I have some good news, and I have some bad news.  The good news is this block.  I am enjoying the appliqued blocks more and more as I go along, and Pat as usual has done a great job creating a unique block that is probably going to look good whether you’ve been sewing a long time or just getting started.

I picked 5 separate fabrics for the petals and then 2 different ones also for the inner portions.  I typically iron on Heat ‘n Bond to the back of each piece of fabric which I did again this time.  It was another case that had I looked at some of the examples I would’ve seen where some people actually have a 3D block, with the petals attached to the center portion but not stitched down all the way around.  Since I already had the Heat

Since I already had the Heat ‘n Bond on there by the time I saw that, I needed to stitch mine down because at some point the quilt is sure to come in contact with heat and who knows what those petals could end up looking like otherwise.  Well I do know – they’d end up looking like a big mess I’m sure!  Haha!

I still have block # 69 (I think that’s it) to complete; maybe I’ll get that done this evening and if so then I’ll be back to being caught up again.  As we’ve gone along, I’ve gotten much better at estimating how much time it takes to do each block based on style and number of pieces involved.  That means I generally know when I need to sew another 2 or 3 in order to stay somewhat close to the dates that they’re released – or at least within a week to 10 days.

And the bad news…. Sheesh I admit I am hesitating even writing this but here goes.  I was looking for a quick bag to make that would be easy to put together.  There are any number of places to find great patterns but wow did I ever pick a lemon.  At best the instructions were confusing (sew top of fabric to next piece – what’s the next piece???).  At worst, well they were just outright wrong.  The way the lining was sewn in didn’t account for the strap and I had to pull that out and come up with my own way of doing it.  There was another spot where the designer said to align the snap to the top of the fabric but it needed to be at the bottom if the piping was going to look nice but she didn’t mention that until the next page, long after the snap had been sewn on by hand and the pocket was sewn on upside down (following the directions).  What floored me was this pattern had several great reviews.  I can’t imagine how.

At least I used fabric I already had on hand so there’s that!