Day Five

This morning I decided to wake up at a decent hour (about 9am) and pick out a block to quilt and try to complete it by the afternoon. The reason for this is I know I won't have a chance to quilt tomorrow, so I wanted to be sure to get at least a little practice in before I started the day. 

I went to McCall's website and found the Chinese Coin Block. I decided do try my hand at this because it was similar to the Bridle Block (day 3), but it had a fun outside border, and only used three colors which was a perfect way to start using my peacock fabric! 

Because the pattern called for me to cut squares and strips I had to start with my large pieces of fabric and get them broken down into something I could cut on my 18 by 24" cutting mat. Once I had the fabrics broken down and ironed I set to cutting my squares out. There were quite a few smaller pieces for this one so I ended doing a lot of sewing. I've really gotten much better at matching my seams when adding rows together, makes me happy! The only part I struggled with on this one was my Half Square Triangles (HST). The HST in the pattern were 3 7/8" by 3 7/8", I knew from my 101 class that I should give myself that extra 1/8th inch and just go 4 by 4. This was helpful but I didn't cut my material as straight as I thought because when I was squaring up (cutting the HST's down to the required 3.5" size post sew), my edges weren't straight. This meant that when I finally combined everything together my 1/4" seam allowance on the HST triangle that connects to the Pastel in Row 2 on the Left side, the fabrics meet but aren't actually sown together for about 1/2 an inch. Oops! I didn't want to make a new HST, so I just went with it. If I decide someday to use this in a quilt or make something out of it I will rip the seams and fix it, but until that day-- this is practice. :) 

Completed Chinese Coin-- What do you think of the Peacock Fabric? I love it!!