Thanks to all those who gave such thoughtful, well-considered responses to my last post.  It clearly touched a chord with many of you.  I realise that I am learning all the time – I often just wish that some of the things I know now I had learned much earlier!  Maybe I will be wise when I am old.

I had the good fortune to spend a day at Sewjourn on the weekend.  While there I took full advantage of the design wall to play with the blocks I received from round one of Around The Block.

I had wonderful input from the other ladies who were there, particularly Meredith – thank you! I’m going to join these blocks pretty much as in the above photo, without sashing. But first I need to trim and adjust them all to the same size – because as we all discovered during ATB, one person’s quarter inch foot isn’t necessarily the same as another’s! They’re all roughly 12 1/2 inches square, so it shouldn’t be too hard to trim a little or add a little.

Then I whacked all my practice blocks up on the design wall. Before I cut into the fabric that the other quilting bee members had sent me, I usually did a practice with my own fabrics.

Lots of blocks!  These are mostly 12 1/2 inches square as well.  I’m planning to cut a whole lot of 3 1/2 inch squares from the remaining scraps (and yes, there are plenty of them) and then add them to the blocks in different ways, and offset the blocks from one another.  I’ll probably need to use the design wall again to get that right.  Probably one of my May Sewjourn weekend goals!

I’ve got a few other completed projects to photograph and blog, but I have been trying to slow down a little and do things at a less frantic pace.  I just started back at work again yesterday, and am picking up a few extra days of work here and there, so that will inevitably cut into my crafting time.  Then it’s back to school on Friday.  I’m sad to see the holidays over, but looking forward to getting back into routine.  Now to find time in that routine to go to the gym…