Day 3 – My Quilting Group and the Wanderer’s Wife – What size IS a finished block?

We spent the first part of today making a plan – do we work our way through the book, block by block or do we create the quilt one section at a time? Do we care if all of our finished blocks are the same size (I still can’t manage to make mine the same size as Margaret and Heather’s)…so, I am leaning toward not caring…LOL. Margaret was able to attain the perfect size and Heather made three blocks in order to get one that was exact – I applaud her persistence but, will NOT join her on that journey….I am going to be putting my quilt together in a “make-it-work” fashion. We will see if others join me as time goes on.

So, we made a decision – there are 10 sections to the quilt and we are going to create our quilt one section at a time – beginning with section 3 – because that one is small and looks like a good one to get our feet wet with, and we have already created the block. So, now we have labeled our baggies for sections 1-10 and are ready to store our pieces so that everything stays organized throughout our journey.

A BIG shout out to Sheila, who joined us for the end of our quilting morning and an amazing Greek lunch, compliments of Heather. Quilting does not usually include lunch but, with all of us happy to be vaccinated and healthy, it was an amazing treat. Sheila is invited back to be our “cheerleader” at quilting any time – she is both encouraging and complimentary to our efforts.

As usual, Madigan remained uninterested in any of our antics….

So, our final discussion was around the instructions that tell us the FINAL size of the block after it is sewn into the quilt – which means that the block (before it is sewn into the quilt) must be 1/2 inch bigger all the way around to allow for the 1/4 inch seams (which apparently some of us have mastered better than others).

Stay tuned, there is more fun each and every week – we ended by starting to cut out the strips for section 3 – after we figured out the size we needed – our advice – cut longer than you think you need because you can always trim but, adding on fabric is a LOT MORE complicated.

Written by Pam