Congrats!

I had a devil of a time getting the paper off of my blocks. Like a doofus, I forgot to reduce my stitch length and switch to a denim needle, so the paper didn't tear as easily as I hoped. Guess I learned not to get so excited about sewing that I forget the little mundane necessities!

You must have been playing inside my head :0)

This is my first scrappy quilt, and I am having such a hard time just "letting it happen". I admit that in the beginning, I tried to coordinate my scraps as much as possible, and ended up quite frustrated. I finally had to give up a lot of control over what I thought would/would not go well together. Just to appease myself, I did somewhat try to balance print sizes and color scales, and although it was not the perfect process I had hoped it would be, I am pleased with the results.

I also realize that this is a quilt with a lot of little pieces.... when completed, the scrappiness of all the small parts will blend and complement each other with a unique beauty all it's own. I remind myself to keep the large picture in mind, and not obsess over the minute details of every little QST and string block... not an easy thing for me to do, but I am doing it and enjoying the process immensely.

I hope you jump in soon.... the water's great over here in Orca Bay world!

Wholeheart Mom,

I found out the hard way too. The first strip blks I did I thought it said only 5 strips so it took forever. Untill the brain said read the instructions again. It went alot smoother after that. The first time I used paper to write on too hard to get off. Step 4 I used telephone pages and it was a snap to take off.

Carolyn

Yay.... part 5 is posted! http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/...-5.html?ref=nf

Looks like I will need more blacks, as I am running quite short. I see a trip to Hancocks in my future today, to raid their 99 cent FQ's for every black I can get my grubby paws on, then off to cut!

I have the EZ ruler, but it seems so tedious to use, and not as steady as I like, even though I put the gripper dots on it. Is anyone else having trouble keeping it steady? I may just use my Alto's Quilt Cut to whip these out, we'll see.

By the way, it read that 47 half-widths of black fabric will yield just slightly over 700 squares.

Well, here is my Step 4 blocks. I'm doing yellow instead of the red. I had to round up more yellow to do my blocks so I'm alittle behind, but I"ll catch up this weekend. I purchase some squares on Ebay, and did some swaps with a couple of people on another board (as I can't do that here) and I have enough yellow now to finish my blocks. I am very pleased with the way this is turning out.

I love the yellow!!!

wholeheartmom: Try using "Invisi-grip" on the back of your rulers. It works much better than the dots for keeping your rulers steady. You cut the "invisi-grip smaller than the ruler and press onto the wrong side of the ruler in the center. You can remove it too! Works great!

My hat's off to those of you "super" quilters who are all caught up on this mystery quilt!! I'm still plugging along on Part 1, but life keeps getting in the way, imagine that!!

My DH and I babysat my daughter's 3 little ones ( 1-4 1/2 yr old, 1-20 mon, 1-6 months) last night and that was a bit of a challenge, getting through dinner, and getting them into bed. The easy one is the 20 month lil guy; when it was time for bed he goes down so easy, no fussing, unlike his big sis, who "stalls" it out. The 6 month cried almost the whole 3 hours-but we were successful getting a nursing babe to take a bottle!!

Now that IS and accomplishment. Good job Grandma and Grandpa!