The Tattoo quilt, block 3–

 Courage, dear heart.   — C. S. Lewis.

This was the saying that kept going through my mind as I pieced this block. Fiddly, and time-consuming; and my mind went to enough different places while I worked on it that I made several mistakes in the cutting of the fabrics. 

No coup here, but this was a good start on the first day of piecing this block.

I’m now considering cutting out the remaining pieces of the entire quilt so I can just sew, trim and press. A long weekend should fill the bill, so long as I’m not interrupted. 😂

I have determined that the larger the word, the more tiny pieces there will be. A “Patience” block needs to be included…maybe “Perseverance”? And who wants to FPP that word? 

Back to the Courage block—

As you can probably tell, it took longer to piece the word in this block than any other sections of the block...but doesn't that look great?

I love the symbol for this block; I often tell the Hubs after coming home from work that I slayed a lot of dragons or wore a cape and did my thing. He laughs, but he also understands. At this point in my career, I think I am at the very least putting out fires on a daily basis. 

Cutting the fabrics for this one requires some upside-down and mirroring mind games, and this is where I experienced some issues. Solids are great for FPP, but you have to use your noodle for prints (unless you don’t care if they’re wrong side out). 

And FPP with angles AND stripes—wow. I walked away from this block one Sunday because of a striped triangle that had to be positioned just so; it was a lot easier in the Hope block, but maybe I just started on that particular section a little too late in the day. I finally got it right the following weekend. This is a constant in almost every block and I will reserve the cutting for those pieces until I am ready to sew those sections. 

See that stripe in the lower left hand corner? Yeah, that was a problem.

The ugly underside.

And a TIP! This is probably common knowledge to those who routinely paper piece, but it finally dawned on me that while cutting a print fabric for FPP, the wrong side should be facing up on the cutting mat when cutting a shape that’s not a square or a rectangle—that’s what led to my issues early on in this block—lesson learned!

So far, this is my favorite block. Onward and upward—I have started Block 4. In the meantime, go make!