Layout of Blocks 1 - 24 by Sarah

I saw that Chelsea had posted a picture of all her squares to date laid out so she can judge which colors to stop using as much and which colors to use more of. (ACK! horrible sentence, I'm sorry.)
I decided to do the same, even though I have 7 fewer squares completed than she does. (ahhh, redeemed by the proper use of "fewer" instead of "less")
Here it is:

What do you think? I am thinking it's pretty even...possibly a little heavy on the purple. Also, I realized I need to complete my #3 block before I run out of that fabric, not that I'm even remotely close to running out of that fabric. I still think #8 looks like a bowl of ice cream. I still love #12 the best.

Blocks 22 - 24 by Sarah

I'm not even sure what week we're on or what blocks are supposed to be done anymore. I'll figure that out one of these days and post an update about it. For now, here are blocks 22 - 24 by me.
22: Corn & Beans

 I do have green in my selected colors for this quilt, but yellow is not in my selection of colors. I'm not sure I could have handled putting green and gold yellow into a quilt because they're my high school colors. I'm not as school-spirited cool as Chelsea is I guess. When I chose these fabrics for this block, I was thinking the "corn" triangles would look more yellowy green, but looking at it completed, the smaller triangles don't stand out like they should against the larger triangles. I still like how it turned out, although this block was a pain in the rear to iron. There are some thick clumps of fabric where all those tiny corners come together.

23: Country Farm:

Confession: I love the gray with silver damask so much that I went and got the matching green and purple fabrics to go with it. I thought I'd display them together in this block. The combination of the three makes this block quite modern looking and it will probably stand out a bit when I assemble the quilt, but that's ok. I like it. I probably won't put all three of these together in the same block again though. 

24: Country Path:

Explanation of fabrics: The green is a new one, recently added from my trip to Hobby Lobby, as are the two purple floral fabrics. The purple polka dot is from my mother's stash. I liked using the template for the middle of the block. It was a nice change from all the triangles and squares.

Blocks 19 - 21 by Sarah

Sorry, I only have the one Catch Up/Ketchup joke.
Good news though! You know that phrase about the lemons and life? Well, when life gives you amazing new, free cameras...
#19: Checkerboard

 I like this one. It was fun to do all different reds so it still looks like a checkerboard, but there are so many different patterns in each square. (Note the red w/ white polka dots and the red with burgundy floral design are new fabrics that I got at hobby lobby the other day while I was there. Yes, I *needed* more fabric.)

#20: Churn Dash

I just decided to google "churn dash" to see what a churn dash actually was (something having to do with a butter churn I'm assuming???) and turns out that it is a popular, traditional quilt square. Turns out that maybe these names aren't made up by the author of this book arbitrarily like I thought they were. Once we're finished with this giant quilt project, I may try making quilts entirely of my favorite blocks from this sampler. I guess that's the point of doing a sampler, right?

#21: Contrary Wife

Based on my discovery above, I'm going to stop questioning the names of these quilt squares and just comment on the aspects that are more...interesting? For example: Interesting fact - All 3 of these fabrics are from my mother's stash of scraps. I didn't think that the green would go with my quilt based on the pictures she sent me, but it works perfectly. Now you know.

Good, better, best

#28 Ducks and ducklings

This one is another attempt to add some more green. Leaves and cherries-- it works.

#29 Economy

I simply love this color combination! I never even considered putting them together, but then one day as I was refolding and putting away my fabrics, these to ended up next to each other. And voila! I didn't want something too busy for a block called "economy," so I think this color combo fits the bill.

#30 End of Day

And this is my absolute favorite block so far. I love the way the fabrics look together, so bright and fresh. I love the design of the block, but I was also impressed with the way it looked when I rearranged the four quarters before sewing them together. You can put the smaller triangles in the center and have a pinwheel encased in a block. Or if you invert these two halves, there is a cool design of a square made of stripes. Hard to explain, but I may make two more of this block just to show those variations. Every time I see a square made up solely of 36 #13 triangles, I'll be tempted just to throw one of these in instead.
Actually, consider it done. I hate the #13 triangle!

Hello?

Well, I was going to try and get ahead of the game in this quilting project, before last week, but it didn't happen. The reason I was going to get ahead of the game is because I had a minor surgery scheduled last week. I'm up and around again now though, so look forward to some more quilting posts from me. :) From what I hear, Chelsea is trying to get ahead in her quilting as well because she will be without a sewing machine for a little while... Hypothetically that means tons of posts coming your way!!!

This week's blocks

I suppose I could have just back-dated my previous post, and you would have all (all both of you) thought I'd actually posted it on time. Oh well. 

#25 Cups and Saucers

I realized that my quilt needed more green. It's only my favorite color ever, and I flipped through my blocks so far and realized there was a severe lack. So here's another green block! I was thinking the leafy fabric looked like a nice chintzy china pattern, and the green made it look like a garden tea party. But it really looks like poker table green. So I guess it's a tea party on the poker table.

#26 Cut glass dish

These are the last three scraps of this pretty teal polka-dotted pattern, and I reserved them especially for this block.

I'm getting to really loathe the #13 triangles, which this one has about a million of. The #13 is the tiniest template, and it winds up being one half of a 1" square. If the pattern calls for the #13 triangle, it usually asks for at least 20 of them. Barf! It takes forever to cut them all (even when I cheat and use the rotary cutter), and then it takes forever to sew the intricate block.

#27 Darting Birds

I know I'm really mature, but  every time I read the name, darting birds, I'd change it in my mind to "farting birds." I don't love how this block turned out, but with its gajillion #13 triangles, I'm not sure I'll redo it. It can just stay wonky.

Last week's blocks

So I had some trouble uploading pictures the last couple weeks. I just polished up my geek skills, though, and got flash to start working again on my computer. So yay! Pictures!

#22 Corn and Beans

I kind of hate autumn colors like orange and brown (together). But the name of the block reminded me of the Native Americans in New Mexico who used to eat primarily corn, beans, and squash. And somehow, these colors worked for that. I like how the block turned out, but I don't think I'll be making the whole quilt lean towards this color scheme.

#23 Country Farm

I decided to use my cherry fabric in this so it would look like cherries growing on a farm. Very deep, I know. I guess green and red usually look like Christmas, but when the red is cherries and the green is flowers, I think it looks more summery than wintery.

#24 Country Path

So I haven't decided if the path is supposed to be the square going around the center or if it's two paths criss-crossing the center of the path. Hmmm.. either way, it's a nice block, but I'm starting to kind of hate the blocks with the teeny tiny, one-inch squares. Bah!