Day 62

On January 1, I began the project of making a quilt block a day.
The blocks are from Block a Day, by Lucinda Ganderton.

When I started, my OCD kicked into high gear, and I was focused on making one block each day, in order.
I finally gave myself permission to take a break, and even skip around.
Instead of setting a goal to finish all 365 blocks, I set the goal to learn new skills with each block.

I designed a Tribute to Tonie quilt, using 35 of the blocks.
Some of the blocks were used to make totes and pillows.
Some were given to a friend.
At this time, I am making a quilt called Hope. I am using 25 different block patterns.

Today is day 62, and I have made a total of 57 blocks.
Considering that I have gone out-of-town a few times, and I was sick with the flu for two weeks,
I feel good about making 57 blocks.

More importantly, I do believe I have learned many new skills.
The mistakes that I made in the process of piecing the Tribute quilt, have already been corrected.
I can see improvement in the blocks I am making for the Hope quilt.
The cutting, seams, and piecing are more accurate.
I am also finding it easier to make squares such as the following:
flying geese, boat squares, hourglass squares,pin wheel square, stitch and flip, diamond squares, and house squares.
There are a few more squares in the book that I have either not gotten enough practice. or done at all.

Many of the remaining blocks are repeats and variations of what I have done already.
There are some scrappy blocks that I do not see a need to make.
After I finish this Hope quilt, I will make a few more of the blocks; but I think I have already achieved my goal of learning more skills.There might not be any more new skills to acquire in the remaining blocks.
I can benefit from the practice, but it would probably be more effective to practice by making other projects.

This book has been a great resource.
It has even helped me learn how to calculate how much fabric I need for projects.
Another plus is that I am using my fabric stash!

These are the blocks I made today for the Hope quilt:

Block #111 North Star

Block #228