Block #20 - 1930 Farmer's Wife QAL

The block was released on Thursday, two days after I had spend the morning playing catch-up.  So I was a little peeved and thought about waiting until the next one was announced so I could do two at a time.  But the current block was #20 - Caroline. Looking at the block I knew it was HST (half square triangles) and didn't want to do it as FPP (foundation paper piecing).  

Let me stop and interject here - this is not a book a complete newbie could pick up and figure out.  There are no 'step-by-step' instructions. I consider myself an intermediate quilter, but I am glad I am in this QAL for the tutorials.  I looked at the first couple and they weren't going about it the way I thought I wanted to do it - HST's.  Then I looked at Jess of The Elven Garden tutorial.  She constructed this using HST's.  And boy, did I learn a few things!

• This block reinforced the premise there is no quilt police coming after me if I don't do it a certain way.  There are alternate methods on each block (at least up to this point).
• I can press seams open!
• Jess showed me how to line up the seams so the points come out sooooooo good.
• As the leaders have said from the very start, this quilt is a learning process.  I can't wait to see what tips I pick up on the rest of the blocks.

There is still a bit of work on the points, but, boy, it's so much closer than it would have been if I had done it my usual way.  Plus, I probably wouldn't have figured out the big blocks are QST (Quarter Square Triangles) rather than HST.

Once I got my measurements figured out for the blocks, with Jess' help "Caroline" was a breeze!  I can't wait to see what I learn next.