Friday Finish ....

...or so I thought!

Plan A:  I set my alarm early on Friday so I could finish my Athena's Puzzle blocks and have something to report.  I had more blocks than I needed by 10 a.m. but all along I've been concerned about the high-contrast versus low contrast and the orange versus the blue all going into one quilt.

Athena's Puzzle

You may be thinking, what prompted this particular choice of fabrics?  To be honest, I had pulled  prospective fabrics several years ago and when I grabbed the bag off the shelf I did not take time to analyze whether these were the best choices for this quilt.  While they all look nice together, in this particular block, not so nice.  On to ...

Plan B:  Eureka!  At 11" square, the blocks are large enough that I could make two nice size lap quilts, one orange and one blue.  But after doing a test run on the my skimpy design wall, I'm thinking I need to go to ...

Plan C:  The low contrast of the picture on the pattern envelope is probably what attracted me in the first place, so I have pulled a few more fabrics to go with pieces I still have left that will give a lower contrast overall.  Hoping to get the extra blocks made this weekend, then it will go back in the box until the next retreat in mid-February where there will be plenty of room to hang a big design wall and get the blocks laid out.

Having attempted pattern writing myself, I hesitate to criticize; but there are definitely flaws in this pattern.   In addition to confusing (and sometime impossible) cutting instructions, the on-point setting is squared-up by cutting off half of the 14 edge blocks.  At $10/yard, plus the time invested, I'm not about to throw away nearly a quarter of my quilt in order to make it square.  So I will be doing setting triangles and some kind of border (Whittle's is on the way to retreat!).

Planning ahead to said retreat, I've chosen two more projects off my TODO shelf (those that haven't even made it to UFO status) and spent the rest of the day analyzing what needs to be done, what could be done at home, and what I could complete at retreat.  I've identified several steps that could move into the leader-ender position after I finish making the star units for Happy Talk.

Quick Cozy Couch Quilt

One of those projects is Notable 9-Patch Quick Cozy Couch Quilt.  Unfortunately I didn't make a note of what book this came from, but my notes to myself are sufficient to finish this classic setting.  The 9-patch blocks, remnants from several previous projects, are made.  Well, mostly made; I'll need 5 more, but the strips are cut.  Cutting the HSTs using Easy Angle today and this project will be boxed up for retreat.

The second project is Notable 9-Patch.  More on that later.

It is SO nice to see some empty space on my shelves and I do NOT plan to fill that space with new fabric.  I'll just pick up what's on the table and the floor and hanging over stools .......