Try, try, again

Last November I showed you a bunch of UFO's that I was going to work on by "power sewing". Well this project was one that I never got around to. This week I decided to tackle it. It's called Stars Around the Garden and there were two blocks that I wanted to re-d0. Here's the "before" picture. I didn't like the way the two with the light grey/greens turned out. They were jumping out at me screaming..."change me, change me"! I probably don't need to point them out, but in case you're wondering, the first one is the second row, far right, and the other one is in the third row, center.

This is the "after" picture with an additional new block at the bottom. Unfortunately, the road getting to this picture was not smooth at all.

This is one of the ones I didn't like, so I gathered up my fabrics, picked out what looked like a great combination and started cutting and sewing.

And this is what I came up with. It doesn't look too bad in this picture, but when I had it on the design wall, you couldn't tell what the pattern was supposed to be....at all! I called hubby into the room and asked him which block he thought looked better. Unfortunately..he said the first one. He said this one looked like 2 rectangles intersecting. Well, as much I didn't want him to be right....I knew he was. So, off to the drawing board...or fabric shelf...to pull more fabrics. This time I paid attention to VALUE...you know, that thing that our beginning quilting teacher taught us?

Came up with this one. I know you're going to say that this looks just like the first one that I didn't like, but trust me, it really doesn't. I'm much happier with it.

Then I got gunshy about remaking the second block. I agonized over my color choices because I didn't want to have to remake it more than once.

So, here it is and I'm happy with it, so it's going to stay! I have to say that sometimes it's just worth buying a kit from a store! LOL. Only 4 more blocks to make and then I can start on the center.

These are the two finished versions of the quilt. I still haven't decided which one I'm going to do, but right now I'm leaning toward the one with the applique on the borders. I'm planning on doing all the applique in wool.

Oh, speaking of wool, in the next couple of days, I plan to do a tutorial on working with wool. If you have anything you want me to address, just let me know and I'll try to find the answers if I don't have them.

One more thing... many of you have posted comments and asked me a question. I try to answer each of them, but if you haven't set up your email , then I can't get back to you. I don't want anyone to think I'm ignoring their questions and Purple and Paisley has a great post on how to set it up. Go on over there and see if that helps you.