Dear Baby Jane: E-9

Block number/name: E-9 “Quilt Jail”

Date completed: September 23, 2008

Number of pieces: 35

Notes on block: Yay! My first block in two weeks. I must be out of practice though, because I really spaced out on this one. Since I was handpiecing, I went ahead and cut all of the pieces individually as opposed to strip piecing (which I'm not sure would work so hot doing it all by hand). Unfortunately, I cut all of the small horizontal bars the incorrect size, and managed to sew ALL of them together before figuring it out. Doh! So then I had to do a bunch of unsewing and trimming and resewing. I also cut the vertical inner bars too wide, but I at least figured that out before sewing all of them. As a result, this block took a lot more time than I expected. I knew I should have started my catch-up with an easy one (but that's okay... I'll do that one next!).

When I looked at this block, my mind immediately went to "window" as opposed to "jail." So I chose what I think is a nifty window fabric, with rolling hills and happy trees. Yay for happy trees! Speaking of trees, we're getting two new trees (and a bunch of other shrubberies) planted in our backyard tomorrow, including a Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa 'Satomi'), and something called Cercidiphyllum japonicum.