As planned, I went for something totally different with this block … a color I hadn’t done for a while, a pattern I hadn’t done (although it was a combo of a diamond in the square block and a nine-patch, which I’ve done plenty of lately), and a block from the left side of the quilt.

This was also surprisingly the first time I was sewing a fabric to something other than the red fabric. I’d bought other colors of thread for just this purpose, so I was ready with four possible light colors of thread that I could use.

The picture below shows me auditioning my four light threads on the fabric to pick the best color match (and clearly doing it in different lighting – the completed block picture looks pink in comparison!). I ended up going with Corn Silk color thread, the more yellow-ish cream one in the bottom right corner.

This block had the added wrinkle that there were places where I would be sewing both cream to cream and cream to red in a single seam. In that case, what color thread should I use? If I used red, it would show through on the cream-to-cream part of the seam, and if I choose the lighter thread, would any part of the stitches show on the front of the red fabric? I didn’t really want to stop and start with different thread colors in a single seam.

After consultation with friends and family, and a bit of internet research, I ended up going with the cream thread. I’m pleased to report that the cream-colored stitches are not noticeable on the front of the block. If only everything else about this block went as smoothly.

The block actually went together pretty quickly over the holiday weekend, and then I stewed about it for almost a week. I couldn’t decide whether to iron the seams towards the triangles (where the seam allowance might show through the light-colored triangles), or towards the center nine-patch (where there would be a lot of bulky seams together).

I ironed it first one way, and then the other, so many times that now it doesn’t really lie flat in either direction.

The picture at the beginning of this post shows it with the seams pressed towards the nine-patch in the center. It looks like something is pushing the nine-patch up from below (and is perhaps about to burst out, Alien-style, from the block).

I’m not that happy with how this block came out, but am not sure what to do to fix it. I may even end up scrapping it and starting over from scratch at some point. For now, though, I feel like I need to call it done and move on to something new, for the sake of my sanity.