I’ve wanted to use this dots fabric since I first laid eyes on it, and I felt like this was a perfect block for it. I’d imagined having more than one dot on each green strip, but I underestimated how far apart the dots actually are.

Most of the green strips only have room for one dot on them, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect spacing here – you can connect all the dots on the finished block to make a nice square.

Once I got ready to start cutting out the pieces, I also noticed that the fabric had some dots that were predominantly red and some that were predominantly gold.

To keep things balanced, I ended up alternating red and gold dots between one strip and the next. My friend Hope says nobody but me will even notice that the dots are different, but doing this satisfies my need for order.

This block had so many pieces that were very similar. Anyone who has ever pieced a quilt from a Pam Bono pattern will understand … it seems like every single piece is different on her quilt blocks, and it can be a real challenge to keep track of which pieces are which.

Normally, I just lay out the pieces for the Dear Jane block I’m currently making on my 12″x12″ cutting mat, then lay a 12″x12″ ruler on top of it to keep everything in place when I’m done working for the day.

But I wasn’t going to get this block completed before I had to leave retreat, so I needed a more portable method for keeping all the pieces straight.

Similar to the approach I took on a previous Pam Bono project, I used the rotary cutting instructions I’d printed out, and just pinned the cut-out pieces right next to the description of them. That way I could easily keep track of what piece I needed to use next.

Even though the pattern looks complicated, it’s really pretty simple to put together … as long as you keep track of all the pieces so that all the dots connect.