First Completed Quilt Block

As promised, here's the pictures of my first completed quilt block. As I don't have a sewing machine all of this is pieced by hand. The top picture is a close up of my stitching, the middle one is a full picture of the back and the bottom one is what the front looks like. Michael likes the back view better than the front just because it shows all of my hand stitching.

It's very different doing it all by hand. It's much slower, but more accurate in terms of getting everything to line up, and keep the triangles pointed, etc. Sometimes with the sewing machine it cuts the points off of the triangles due to the seam allowance. Crazy sounding, I know. I like doing it by hand just because it's very meditative, there's no rush to get to completion just because you can't, and I like the craftsmanship put into it by doing it by hand.

I'm using a "back stitch" to put the pieces together. I like it better than the "over under stitch" because you get extra reinforcement with the continuous loop that happens with the back stitch. So now I've completed one, and only 55 more to go. I'm already making good headway into my second block. Now that I've completed one the others should go a bit faster. It's actually a pretty complicated quilt block as there's so much that needs to be lined up properly. It's an interesting puzzle.

Well, Michael and I are doing well. He should be writing up here soon. He's been on this fitness research kick and will probably tell you all about it. I heard him mention something about writing a blog on all of his past running shoes. Anyway, I hope all of you have a good week, night, day, etc. We're coming home in only a couple of months! I'm very excited. I got the official day for me a couple of days ago, and we're working on getting Michael to come back on the same flight as me. I hope everyone's doing well. Stay healthy!

TTFN. R.