I got in the mood to work on this one again.

I had some leftover parts from the last time I showed this (also the first time). However, I wanted to make some progress on this pieced quilt that is quite intense, actually.

I actually came across more 1.5” black strips in all my digging around for other projects I’ve got going on. So, that’s good. It saves me from having to cut some and I really want to keep using up things I’ve already cut up if at all possible for this top.

I mean, it’s not hard. What’s hard about sewing strips of black and a pastel together? Nothing.

Then, cutting into 2.5” strips after pressing? Is that hard? Nah.

But when it comes to putting those pieces together, sometimes, I amaze myself at how hard I make it.

Thankfully, like I said before, I have the pattern posted above my sewing machine so I can constantly look at it.

So this is what I did this time.

I added 3 rows! Yes, I did. That’s 33 more blocks!

But after last time’s mistake, I didn’t trust myself to even put the rows together before I took them down to the living room, put them on the floor and checked for mistakes.

So that’s what I did.

I put the main part that I already had done and the other three rows. One went above the main part and the other two below.

Something seemed off. Hmm.

I looked again.

Yep! I did it again.

Sigh. So I left it for the night. It was into the evening when I saw the problem.

The next day I took the photos, marked my mistakes with safety pins (so I could find them easily while seated at the machine) and took my rows back to the machine, turned the pieces that needed turning and sewed it all together. It took a bit longer this time than I thought - probably because as the whole thing gets bigger, there is just more horsing things around.

Ah…Much better!

I now have 5 rows done, so that’s 5x8” = 40” done. That’s great!

In this group, now I have a bigger varieties of blacks, but I decided to leave out the black background with white dots. I considered it briefly, but chose not to use it. All the blacks here are either solid or black on black - of which I have very little in this. You can’t see this unless you are very close. However, some of the blacks are definitely blacker blacks. It’s actually kind of cool up close.

There are so many little strings and threads here. You’d think that I just pull my threads and didn’t trim. But that’s not true. I am constantly trimming, but when I finish this top, I’ll need to put on a video or something to listen to and just spend some time rolling and trimming threads - big time!

But I like it - a lot! It’s really quite simple and once again - here is the block if you are interested in making something similar. I’m using little strips that are 1.5”x2.5” for each little strip you see. I’m sewing the strips into sets of a pastel of black and color to make into 2.5” square units that I am then working with as if a single block.

And while individually working with these small pieces isn’t fast, as long as I keep my own expectations low enough that I don’t frustrate myself, then all is good. I’m okay with just progress from time to time.

Today (the day I’m writing this which is not the day this is going live) I found some more 1.5” black strips leftover from this quilt!

Yes, I am digging back in time! They are all second-hand strips as this quilt shown on the right is from all second-hand fabrics. But I’ll use them in my tiny rail fence anyway.

So, now I’ll be sewing up more strips and making more of these units so I can add at least 2 rows again next time. I think I’m aiming to try for an 11x12 quilt - so that should be about 88x96” before I stop - not planning on a border at this time.

Oh, and one more thing - if you ever see any of my tops with a mistake in them - please let me know. I’m not one of those who wants to not fix a mistake because “the Amish put one in on purpose.” I make enough not on purpose - so no need to let one stay that I know about.

One more thing - if you are curious how this design would look with using white, gray or blue instead of black - here are the drawings from EQ (Electric Quilt program).

I was just curious about that - sometimes I get stuck using white or black - maybe I should use more other colors!

Thanks again for coming along with me!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

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