My goal was to do one blog article per day until I got caught up, but you may have noticed that there was no blog article yesterday. It turned out that what I really needed yesterday was to take a surprise nap during the time I’d slated to work on the article.
Add to that the usual rush leading up to Christmas (in a week and a half!), and it really got me thinking about what I truly need (apparently, more hours in the day … and also naps).
On the second day of retreat, when I started working on this block, what I really needed was a nice simple block to work on. After the design challenges of the first day’s block, and wanting to settle in for a get-together with my fellow retreaters, I was looking for something easy that wouldn’t take my whole attention.
And this block really fit that bill. It’s essentially a nine-patch block with two appliqué pieces in the middle, plus the fabric was not one that required any fussy cutting.
The only semi-complicated feature of the block is that those melons have a skinny end and a fat end, so you have to pay attention to ensure the pieces are pointing in the right direction.
Luckily, I had accidentally printed out more copies of the block outline than I needed, so I had plenty of patterns on hand to help me arrange the appliqué pieces correctly. The block went together in no time, which left plenty of time to hang out with my quilty friends, pictured here being both creative and industrious:
Our weekly Zoom sew-ins have fallen by the wayside lately, so it was wonderful to catch up with friends that I hadn’t talked to for quite a while. That was definitely something I needed.
On the other hand, I probably didn’t really need any more fabric … but I somehow managed to buy some at the sale table, find some in the scrap exchange, plus my friends Judi and Barb both weeded out their stashes and gave me some fabric they thought I’d like (they were right!). You may see some of these fabrics appear in future blocks or future quilts:
Whether it’s an extra day to put together a blog article, or a low-key retreat day with friends, I definitely got just what I needed.