Definitely a coincidence!

I had no idea Bonnie Hunter was working with split 9-patch blocks for her Summer 2013 Leader-Ender Challenge!  I just discovered that this morning while catching up on blog reading.  I read this post on kwiltnkats blog, which led me to this page on the Quiltville website.  I'm sure Bonnie must have mentioned this on her blog at one time, but obviously I missed that post.

I've read all of it now, and the possibilities of how to set my scrap blocks have expanded to an astounding number.  When I finish my 100 blocks I'm going to have a terrible time deciding on how to set them!  I can always make another - which I probably will, because I will still have hundreds more triangles and squares in my sacks left over.  And they make such great leader-enders!

Quilting goals

I didn't set a different goal for August, because the current goal is so appropriate for where I am in my quilting "journey".  I see goal setting as a tool to shape one's behavior in order to reach a place in the near or not-so-near future where one wants to be.  Right now I'm not finishing any quilts, but I'm moving many projects along closer and closer to that finish point.  And that's fine with me.  I'm confident I'll finish quite a few more quilts this year, so I don't need to write any specific goals about which quilts and when.  I'm loving this process and happy with what I'm achieving.

I just might keep this goal for the rest of this year!

Here is a shot of the back of the Shoofly quilt that shows how I pressed this top.  When so many pieces come together at one point I've learned the best thing to do is press the seam open.  In the past we were told not to do that as batting could migrate through the seam.  We don't need to worry about that any more with today's battings.  Whoever will eventually quilt the quilt - you or someone else - will be so happy to have the bulk reduced at the seams.  That's true whether the top is hand or machine quilted.  Even a longarm can jam, break a needle, and possibly rip a hole in a quilt if it hits a spot where there are eight or 10 layers coming together.  The pressing can be a bit tedious, but it makes a top lie beautifully flat. 

I made a few split 9-patch blocks with the leaders-enders I'd sewn just to see how it looks.  I realized immediately that the method I was using - sewing two darks together and two lights together - made it much more difficult to construct the block.  So I'll just use the light and dark triangles as leader-enders, and then I'll construct the blocks the way I do a  9-patch block.

As you can see, I'm thinking about putting a star in the center of a barn raising setting.  Time will tell!