I really, really liked making this block!  One thing that occurred to me as I was picking out the colors for this is I’ve learned with 100 small 6″ blocks, I can put colors in a block that if the block were to stand on its own, it might not look so great.  For instance, I don’t think the center square fabric in here honestly goes with the rest of the block.

But that’s okay because when I stand back and look at the sum of 86 blocks and who knows how many individual pieces (this block alone has 45 pieces) then I can incorporate a much wider variety of fabrics than if I had a quilt of just one repeating pattern.

I skipped right past trying to accurately piece this the traditional way and put it into EQ7 so I could paper piece it.  It lowers my frustration level and increases the overall accuracy.  When I finished, I saw a seam in the middle that needed to be fixed but I couldn’t find my seam ripper anywhere – I’ve since found it but didn’t take the time to retake the photo.

I’m trying to use up as much of my smaller pieces of fabric at this point since we’re down to less than 15 blocks to go.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but the red in here (the star points) are from a fabric that I ultimately decided against using in the En Provence quilt so I’m putting it to use here.

Tracy asked on her blog the other day for any suggestions on getting good points.  I suggested paper piecing but I also mentioned my unending love of disappearing glue sticks.

I glue baste – a lot!  It’s great for English paper piecing, but it’s also great for basting without using pins on small blocks like the Splendid Sampler.  Also, I’ve found that it helps a lot when I have seams on the bias that I’m trying to match up. Those can be tricky since it’s too easy to accidentally stretch the fabric.