Layout test

It's fun to set out my quilt blocks and see what my final quilt is going to look like. Can we say colorful?!
It's a little intimidating to realize that these 66 blocks in the picture are only 60% of the total number of blocks. Yeah. This is basically half of the quilt! Eeek! Insane! It's going to be huge!
I like seeing the general layout and realizing that all these unmatching blocks fit together in a delightfully colorful quilt. There is one block that I'm DEFINITELY going to redo. And a couple more deserve the chopping block but might make the final cut, depending on how lazy or motivated I feel when that day comes.
Mostly, it's exciting to see the progress and remember the fun of piecing each block together.

#58, 59, 60

#58 Mother's Dream

I've been trying to use more blue and green, and then I realized I hadn't used them together yet. So I like this square, but I don't love it. The colors are soothing and calming together, and calm is, to me, a mother's dream.

#59  Night & Day

So this one is a bit literal. Night: stars in the sky. Day: a cherry picnic. It's a fun block with very pretty contrasts.

#60 Noon & Light

Yellow and grey are really popular together these days. For me, though, the grey feels very drab and dry, even put with the yellow. I love the yellow print, and I am happy to put it in another block!

#55, 56, 57

#55 Linoleum

If I had linoleum that looked anything like this, I would rip it out immediately-- if I somehow decided to buy the house in spite of it. This would be atrocious as flooring! But isn't it a lovely block?! I still love the orange and green floral fabric, which is beautiful but nothing I would use as wall paper or anything!

#56 Maple Leaf

A maple leaf made of maple leaf print fabric. Ba-dum chhh! This block is so easy and pretty, I think I may do a maple leaf quilt someday.

#57 Morning

When I think of morning, I don't usually think RED and BRIGHT YELLOW. This one might be more aptly named Sunburst or something like that. I love the bold colors, though.

#52, 53, 54

Moving right along, then, shall we? 

#52 Hovering Hawks

Hovering Hawks is exactly like the previous one, Hovering Birds. I think it's kind of lame that they're both in the book, especially since they show up one after the other. Maybe there were lots of the Farmer's Wife essays that talked about hovering birds and hawks. Though I doubt it.

I'll just be sure and place them separately in the final quilt.

#53 Jackknife

Oooh, didn't this one turn out pretty? I basically copied the colors from the book. I'm not sure how this is supposed to look like a jackknife, though. Is it the blue shapes on the corner of the center square? I guess so.

#54 Kitchen Woodbox

Yeah, I copied this one's color scheme from the book, too. I usually think the fabrics in the book are absolutely atrocious, but for these three, the colors were nice, so I used them. Thankfully, I like my fabrics a lot more than the ones the author chose. But actually, once all the blocks are put together on the final quilt, I really like the effect, even with the individual fabrics I don't like. So I'm excited to see how mine will come together with beautiful fabrics and a fun design!

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#49, 50, 51

#49 Honeycomb

I've been sticking with mostly floral prints-- a few stars mixed in for good measure, and maybe even a cherry print. But for this one, how could I NOT use these honeybees?! I kind of love bees, beehives, honey, and everything about them. My little brother owns a beehive, and how cool is that?! So this block makes me happy.

#50 Honey's choice

Isn't this nice? Pink and green. Yup. I guess I shouldn't feel bad that I don't have a lot to say about every single block.

#51 Hovering birds

My sister-in-law saw some of my blocks when I was visiting her, and she was surprised at how small they were. I guess we never mentioned it, but these blocks are each only 6" square. I left my hand in this one, so it gives a bit of perspective. They're tiny. 

#46, 47, 48

#46 Hill and Valley

When I was little, my brother's absolute favorite color was red. I had different favorites, depending on the day, but I always steered clear of red. It was Erik's color. But you know what? I really like red fabric. I like red and white, and I would love to make a red and white quilt sometime. But for now I'll just settle on a red and white block.

#47 Homemaker

I love this block. It was kind of tough, having to sew some seams that pivot in the middle. You can see in the top left corner of the center square that it didn't turn out perfectly. But I think with some ironing and perhaps some seam-ripping, it may be easy to fix.

I love the word "homemaker." It's an old-fashioned word, and many people say it's outdated. But I'm realizing in my crazy Foreign Service life, that one of my first missions as we move from place to place is to be a homemaker. We move from house to house and from city to city, from country to country. Our housing and furnishings are provided for us, which is really convenient. It helps us save money, and we don't have to deal with the hassle of finding short-term apartments, losing down-payments, or getting ripped off in foreign countries. But while we're given a house, it's up to us to make it a home. Specifically, it's up to me to make it a home-- for my husband, for my girls, and for myself. It's my job to feed the four of us, raise the girls in righteousness, and make our home a refuge from the world. It needs to feel homey, even when it's new and unfamiliar. 

We just moved into a new apartment last week. I've been trying harder this time to get settled in faster. We've bought a shoe rack, some drawers for the bathroom counter, and other organizational tools. I'm finding that having a place for everything (instead of a heap, a bag, or a suitcase) helps make the house feel like home for me. I'm not much of a decorator, but having familiar things to do makes our house feel like home. My husband bought a bike, which he rides to and from work. The girls have a bunch of their toys, and we already hit up the library for some books to read. We borrowed some movies, and we have many of our favorites with us. I'm setting up my sewing table, and once I'm finished with that, I'll have no real excuse anymore for my clothes not being fully unpacked.

#48 Homeward Bound

I don't know how long it took me to make this block, but I do know that I spent every minute of it singing the song by Simon and Garfunkel.