The appliqué shapes in this series of blocks are called melons. I’ve never understood this; wouldn’t melon shapes be spherical, or at least elliptical?

If we’re talking about a slice of a melon, I still think of that as being a smile shape. I guess this is supposed to be the aerial view of a melon slice. Still, it seems like something of a stretch to me.

The shape is also sometimes called an orange peel, which is about on par with calling it a melon in my book. I’ve occasionally seen it referred to as a pumpkin seed shape, which is a little closer to the mark. What they really need to call it is a beachball segment shape, but I guess that’s not very catchy.

I’ve decided I’m going to refer to this shape as a football instead of a melon from here on out, since I got most of the third block done during this year’s Super Bowl … and since it actually kind of looks football-shaped.

After the frustrating diamond appliqué I’d been doing, I figured these blocks would be a snap to churn out. There are two points instead of four in the football shape, and the two points are not as pointy as on the diamonds.

Also, I continued with my new strategy of not burying the knots between the layers of fabric, which makes this (and all other) appliqué much easier to get right on the first try.

I’d planned to whip out a set of four melon-based appliqué blocks in record time, and post about all four at once. I did not plan on those four appliqué blocks taking more than a month to complete.

The first one went relatively quickly, but my printer died before I could print out the pattern pieces for the next block. So, I had to go out and buy a new printer and set it up. This meant several days of delay before I could even start the second block.

Once I finally got going, the second block went relatively quickly too. Then, just as I was wrapping it up, my computer died. So, I had to buy a new computer and get the Dear Jane software (and everything else!) reinstalled before I could move on to the third block.

Everyone knows technology tragedies come in threes, but luckily, the third casualty (my cell phone) had less of an effect on my quilting than the other two. I did waste most of the day configuring my new phone, but at least it didn’t actively prohibit me from quilting. The only issue I notice is that the photo of this set of blocks is super dark, even with the flash.

I’ve definitely had bad electronics karma lately. I’m kind of afraid to use my sewing machine right now. Good thing I’m hand piecing this quilt.

As predicted, the football shapes were easier to appliqué than the diamonds. Since they bow out a little around the points, there is more room to stuff in all that extra seam allowance at the point.

For the first three blocks, I stuck with my new technique of appliquéing before assembling the block, which I find I definitely prefer.

Unfortunately, this technique was not possible on that last block with the mini footballs. They fit so snugly in the space that it would be really difficult to keep everything lined up while assembling the rest of the block.

The downside of doing the appliqué last, however, is that it was tough to keep all the seam allowances out of the way while appliquéing on those tiny shapes.

And I do mean tiny. To give some size perspective, those mini footballs are about the size of almonds. Almonds, people. I cut the seam allowance as narrow as I dared, and they’re still a little lumpy because of all the fabric I had to fit underneath something the size of an almond.

This block is one I will only let people see from a distance. It was definitely the most challenging of the four; I can’t believe it was labelled as a beginner-level block.

The good news is, with another four blocks under my belt, I feel like I’ve fulfilled my quota of appliqué blocks for a while. Now I can go back to plain old hand piecing.

But first, a snack. All this talk of melons and oranges and almonds is making me hungry.