The Tattoo Quilt, block 2 --

The Hope block…as in I hope I have the wherewithal to continue this project…

DISCLAIMER: When I started writing this post, it was about 6 weeks ago. Life (actually, death) intervened and I talk a little bit about it in this post, so here’s your trigger warning. All references to days are from that time because I didn’t feel like guessing at when they were. Enjoy.

My goodness. Talk about labor intensive—two sections have a triangle about half the size of a pea. And Sunday, I saw where someone on Reddit had pieced the quilt and had mentioned watching the designer’s YouTube videos about precutting the pieces. I had already done so for some of the pieces, but she cuts all of the pieces for each section of a block prior to piecing. It was a Sunday and I thought it would be a good time to do it; I had already pieced two of the letters in “Hope” and thought, let’s see if this really speeds things up.

See that tiny triangle with the number "2" in it? Yes, it is TEENY TINY.

And there are two of those TEENY TINY triangles in this block.

There are 117 pieces in this block. This particular block has more prints in it than the Love Heart block had (significantly more); that’s when you have to engage your brain to think upside down. With solid fabrics it’s not a thing.  

So four hours were spent cutting all of the remaining fabrics for the Hope block, and I sat down to piece the letter “E.” Then it was time for dinner, but I didn’t have to make it! 

The cutting room after cutting all the block pieces

All of the sections ready for piecing

I promise that I did not intentionally leave out the letter "P" for this photo--
it's when the dinner bell rang.

Last week I spent an hour after each workday piecing the sections, and that was great. I’m still using the seam ripper, but the pre-cutting of the fabrics has made this a pleasure. And I have tons of trimmings….

I also saw a Reddit post where someone had completed the quilt and announced it has 1,798 pieces in it. 🫤

I just hope my enthusiasm for this project doesn’t wane.

Here’s where I was over a week ago—the sections are pieced together into three large sections, and the first two are joined:

And now I’m thinking about no border for the quilt. I can stew on that for a while. I found an image of someone else’s version of the quilt using a gorgeous solid brown for the background. Maybe I will make another one. 

And about 6 weeks ago, I lost all track of time. A co-worker unexpectedly passed away. We are all reeling from the shock and I did not sew that week until Sunday—I had to work some overtime and my supervisor and I have been working together to plan how her workload will be distributed. 

A couple of Sundays later I spent a little bit of time on Instagram and I can’t say enough how seeing all the pretty soothes my mind while simultaneously inspiring me, as well as telling me I need to get back to the sewing machine. 

I finished the block in March. This one was challenging with all the tiny pieces, but I’m carrying on. And yes, pre-cutting the pieces felt like it helped speed up the process. 

The last few weeks have taught me, once again, to live in the moment. I’m not keeping track of time on this project any longer. It’s not important, other than getting it finished in a timely fashion. If I can remember how much time it took me to do something, I’ll tell you. Onward to Block 3.

Hug your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you while you’re able. 

In the meantime, go make!