Go-al!!! (She shoots, she scores)

Rather, GOAL MET!!!! (woo hoo!)

The Vintage Rouge center has been completed and blocks and rows stitched (pretty darn exactingly, if I say so myself).

The center plate 10.5 inches, the same size of all the other blocks.

I like the center cornerstones (though this one isn't looking as perfectly round in this photo as I expect it to be. Hopefully that will press out.

And the other night I was obsessing over these outside blocks. The pattern called for words to be embroidered in the centers (Love, Joy, Peace, Hope). I wasn't a fan of that so I did a little freehand applique of two styles of flowers. That served to teach me that freehand applique is not all that it's cracked up to be, or possibly I'm not as good as I like to think I am because they were a 'tad' (ha ha-that's an understatement)  uneven. So, I ripped them off earlier this week and made mini-Dresden templates to create Pointsettia petals, used rulers for centering and measuring, and a McDonald's coffee cup to draw a circle to align them within (whatever happened to be on my desk at lunch on Wednesday in the office became a quilting tool). Now I've got 4 blocks that look pretty uniform and I'm a happy camper (or at least I'm telling myself I am.)

I wanted this done so I could go to the last block pick up tomorrow and be this week's overachiever (stitching the blocks together is part of the upcoming packet). And if that doesn't do it for me, I've already sewn together the plates that will be flowers on the borders, made 56 little berries, and cut out 30 something leaves (all of these are part of the last part of the BOM). If that doesn't cinch the overachiever crown for me, I don't know what will.

It's only midnight so I think I'm going to go pour myself a glass of wine and sew the borders on two of the Aurifil Designer's Blocks.

Enjoy your weekend! 

Vintage Rouge BOM - Using Strip Its

This is my latest distraction.....it's Bloom Creek's Vintage Rouge BOM. I saw this quilt advertised in a flyer by one of my LQS, and HAD to sign up. I NEED a Christmas quilt. And this one was irresistibly stunning. Everyone should make this quilt. It's not as complicated as it looks. All those half square triangles are cut from a single fabric, as are the blades on the Dresden's that look to be two fabrics.

The trick is in the fabric. One of the Marcus Brothers' fabrics in this line is called 'Strip Its'.

The fabric is preprinted with 2.5" strips. For the HSTs,you decide which two strips you'd like to use and cut the strip pairs.

Lining up the angle on my little 4" Nifty Notions ruler with the faux 'seam' on the fabric, I trimmed the strip set to a point.

Then keeping the diagonal line of the ruler on the center 'seam', I aligned the two top edges of the fabric with the 2.5" square markings on the ruler and cut out a 2.5" square

Which turns out to be a perfect HST. No sewing necessary.

To cut another just center the diagonal on the ruler with the center seam again, the point at the top, lop off those irregular triangular shapes, and start over. Sure, there's going to be some waste, but the kit allows for this, and I don't know about you, but I'd much rather toss a few scraps to save me an hour or so of stitching and pressing.

What I'm working on with the first block kit are the 4 blocks in the center of the quilt. For you 'purists', it's not all that obvious that there's no seams, and someone in my class suggested that you could easily machine quilt a 'seam' down the center and no one would be the wiser.

I hope to finish my 4 blocks tonight (I did all the cutting last night), so check back for the results. It's great to finish the homework a few days after the class, but it sucks that the next class isn't for a month :(.

Hope your week is off to a great start!