Passing the Days: Days 27 and 28

Easter was a rather different kind of celebration for many of us this year.  We had a Zoom meeting with several church friends to start the day, then it was just Ken and I worshipping as we watched the online video.  I think our duets as we sing along are starting to sound better.  I decided for this day I wanted to represent my faith so a cross seemed perfect.  I wanted something to represent new life, which the flowers in the purple print do nicely, to remind me of the new life I have in Christ.  I chose a econdary light purple to try to represent the fabric that is often drapped over our crosses on Easter Sunday.  I am not sure, but for me it represents the cloths that Jesus set aside in the tomb when He was raised from the dead.

This one breaks my nine-patch mode.  But after playing with the idea a bit I think I came up with something that works out pretty well.  My family has often referred to me as "Bargain Betty".  I look for deals, and I am very concious about waste.  I could have used the no-waste method to make these Flying Geese, but this method wasted less fabric.  Which kind of makes me laugh because the pieces are small enough the waste is very minimal.  But I was already having to use methods that gave me leftovers sooo...I just have to laugh at my frugal ways sometimes.   So, I made Flying Geese out of Half-square Triangles.  It's good to have multiple options in your repetoire, right?

I am glad I pressed these so that the seams locked together.  That really helped to get some pretty perfect points.

Next I used triangles to make the Split Corner Squares.  Again, I could have used the quick method and just had a leftover but I did some carefeul cutting of my triangles and actually saved myself some fabric by trimming the large and small triangles from the same large square cut in half for the quarter size I needed and then trimming the remaining half to size.  So I got my E and H triangles out of the square I cut for E and my F and G triangles from the larger F square as well.  (I do not tell you how to do that in the pdf however.)

---

I need to trim these units just a bit.  It is hard to see, but the diagonal line on my ruler is right along the long seam line.  I have the 1 1/4" mark at the intersection of all three seams which is the exact middle of the finished size of this square.

There are a few seams that happen to lay the same direction rather than locking together nicely.  The best tip I have for when that happens is to use a water soluble glue stick at those seams.  It does not take much to hold them and I have found the tacky glue works better than a pin.   It will hold them together nicely so that you still get sharp points in the end.

For today's block I made a Puss in the Corner Block.  We are having another sunny day here which made me think of kitties sitting in windows soaking up the sun's rays.  We had a gray tabby named Bailey which inspired the use of a gray print.  It is actually of snowy trees, but I decided it would work for  fur too.

This is an old photo of Bailey, who adopted us as a stray kitty after being found by some college students.  He was my special sewing buddy and is still greatly missed.

---

I did find it helpful to fan the seams on the 4-patch units.  I have done this with the one on the right and you can see how much flatter it wants to lay.

Fanning a seam simply involves using your fingers to open up that middle intersection so that the seams fall in opposite directions.  Notice you will get a little miniature version of the block in the middle.

Well, to get your pdf copies of the blocks be sure and click on the link below:
Passing the Days Blocks
Be sure you also have a copy of the General Instructions handy.

Now, I am going to ask a favor.  If you are sewing along with me in any way would you leave a comment to let me know, or drop me an email if you prefer.  I put a lot of time into what I provide for you and when I don't get any feedback I begin to wonder if anybody actually is out there who cares.  For the most part the only time I hear from people is when they are having some sort of problem-which I am always glad to help them with-but it would be nice to hear a hello once in a while too.  Maybe it is just the Covid-19 isolation getting to me, but I really want to hear from you!

I hope you have a wondeful day and
Happy Quilting!!