A Gross Miscalculation

I spent yesterday afternoon getting the last of a stack of Magic 8 squares sliced up so I could put the cutting table away today. I decided to make one Ritzville quilt block just to see how it looked. When I looked at the block layout in the pattern, however, I realized that each block was made up of 16 squares, not 32. How did I get 32 stuck in my brain? There are 32 triangles in each block, yes, but only 16 HSTs. I had been thinking that I needed four Magic 8 squares per quilt block and did my math based on that. I only need two Magic 8 squares per block. I also enlarged the units from the original pattern to make a block that finishes at 12" square instead of 8" square. 

I told this story to the husband when he got home and he said, "So, you're making two quilts instead of one?"

I have A LOT of HSTs. I am either going to be making a king-sized quilt and a wallhanging (or six), or two smaller quilts. And I still have about a dozen blue squares cut out that need to be paired with white squares. I don't want to put them in the orphan blocks bin. I might as well go ahead and use them. 

A king-sized quilt is not the end of the world. In fact, the quilt sale organizers have told us that they would prefer to have more bed-size quilts instead of lap quilts. I just have to laugh at myself for getting carried away with my prep work. Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess, as usual. 

I trimmed down 16 HSTs and made a block just to see what I thought. Some quilt blocks are so picky to put together that they suck all the joy out of the process. This one, being comprised of 3-1/2" squares in rows, went together easily:

It's pretty the way it is. In the final layout, however, this block will be set on point, like so:

That completely changes the look of the block and it also results in some very cool secondary patterns across the width of the quilt. I'll have to get more blocks made, though, to be able to show you that. For now, you have to use your imagination. 

I am still not sure what to do about the quilting. The church ladies have two commission quilting jobs at the moment and I am not sure how long those will take. I think Margaret would be willing to quilt it, but I am not sure she has the space to work on a king-sized quilt. I could always have it quilted by machine—on a longarm, because I wouldn't want to try quilting a king-sized quilt on my Janome—but hand-quilted quilts sell better. 

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I think this may be the last blog post until after Christmas unless something really noteworthy pops up. I picked up a cold this week and I've been feeling kind of punky. It's mostly in my head with a lot of sneezing and watery eyes. I managed to get through the last Advent service at the Lutheran church last night without succumbing to a sneezing fit, which was good. I said to the husband that getting sick again has dredged up a whole bunch of anxiety about having had the flu last February and ending up in the ICU on a ventilator for a week. He reminded me that that kind of anxiety isn't healthy and that a meteor could hit the house tomorrow and I'd be dead from that. I love how he helps to put things into perspective, LOL. For now, it's ibuprofen and a lot of hot tea. 

Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for being such a great audience for my ramblings!