February's Le Petite Challenge

This is my version of the newest Le Petite challenge, "Sweet Spot." I know, it's early. I know, I can't believe it either. Last month's challenge I finished late on the 31st. This month, it is the 12th and I am already done. What the heck? Here's the deal. I haven't worked on any other quilting project since I began pulling fabrics and cutting on the 5th and every time I made it up to the studio to sew, I worked on this quilt. Nothing else. No Intuition quilt, no blocks for others, nothing. Now, I don't want you to think that I have eaten, slept and breathed this top, because, that is not the case, but I was totally focused - in the studio - on getting this one done before the deadline. I might even have it quilted - hahaha - okay, now I am lying to myself about that - I should say that I would like to have it quilted and bound before the end of the month, but I would also like to finish up the intuition quilt and move on to the monochromatic challenge. Oh, yes, there is also a little thing called retreat and working on my newest quilt pattern. and, and, and . . . Anyway, back to this quilt. When the newest le petite pattern was posted on Pink Pincushion, I really liked it. I knew I wanted to do something modern, but also a little different from the pattern. I pulled out some Kona gray and 9 fabrics that have a more modern feel to them. I drew out the pattern on a graphing index card, figured out what size I wanted the blocks to be and started in almost immediately. I made one block to test out my plan and then it was off to the races. For some reason, I ended up with 10 star blocks. How did that happen? I only pulled 9 fabrics, didn't I? Oh, yes, that test block. I guess I pulled an extra one for that, but since it goes with the others and since I don't know what I am going to do with the back, I wanted to use all the blocks on the front. That is where this whole thing took a turn for the "different". I only added double borders on two sides along with the one block cornerstone. I thought it was finished, but then I decided it needed to be set with a final gray border. I sewed a 2 1/2" strip along the border sides and a 4 1/2" strips along the non border sides. Perfectiono!(she says, kissing her fingertips on her right hand and then waving her hand in the air) I really like how it looks.

Okay, I said that I hadn't been totally engrossed in making this top, I also have been keeping up with some of the blogs and one of them, 15 Minutes Play, had a posting about disappearing 4 patches. I read that posting, went to the makers blog and read that posting and still don't understand how to cut the blocks. That didn't stop me, though. I sewed 4 - 4 1/2" squares together into a 4 patch. Then I cut 1 inch to the right of the middle seam, turned it a quarter turn and cut 1 inch away from that seam. That looks nothing like - wait, one block looks like it may be part of the what I want - Nope. Can't figure it out. So, I took my pieces, turned a couple of them around and swapped them, sewed them all back together and voila! (another kissing hand thingy) here is my version of the disappearing 4 patch block.


That worked, now let's make another one and see what we have - Crash!! I just knocked off the drawer that holds my keyboard. I have done that before, but this time, I also took out the side support. I am not sure that this can be fixed. Back to the quilt blocks holding my keyboard in my lap. Here is two of them together. This doesn't look anything like the wonkiness of the other one, but I think it has potential, "we believe in you" sorry, flashing to Pretty Woman.

Ahh, I have gone back to the site and discovered that she cut one inch on both sides of each of those seams. Leaving, for the most part the middle section together. I am going to just have to ask her for a pictorial tutorial on exactly how she made them wonky. Or, I may have to sew some more blocks together and try it for myself.