Back on 9th May the Sprat & Winkle Quilters held a mini retreat workshop when we all started making our scrappy trip quilts. Today in an effort to complete some of the unfinished projects lurking in the “roundtoit” basket I managed to spend a couple of hours working on my version. I used a jelly roll by Lewis & Irene to make 16 blocks of 12.5" squares. These have been sewn together without sashing or borders so that there is no “interference” with the design. I have layered with 80/20 cotton/polyester wadding from my stash and used a remnant of Pale Pink cotton for the backing. I plan to machine quilt a trellis design and finish with a narrow binding.

Last month I demonstrated Crazy 5-piece Stack and Whack to the Ladies at Franklins Monday Patchwork Group. Since then I had not looked at the project as it sat languishing in my “Round To It” basket. As the next meeting is tomorrow I thought I should have a look and get the top of the lap quilt completed. When putting the project away I had inadvertently jumbled up the sets of blocks that had been cut. I endeavoured to put them back into the correct order but obviously failed as the blocks when stitched were anything but square! To get a consistent size I had to square the blocks and they ended up a mere 7”. I knew that putting them together in sets of 4 without sashing would give a mean-sized lap quilt. I had strips of the fat quarters left over from the original cutting so decided to add sashing and a centre quarter square triangle. This quilt has ended up not only crazy but very random! The centre square is NOT square!

However, I am pleased with the result and once the outer borders have been added and the quilt completed I shall heave a sigh of relief that here is another project that has avoided relegation to the unfinished basket!

What I have learned from this block are two very important things. Firstly, to read the instructions fully and secondly don’t try to work a brand new (and initially complicated) block when you are feeling hot, tired and emotional!

The Sprat & Winkle Committee have designated June as our “Projects for Charity” month and they suggested that the 24” square quilts to be donated to the Special Care Baby Unit in Winchester, could be worked using the Nested Churn Dash block. On Thursday evening our illustrious leader introduced the block and distributed a comprehensive set of instructions. Had I read those instructions properly, I would have discovered that the half square triangles are first made over-size and then squared up and cut to size. So my first round based on an initial centre square of 2” net has turned out rather “wonky” as I endeavoured to “fudge” the strips and half square triangles to fit!

At home in the evening of Friday I sat down at the sewing machine with a view to finishing the block. After all it was only 24” square so how hard could it be?

After a long day visiting a friend whom I have not seen in many years and is now suffering from cancer followed by a tortuous drive home as my husband and I endeavoured to avoid the traffic jams on the A303 what I should have done was settle down with a cuppa and relaxed for the evening. But no, stubbornly I continued with the Nested Churn Dash Block. There is an error in the placement of the prints but at the end I am actually quite pleased with the result – my feelings about the Nested Churn Dash are such that it will be a long time before I repeat this block. The alternative block suggested by the Committee is “Swoon” – I shall take a deep breath before I attempt that!