Back to SBS

Our house is in a bit of an uproar since almost everything in the living and dining rooms has been moved upstairs or down to the basement. We are having our carpet removed and hardwood floor installed, beginning Friday. It should be lovely when finished. We were advised to take everything off the walls, too, since all the pounding may make things fall off. So knicknacks and pictures have been tucked away, too.

That activity and the fact that I've worked hard to finish some UFOs means that I'm back making Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks. They are each 6" finished, and each is a nice, short project. I have made a dozen in the last few days, and it's been fun most of the time. I have been spoiled by Dear Jane. In that book, each page has a drawing of a complete block, so I can decide for myself what technique would work best - rotary cutting, applique, paper piecing, etc. I can easily trace the block onto freezer paper, too. In SBS there are patterns but no complete blocks to trace, and sometimes I disagree with the technique suggested. Some of my blocks have ended up too big and some too small, because I've deviated from the book's pattern. But I'm not doing any over - there are 144!

I'm enjoying choosing colors for each block, using whatever fabric I think would look good. In this way, I'm using all those fabrics I bought just because I liked them, with no particular project in mind. Some of them were favorites from past projects, too. But I seem to have lots of fabric that I must have been saving for a rainy day - well, this is it! And I'm liking the results so far.