Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: May

Erin is bee mama this month in the Modern Irish Bee.  She was looking for scrappy Road To Tennessee blocks in bright summery colors, with only a peppering of darker navy and grey.  I tried my best to oblige.

With a dig through my scrap bin, I pulled out 32 happily colored prints that I could pair with my white squares.  Still, my scrap pile does not look any smaller.

There are three things in quilt world that I'm not entirely comfortable with yet (beyond appliqué...that's a WHOLE other adventure).  Drunkard's path blocks scare me (even with Leanne's tutorial).  Scant quarter seams (what, exactly, is scant enough?).  And finally creating triangles by sewing ON the line, not 1/4 inch away from the line and squaring your blocks.

This project included two of my three weakest points.

I had recently seen a trick for corner triangles posted on Cluck Cluck Sew that I thought might be a new (better for me?) way of tackling these pesky corner triangles.  I will say I thoroughly enjoyed stitching on the corner triangles using their method, but sadly it did not always result in a nicely square piece.

In the end, I have two blocks for you, Erin.  I am happy with the fabrics used and think they fit in your summery vision.  I am reasonably happy with how my points came together even without locking seams.  Two stars.  However, they are absolutely smaller than the 12.5 inches square that they should be even with my scant seams.  Any scanter (is that a word?) and I am not sure they would have held together!  I hope they are still OK, Erin.  If not, they will surely spruce up the back of the quilt.

xx