9-patch sew along and overall progress

Well, I just counted and I stand at 36 blocks. Due to the fact, that I am making four squares right now, I have been trying to make two a day. Though I must admit that I am not someone who sits down and does a little each day. It works much better for me to sit down and do a massive session to let me get ahead for the days when I can't do anything or focus on other projects.

I want to share photos of them, as I really love some of the blocks and would love to hear thoughts on some of the others as I just am not sure about them. If they are really unsuccessful is it better to hide in a massive project, on the back, or to deconstruct and try something else. Unfortunately, my computer is crashing every time I try to upload my photos so it has to wait until I can borrow someones, perhaps this weekend.


UPDATE: I just finished up the ones for today so I am now at 38. Enough for 19 days so I am good for another two days.

I have been keeping busy with my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I have finished two flowers with the third row of green. I several more that are the simple flowers with just the petals and center. I finally found a yellow that works really well for the center. YAY. I am still trying to figure out if I want a cream/white/none for the path between the flowers.

Grandma's Flower Garden (GFG)

I re-started my GFG. This time instead of using the paper pieces I cut, I am using June Tailor's Simple Shapes - hexagon, so that my flowers will be consistent and uniform. These are available via JoAnn's ($10/25 shapes) and really quite reasonable when using your coupons or they are on sale. I had a lot of problems with my earlier paper pieced flowers with trying to match up the sides, as my papers were not uniform. I cut them myself and got a little sloppy while making them. They caused my flowers to wind up looking really amateurish. Now with the uniform shapes, I am really pleased by how they are turning out.

I have quite a few flower petals ready to assembled. They are just waiting on me to find the right fabric for the center. I have been struggling with finding a good yellow that fits the overall theme of the quilt.

I am surrounding each flower with a ring of green, then creating a path of white or cream. I still can't decide which color-way will look better. I am also trying to figure out if I want to put a path between each flower or simply add another ring of the neutral color (white or cream). The difference is one row of white/cream between the flowers or two. I can't decide what would look better.

I am really pleased though that I was able to get enough of the green to allow me make my GFG either a large full or queen sized quilt.

I have to admit that I am a little surprised, I didn't think I would enjoy the hand piecing this much. Even better, with a GFG I am able to spend a great deal of time quilting without having to spend a great deal of money.

With my other quilts, it was starting to get a little expensive as it only takes me about two or three hours to piece a top. So I can piece a top in one afternoon/evening. Now, it takes me longer to quilt the tops, but even so its getting quilts done in a matter of days instead of weeks and the cost of fabric, batting, and thread really adds up.

The GFG takes up time, is portable, and cost effective. So, I highly recommend at least giving it a try.