And so it continues...

Well, it's going to be continuing for quite some time looking at my progress, but you can get the general idea. 

Not even 1/4 of the final quilt layout

I have 6", 8" and 10" blocks, then a 9.5" and an 11".  In this possible layout, the gaps would be filled with small filler strips - maybe flying geese, four patches or plain strips... depending on the exact size.  On the one hand, it is quite freeing not being too worried about the finished sizes of blocks at this stage of construction - but it's definitely a "will need to worry about it later" kind of thing, when it's time to sew everything together (like how did I end up with 9.5"  & 11" blocks, and how will they ever play nicely with the other blocks which are all divisible by 2).  I do however have great "quilt" faith, and I'm am positive it will all work out in the end.

As a starting point, I've been working from this block book, 200 Quilt Blocks to Mix & Match by Davina Thomas, which is probably one of the first quilting books I bought.  It was published in 2005 - and has a rather faded cover.

The instructions are brief and to the point.  You really need to have some idea of how it all goes together to have any success with this book (which may explain why it's taken me 9 years to create something out of it). You also need to ignore the sometimes ugly fabric combinations.  Really??

I decided I probably should name the blocks as I go, for posterity... some of my favourites so far:

Sisters Choice, which I both like, and thought the name was appropriate for a Friends/Whanau quilt.  Although I don't have any sisters... I do have five sister-in-laws.

Sashed Triangles... wouldn't this make a cute scrap quilt block...

I ended up adding strips to the Share embroidery, with the intention of adding star points, or making it a square in a square... but I kinda just like it the way it is... so it can stay like this for a while.

I just love the simplicity of this one, Jacks on Six... another great scrap quilt block - I can just see it with sashing and cornerstones... this is how I end up with 101 different quilts started at once.

I've rather taken over the dining table and kitchen at the moment... although it is frustrating having to pack everything up at the end of the day.  It does make me happy that I have my own sewing space, where it doesn't matter too much how messy I leave it - and will disappear back into my cave when the holidays are finished.

Luckily the bad weather that has been causing such chaos in Northland moved on during Friday night, and we woke to an absolutely banger of a day.  Although there was some rain both Saturday and Sunday, the bulk of the time it has been just as beautiful.