Little Finishes and Stumbling Progress

Happily, I've been spending productive time in my sewing room. The October birthday cake for Megan in One Block Over progressed from this picture...

... to the applique on the left,

to the finished piece (o' cake!) on the right.

 

I drew, stitched (with Cosmo floss), and pencil-colored this owl for my J-O-Y wallhanging.

If he looks a little googly-eyed, it's because I copied him from this Holiday Hoot fabric.

10" X 10"

My favorite print for binding is a stripe. And where is it more appropriate than on a Christmas piece.

The Blogger's Block of the Month comes out on the 25th of each month. After making one 8-1/2" (unfinished) block in September, I decided that each month I'll make two so I have enough to make some sort of quilt when it's finished. Here are both of the September blocks.  

And here are my interpretations of the October block offered by Vickie Welsh.

As far as progress goes on my Friendship Medallion quilt, it's been two steps forward and three steps back! The steps to make round 5 of this medallion quilt were:

Cut out 36 pink rectangles from 36 different prints. - Check.
Cut out 40 red rectangles from 40 different prints - Check.
Cut out 152 white squares. - Check.

Sit down to sew together 36 pink rectangles and white squares. - Check.
(It was most enjoyable to sew while listening to an excellent audiobook, The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Berry.)
Press pink and white patches. - Check

36 pink and white patches

Now sew 40 red rectangle and white squares. - Check.
Begin to press red and white patches.... Oh No! They're all sewn together wrong!

They were supposed to have looked like this!

The 40 red patches in the above photo are those I completely re-cut out and sewed to make patches that could be arrange in a zig-zag pattern. Argh! Why do I do this when I know better? I know better. I know better. Apparently it takes a lifetime, to figure out simple stuff like this.

Not only am I stuck with 40 incorrectly sewn red and white patches, I have this big pile of sewn (before they were cut off) half-square triangle squares that are the remains of both the correctly sewn, and incorrectly sewn patches. That's 232 squares that I haven't even bothered to press.

Between the rectangle patches and these squares, I'll have plenty of piecing to do for the back of this quilt because I'm just too frugal to waste perfectly good fabric. Besides, it will be a good punishment for so badly messing up what should have been an easy-to-sew round. Linda