Those Little Nine Patches

Last week I mentioned making little 3" nine patches to swap with my Jo Morton club.
Last Tuesday was our meeting, so off I went with these safely tucked into my tote bag:



Here's a better look at my offering:



We had a wonderful meeting complete with show and tell, and lots of hints and tricks shared by one of our members who obviously isn't math challenged (yes, that would be me if we're disclosing all in truth and fairness!). We were given the last two projects from this club issue (Club #10) and were told we could choose either of these quilts to make this month (more on that in a minute). Then it came time to swap! Oh my!! How fun- it seemed lots of the gals were in a red mood that night because it was the majority color. But we are excited, and can't wait to see what turns up next meeting. Our challenge at the end will be to set these little blocks into a top. Should be fun. I have a few ideas floating in my brain already. These are living on the flannel board right now. Aren't they wonderful?




When I got home that evening, I was excited about the choice of projects we had to work with and chose to make this one first:



it is slightly larger than the first two Jo projects I was able to do this time around, and I love this block (and Jo Morton's way of getting 4 half square triangles from 2 cut squares of fabrics). I immediately set to pulling fabrics from my Jo stash, but not in the traditional red/green of a holiday scheme.




I did chose reds and greens, but am using browns, golds and blacks as well. All that because I chose this as my border- that one yard piece of Elizabethtown I HAD to have!



I also pulled this as a possible cornerstone fabric (going with green):



Wednesday afternoon I rewarded myself with stitching time. And here is the result:



Those blocks, by the way are small...the half square triangles are 1 3/4" unfinished!

Thursday, I took a look and just was NOT happy! The background I chose is definitely not an overall design, and the way these blocks are put together would be better served if I had chosen one. Result, I found my self discouraged and wondering if I should start again. Today I walked in the sewing room first thing, looked again and answered that question with a Heck No!
I'm letting one-way designs fall where they may- and that is that.

All that got me to thinking about passion versus perfectionism. But I'll leave that for another post and just go back to some hand stitching today. These blocks have been waiting for me since yesterday




and if I really start thinking about them, I will get into that discussion I am trying to avoid. We'll talk perfection another day.