Planning can indeed be helpful

November was Gretchen's month. She sent a beautiful array of fabrics and asked for 2", 3.5", 6.5", and 9.5" square-in-square blocks. Her plan is to create a quilt inspired by Kaffe Fassett's "Jewel Squares" design.

Here is what I came up with:


I really wish that I could have made more of the larger size blocks (9.5" and 6.5"), but because I didn't go into my block-making with a plan, I just didn't have enough fabric. I cut various widths of fabric and then kind of built my blocks randomly. I didn't waste fabric, but if I had planned better at all, I could have made at least a couple more 6.5" blocks and fewer small ones. On the bright side, this seems like a design where the small blocks will definitely be useful.

Judging from the blocks others have posted in the flickr group, it definitely looks like this is going to be a spectacular quilt!

December is a break month for this group, and then my turn comes up in January. At this point, I still have no idea what to do. Hopefully, I'll have a plan soon! Because, as these blocks have reminded me, having a plan can indeed be helpful.

I can't measure

Or maybe I can't measure, do math and cut accurately. That's more like it.


Gretchen, these are on the way to you. Like everyone else in the bee has said these were addictively fun. My measuring sucks, apparently, because I tried to make a 9.5" block, but couldn't work it out. Also the bottom right one is only 6" (I didn't have strips long enough to go around to make it large enough). Maybe you can use it as a base for a 9.5" block? I also tried twice to make a 2" block. Disastrous.

Surprisingly I really liked how the fabrics worked together. Surprising because if Gretchen had just told me about the color palette I would have thought she was crazy. I think the brown, orange and teal look so cozy and inviting together. My favorite is the top left and the small brown and teal one. This will be an awesome quilt.