Well, here it is, folks, the final block.

I read somewhere that if a quilting project comes out lumpy and misshapen, you should just tell people that it’s folk art and it’s supposed to be that way. And I feel like this block definitely qualifies.

For starters, the perfect fabric for this block that I’ve been hinting about for months is plaid. It just doesn’t get more homespun and folksy than plaid fabric. But it was dark green with some dirty gold and red, so it fit right in with the aesthetic of the rest of the quilt. Also, I love plaid.

But it wasn’t just the fabric – the appliqué was also giving “homespun” energy.

The appliquéd star shapes were annoyingly small and pointy, but my pinhole technique for marking the points of each triangle worked well, and the star definitely ended up looking like a star (albeit a folk art sort of a star).

The melon shapes for the flower were frustratingly different sizes from each other. Three of the melons were close enough to use the same pattern template, two others matched each other reasonably well, and one lone skinny melon got a pattern piece all to itself.

And thanks to the homespun plaid, it’s pretty easy to tell that they’re not all the same size. It doesn’t get any more homespun than mismatched piece sizes.

I opted to cut all the melons on the straight of grain from point to point, rather than trying to have the plaid go the same direction with respect to the edge of the block.

I think I like the resulting look (although they kind of remind me of hand grenades from a distance). Or maybe pine cones, which seem more homespun and less militaristic. Doesn’t Jane’s quilt have “in time of war” embroidered on this block, though? Maybe grenades are on brand after all.

Speaking of the embroidery on this corner block, I still need to figure out if that is actually embroidery, or what other method she used to get the words on there. Luckily, I don’t have to worry about it right now, because I can’t embroider the year on it until I actually finish the quilt (and know what year to use).

In the meantime, I present to you this lovely, homespun piece of folk art. It’s that way on purpose.