I think you all know that this year has been hard for me. It’s been difficult, mostly, in my own ability to focus on complicated things. I’m finding it easier to clean and do mindless tasks than something that requires much mental discipline. As such, I’ve not been able to focus well even on more complicated piecing. I’m like a lot of you - wanting to “DO” something when it comes to sewing, but not being able to actually focus and dive deeply into something complicated.

So, I decided to try to add a couple more tops to my 2.5” series - primarily using the 2.5” strips I’ve been cutting.

It is made up of two blocks - one is a 16 patch using all 2.5” squares - supposed to be low volume, and the other is a 16 patch as well, but it is a traditional checkerboard. I made it hard on myself by putting a white sashing strip and little cornerstones on it. I was hoping the design would show up in the final top. While my so-called “low volume” pieces aren’t all that low volume, I was hoping that the design would show up anyway.

Here it is in the layout.

Here’s the progress as I worked on putting it together. I made the blocks last week or the week before.

Then because I was making both halves at the same time, here it is with both halves before they were sewn together.

I was running out of room because I had some other things making my space limited - so it was scrunched up a bit. Sorry about that.

Then I trimmed it.

And here it is. The layout with the lines looks like this -

And there you are - a top!

We’re getting ready to have some company again soon so I’m thrilled to get this one top finished. Everything feels like a struggle right now.

Here are the 2.5” tops/quilts I’ve finished - some of them were made with this series in mind anyway. I’ve made other ones like a simple Irish chain or a simple 9 patch as well using 2.5” squares/strips also. I’ll put those here. You can find most of these on the free patterns page.