Looking Back a Year

May the Best Block Win....

One of my goals as I journey through the sewing world  ....   Learn by experiences and  from others... how to make things  with more accuracy and precision.

An observation:

Last May, I jumped  in to sew with  the Modern Blocks Sew Along  ( at  And Sew We Craft) , making one block per month,  from this book-

Compiled by Susanne Woods

I was really nervous, because the first block , called " Follow The Leader" (by Sherri McConnell), was really hard for me!  It has 16 flying geese sections in it.  My geese were not uniform in size and the finished block size was a little too small.

I thought, "  if this is the FIRST block,  I may not be able to make the last blocks when we get to them ! My blocks are going to be really bad..."

But to my surprise, the blocks varied in difficulty,  and were fun to make! 

So , after I finished  April's block  (here),  I put all 12 blocks out together, and had an idea.

Remake the first block.... and see if this remade block is better than the original.
And put the best block in the quilt!  LOL

(Uh-oh.... this could be a cool thing .... or turn out to be depressing if the newest block shows no improvement!)


So I got busy and  remade the block.  I realized that really do look at this block differently than I did the first time last year.   I used the 3D Flying Geese method, explained in an excellent tutorial by Amanda, The Patchsmith,  to make the flying geese units.  I am going to use this method whenever I can.  I am also  going to use my seam ripper when I am not happy with a section, too.  Gonna correct it early in the process!

The Follow The Leader Block..... made one year apart

 I gathered my courage (vowing not to get upset if he liked last year's block better ) and asked my husband if one block looked better than the other.  He picked block A, saying that the triangles looked more uniform in size. Yay! { Happy Wife... happy Life for the hubby! }  I hope you were able to look above and pick block A , too.   It isn't perfect, but I am happy with the small changes.

So I am content to have improved, a bit, in my block construction during this sew along journey.
 Maybe I'll make this block every year.... and see if I can get all of those darn seams lined up perfectly someday!!

I'm off to my sewing room!