Grand Illusion Progress

Linking up with Quiltville Monday Link-up

Quiltville Monday Link-up

Saturday night the balance of Clue #2 was finished, I was afraid I would not be caught up and would fall behind but it was faster than expected!

Here are all one hundred double diamond blocks, I think it was a lot easier to use the strip method, just couldn't face all those tiny pieces when there was a less labor intensive method available. Of course if I had wanted to use little pieces or precut strips then one of Bonnie's suggestions would have been the choice, but I was prepared to sacrifice a little waste for ease of production and anyway I did not have appropriate strips already cut. My blocks turned out very accurate size-wise so I am a happy quilter!

Then I got started on Clue#3 and completed 17 blocks in short order.

I do not have as many color choices as Bonnie so my blocks will not have near the scrappiness of hers but I am "ok" with that, not wanting to purchase more fabrics but preferring to use what I have in stash. That way I can "rotate my stock" and purchase fresh material as I run out. You can see that these greens are more uniform in hue than Bonnie's but that's not going to bother me either if it means I can use up current stock.

The first check at measuring found perfect accuracy but as I went further I was coming up short of the necessary 6.5", so I did a little "unsewing" and adjusted my seam allowance, and am very relieved that I checked or I would have had a lot of reverse stitching to do!
 My regular 1/4" Pfaff foot is a scant 1/4", but I had switched to the little foot with the ledge and discovered to my chagrin that it is more generous in size so I reverted to the basic 1/4" foot. Once I did that the resulting blocks are perfect and most do not even need a sliver trimmed- I always check every block just to be sure!

Here you see the difference in design and apparently the fancier foot gives a slightly larger version of 1/4"! In future I will remember that if I need absolute 1/4" accuracy I need to stick with the basic foot.

It's great that Clue#3 is a simple one, and since I will be using mostly WOF strips it will go really fast I think- hooray, this time of year is so intense we need simple and Bonnie is blessing us with it!.