My Dirty Little Secret

I've been participating in The Layer Cake Quilt Along hosted at Moose on the Front Porch Quilts.

Oh…you mean I didn’t tell you?

I'm sorry! It just always seems like whenever I complete a block, something else comes up that I just have to blog about! But this time I'm ready!

I'm using Tweet fabrics from Robert Kaufman. I looked for a Layer Cake, but these just jumped into my arms. I have 10 different fabrics to work with, some are part of the Tweet line and others are from other lines that just looked good together.



Block #1 This is my favorite block. Maybe of all time. I love the spinning star with the appliqué in the middle. Too cute! I fussy cut a small butterfly from the fabric and zig-zagged the little guy in place. I could make a whole quilt of this block. Love it!



Block #2 I had high hopes for this one. I don't know what went wrong. First, I copied a participant's block layout instead of following Vickie's instructions. I used too much of that yellow checkered fabric. I'm still debating whether I should unstitch or not. I think I will.

Blocks #3 and #4

I'm not going to lie. I haven't started them!



Block #5 This one was a headache! Since I'm using yardage and not a layer cake, I had trouble following the directions (that's my excuse!). I cut out all the pieces, then thought: Wow, Cara Wilson is a great designer to make that big block out of these small pieces. Guess what? I only cut half the pieces I should have! The instructions say:

Cut the 1 5/8" x 10" strips to 1 5/8" x 4 7/8" strips.

And I thought that meant I needed 1 strip, not 2. So I put half the block together, the whole time waiting for this big finale where I wave my magic rotary cutter and these pieces somehow multiply into enough fabric to make a large block. I was seriously holding my breath. Maybe the next step, I thought. Maybe the next step. Then it slowly dawns on me that I read the instructions wrong. Then I got insulted I just couldn't strip- piece 4 strips together and then rotary cut them. But I'm supposed to be using a layer cake, and that wouldn't work! Argh!

I'm not really hot on the finished block. First off, it's wonky. In a not-supposed-to-be-wonky kind of way. And I think it's too busy. It needs some solid in there. So my next step is to find some matching solids I can mix in with these fabrics. Not just for this block, but for ones in the future too. Which means a trip to the fabric store. Sigh. My life is so hard.