March Carryover/Plans for April

In my last post I noted that there were projects that were supposed to get started in March that didn't happen.  The most important of those was the raffle quilt project I wanted to do for my community garden.  While I did not commit to providing them unless I could have the tops ready by end of March/early April, I still very much want to give it the "old college try"!  

The Missouri Star "Butterflies and Baskets" Quilt

Planned:  one "Dark" and one "Light" version

So with the two "Daily Blocks" projects now out of the way (I made the last three "String Beans" blocks yesterday),  I'm going to try to focus on the getting the raffle quilt tops done over the next week.  If I can, that wouldn't leave me too far off from where I had hoped to be at this point.  

I spent yesterday getting all the cutting done for the basket blocks.  The baskets for the quilt with the black background are being made from a layer cake stack so I needed to sub-cut the squares chosen from the pre-cut set into 6-1/2" and 3-1/2" squares to make those.  The baskets for the quilt with the white background are being made from my batik stash.  When I chose those prints, I had made the initial cuts needed for the blocks so now had to sub-cut the larger squares into two triangles.   Additionally, I needed to cut all the background pieces for the blocks from the Kona cotton purchased for that.  Oh, and I needed to print templates on the paper backing of the fusible web I'm using for the applique basket handles. 

Once I got all that done, I tested out the zigzag stitch setting for the handle applique (the split moon piece in the center) and tried making two test blocks.  When I saw the original tutorial for this quilt design, it seemed really easy compared to basket blocks I've made in the past.  The sewing is simple but mine were coming out small (note the extended triangles on the sides at the mid point in the blocks above).  They need to be squared up to 8-1/2" and mine were coming up at best to about 8-1/4" even though my seams are at 1/4".  Maybe I need to make them a scant quarter inch?  

When I reviewed the tutorial again, I saw that there was one key tip that I had forgotten:  when Jenny lined up the sides to add to the center basket triangle, she lined them up from the top whereas I had been lining them up from the bottom which is the way it looked like it was done in the pattern.  When I re-did them the tutorial way, those sides are looking a little better and only one side is still coming up about 1/8" short.  

Progress but I'll have to see how it goes moving forward.  If I'm still going to make this happen, I'll need to be able to have tops by the end of next week.  At least as of now I believe I can do this if I focus, focus, focus on this project!!  

And actually maybe the "String Bean Daily Blocks" can actually be of help again this month after all:  I think I can use the piecing together of the block sections as leader enders for the basket piecing.  

Block-A-Day String Bean Log Cabin Variation blocks

I will also take the time to look these over and see if I want to do a little rearranging.  It makes me happy to think I can still get two things done at once!  

The other big thing I was supposed to start last month was the 28 Day Quilting Challenge on Craftsy using the "Realigned" pattern.  I had the batting I needed but what I hadn't been able to make time to do was cut it into squares to make the Quilt-As-You-Go block sandwiches in order to do the practices during March.   So yesterday, I also got that done too. 

So hopefully now I can piece together those blocks each day and try out one of the quilting practices.  I really want to feel comfortable with quilting if I am able to get to that point for the raffle quilts.  Also considering that I have a couple of other quilts I want to quilt up over the next two months, getting this practice in will also be a big help for that.     

And so it goes for the start of April.......