All the blocks in the quilt are rated at a skill level of beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Up to this point, I’ve been doing all beginner blocks. This seemed like a good strategy at first, but now I’ve decided I want to save out some easy blocks for when I need a win.

So, it was finally time to tackle an intermediate block. The question was, which one to tackle?

I weighed the pros and cons of all 134 intermediate blocks in the quilt for a few days, and then decided I was just stalling.

That’s when I spotted the name for this block: Decisions, Decisions. I decided it was the right decision to choose it.

Constructing the block also proved to require a lot of decision-making.

First up, how was I going to cut out those diamond pieces? I wanted to do it with the rotary cutter, because I’m far too lazy to cut out the pattern pieces and trace around them.

Luckily, I found that one of my rulers had 60 degree angles marked on it, and after a bunch of twisting and turning the ruler around, I was able to replicate what was shown in the cutting diagram. Thank goodness my teenager is taking geometry in school this year … I may need more math help before this quilt is done.

The next decision was whether to do the appliqué first and then sew the rectangles together, or whether to construct the basic block first and then do the appliqué at the end. I’d seen recommendations for both methods.

I ended up deciding on the latter, going on the theory that it would be easier to appliqué onto a larger piece. Also, then I would already know exactly where the seams were, so I could more easily center the diamonds.

The last big design decision I made on this block was the thread color. Dark red would be fine for sewing the rectangles together, because that thread wouldn’t really show … but what to use for the diamonds? Generally you match the thread to the color of the shape, not the background, but that green seemed kind of light. I was pretty excited to break out the green thread for the first time though.

I started appliquéing the diamonds, and almost immediately hit a snag … literally. When I was tying off the thread on one of the diamonds, I managed to get a snag in the red background fabric, as you can see in the picture below.

I finished the rest of the diamonds while I tried to psych myself up to undo the stitching to separate this rectangle from the rest of the block, replace it, and sew everything back together again.

Since I was redoing this diamond anyways, I decided it was a perfect time to try the other construction technique: appliquéing onto the rectangle first, then sewing the squares and rectangles together.

The diamond appliqué went fine … if nothing else, I didn’t have to worry about accidentally getting the nine-patch seams caught in my appliqué stitches. I was worried, though, that it was a situation where whichever part you do first is easier, and re-sewing it to the other squares and rectangles was going to be a disaster.

Both parts ended up going fairly smoothly. Lesson learned: appliqué before piecing is the way to go.

All in all, I’m feeling pretty awesome about my ability to tackle an intermediate block. Now which block should I decide to do next?