365 Challenge - the discoveries

A challenge is meant to push your limits or teach you new techniques and sometimes learn a few things about yourself. The 365 Challenge is certainly all that to me. I have learn a few things, done blocks with a different technique, and I have pushed my limits like never before. The best part (or the scariest part) is that I am not even half way through the quilt yet! So much more to learn.

I have also discovered a thing or two about myself.  Imagine that!!. After 52 years of living with me, I am still learning stuff lol. For instance, I am not a one-block-a-day kind of person. Surprise!! No, not me. I prefer having many blocks all prepped up to sew in one sitting. Since cutting the fabric is my least favourite job, I like to do a few (if not a lot) blocks at once. Then when I sit to sew, I can really see the difference in the quilt I'm working on.

Another thing I have discovered about me is I really don't like mitre corners and if I can't grasp the instruction in a few blocks, I'll give up on it. (See this post)  HA! Funny me! :^D

I also don't always see what the finished block will look like done in the fabrics I have picked ... because I sure wouldn't had picked that if I had known before hand lol.  And sometimes I am very thick when reading instructions. I know I am more visual than auditory but I didn't know it included reading. lol.

I have joined all the borders and corners to the medallion.  I love it. The slanted diamonds border on the left had me reading the instructions so many times  before I get it. When I finally did understood how to do it, I laughed at my inability to figure it out sooner.

April 9 - 15. Note that fourth block on the far right could have used better assortment of fabrics than those I picked. It looked so much better in my head, lol. (Not starting over.)

The next block was Windmill which needed to be "trimmed" ... on point!! I read the instruction over and over. I decided to mark the cuts before cutting it. So happy I did.

Can you see the white lines? That's where I thought I was supposed to cut. It makes a 2.5 inches block instead of a 3.5 block. So I read the instruction again. And draw again.

Finally, I cut it when it was exactly 3.5 inches. Yay!! Much easier to erase a few white lines than starting over again because it was cut wrong. I did that once before, thank you, wont redo that experience!! (I hope anyway.)

So here's April 16 to 18 with April 20.
Where is April 19 you ask? Yes ..., well, ... ummmm ...  I am getting to that one. You see, it is the smallest bowtie I have ever seen and it is intimating me.   8^{

I will muster the courage to tackle it while I am continuing on my primary project; the wooden deck. It is in a very poor shape. So this year, it is getting the TLC it deserves.

The foreground boards are yet to be wash so you can see how bad it gotten. (Well, you can see it in all of my blocks' pictures actually.) The section on the right is washed and dried, the darker section on the left is oiled to rejuvenate the wood. After all this is done and dry, it will get a coat of sealer for the winter. Hope to get it finish before the end of the month so I can sit on it without my brain nagging me about doing another section instead of just sitting here. Whenever my back has enough of that job, I sit in front of the sewing machine.

And that's another discovery; multi-tasking is good for the body! :^D

Joining Making Monday at Love Laugh Quilt
Joining Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIPs be Gone


Until next time ...   : ' )

;^)