Between being sick and taking on extra responsibilities at work, my Dear Paulette posting productivity has really gone downhill in the last few months. I went from 3-4 posts per month down to one post a month … if I’m lucky.

Now, though, I’ve installed a widget that tracks stats on my visitors, and it turns out I’ve got visitors not only from the US (thanks, family members, for reading my blog!), but also readers from Australia, Japan, Sweden, and Belgium.

Probably they only accidentally got to my page through a weird late-night Google search (“MacGyver AND quilting”), but however they got there, it’s cool to have readers, and I feel like I owe it to them to get back on track with the blog posting.

The good news is, I’m on the mend and have been making slow progress on blocks over the last month or so. It turns out there’s plenty of time for stitching a seam or two while waiting your turn at the doctor’s office, during meetings, and did I mention while waiting at the doctor’s office?

This month, I worked on a series of increasingly more difficult blocks with X shapes, and then rounded off the set with appliquéd circles … the O shapes referenced in this post title. A few more blocks like this and I’ll be able to play tic-tac-toe with them.

My dislike of appliqué is pretty well-known by now, yet at least a quarter of the blocks in this quilt have some appliqué in them. I know that if I leave all the appliqué blocks until the end, I’ll never do them, and the quilt will languish in UFO (Un-Finished Object) status forever. So, I’m making it a point from here on out to do an appliqué block at least every fourth block. Spreading out the misery is bound to make the overall experience better, right?

I think my appliqué skills are improving, too. One tip I learned with this block is to fold under the seam allowance and press it between your fingers before you start sewing. Go all the way around the circle, pressing just a little bit of the fabric each time.  Then, once you start stitching, the fabric will “remember” the spots where you folded it, and you’re more likely to keep to the marked stitching line.

Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I feel like these circles are not nearly as misshapen as the tear shapes I appliquéd a month ago. Progress!