I had originally planned to do an advanced difficulty triangle next, but after my redrafting debacle I was looking for something simpler. I ultimately settled on this block where four Star Trek insignias team up with four slices of pie to form an octagon (a truly awe-inspiring alliance).

Other sites I referred to used appliqué and/or sliced up the Star Trek insignias to make the construction of this block a little bit easier. In the spirit of Star Trek, I decided to boldly go where no quilter has gone before, keeping the insignias intact and using the “magic trick” for piecing V-shaped seams that I learned a few years ago.

While trimming the corners off my pieces, I noticed that the trimmed off corners looked a lot like the full-size Star Trek insignia pieces. Why is it that mini versions of things are always so much cuter? I just don’t know. In case you haven’t had enough unbearable cuteness in your day yet, I’ll share a photo of my mini insignias next to their full-size counterparts:

Aren’t they adorable?

After all the pieces were prepared, I started to inset the triangles into the ends of the insignias. It still astounds me that the second half of these seams is possible, given the position of the two pieces after sewing the first half of the seam:

The magic trick worked again, and the Star Trek insignias went together nicely. There’s a tiny bit of lumpiness at the inside points, but nothing that can’t be smoothed out during the quilting process:

Once the triangles were inset, it was just a matter of sewing together all those pie wedges. Now that I’m looking at the finished block, I’m not entirely happy with how all the pie pieces come together in the middle, but again, it’s something that can be quilted into better position later.

Overall this was a nice simple block that I wrapped up in only three days. Maybe not my best work ever, but just the little slice of success I needed. Now I am ready to boldly face that advanced difficulty triangle block.