Blocks from the Past QAL: Pages 42, 43, and 78

This weeks blocks were kind of tricky, not unlike many in this book. But they were definitely doable.

Page 42: Flying Geese

I didn't need this block for my quilt so I made this one for Marion and it's the 6.5" that the book suggests. I chose to use the no-waste method to make my flying geese. Normally I really like this method, but I think these little guys were just too small to keep accurate this way. Luckily my block ended up slightly larger than 6.5" rather than smaller, but if I was to do this again I would definitely paper-piece the flying geese.

One thing I really liked about this block was being able to play with the color placement to make a star in the middle.

Page 43: Corn and Beans

This block tried to kick my butt. I won't mince words--it wasn't easy. Fitting all the shapes together was a bit of a challenging puzzle. A kind of fun puzzle. That said, I love how it turned out so it was worth it. I made mine 24" so it's a HUGE block. I wasn't really paying attention to the instructions in the book as I was assembling it so I ended up altering the background a little bit to make it work. If you notice on the corners of mine the background is made out of one square and two triangles... it's supposed to be one large triangle on each corner. I had already made half square triangles so I decided to just go with it rather than pick it out. Honestly I don't particularly like sewing on that type of corner triangle so it actually made the block a little bit easier. It also makes my low-volume background more diverse so I'm okay with that. 

Page 78: Princess Feather
I made this one for Marion too. I cut the background slightly larger than 7" so it could be trimmed down to an accurate 6.5" after finishing the applique. These pieces were TINY. Thinking of doing turned-edge hand applique with these itty bitty pieces nearly gave me heart palpitations, so I decided to use fusible web and then sew it down with a tiny stitch with monofilament thread. Overall it worked out very well and I would definitely do it this way again.

I finished sewing my top together and I love how it turned out! It will be a while until I have time to quilt it so I'll wait to share it here until then, but you can scroll back a ways in my Instagram feed if you would like to see it.