pieces with all your mind in!  If you know what I mean.

Have a great new week beginning tomorrow.
I am worshipping my God not only in the morning but all the time as He is my redeemer and has given me eternal life.  Because He lives, when I die I actually continue to live.  I know that--because He allows me to know that.  His Spirit tells mine.

MOLLY