Made and Found
Quiltalong: Block 8

I’m back to my Made and Found Blocks. We’re on Block 8 which kind of looks like candy. And as someone named Eye Candy Quilts, you’d think I’d have all sorts of ideas of how I’d want to color this. But I’m currently knee deep in overthinking every single block.

We’re not quite a quarter of the way through (there are 36 blocks to Made and Found, with additional optional bonus blocks), and to me this is the hardest part of making a sampler quilt. Even if your palette is controlled, this is the point where you see some parts are coming through stronger than others. Whether it’s depth of color or scale to your print, some blocks appear visually heavier in the group. You may start thinking, “OMG all my blocks aren’t working together and I need to start remaking them because they’re bad and I’m a failure and why am I doing this AGGGHHGHGHGH.” Or that could just be me. But I urge you to put down that seam ripper, back away from your blocks, and keep stitching. Your sampler quilt is a jigsaw puzzle, and you’ve just started building the edges. If you feel like something isn’t playing nice with the other blocks, give it a friend. By that I mean make a similar block or two going forward. Then it won’t be so lonely and the variety will let your eyes dance across your finished quilt.

Block 8 of Made and Found only has one set of half square triangles. The pieces are fairly large so you can show off bigger prints or a color that you haven’t used yet. I wanted to pull the orchid color back in.

Made and Found Block 8

To make the half square triangles oversized then trim them down:

• Cut (1) colorful square at 4″ and (1) background square at 4″
• Put right sides together and lightly draw a line on the wrong side of the lighter square
• Stitch a ¼” seam on both sides of the line you drew
• Cut on the line, press half square triangles open
• Trim and square up half square triangle units to 3.5″

So keep the faith, embrace the scrap, and know that if you feel like you have too much of one color or not enough of another, you have plenty of time to make adjustments without tossing the blocks you’ve made. On to another block!