Deco Blocks 3A + Quilting Piano Key Border on the 1984 Sampler

I finished half of the 3A blocks (Kona Solids Thistle and Indigo) for my Deco quilt last week!  Just  nine more of these light purple/indigo blocks to go before I can begin assembling the blocks into a quilt top.  It's amazing how much more one can accomplish when one is NOT twiddling her thumbs in a court house all day waiting to get rejected from jury duty!

9 of 18 Deco 3A Blocks Added to the Design Wall

I love the way the dark Willow green and Indigo 3B blocks recede visually and the Thistle/Indigo 3 blocks seem to come forward.  That's intentional; I played with those effects when I was creating my color scheme for this quilt in EQ8 (back in November of 2021, cough cough, change subject...). Anyway, I'm looking forward to wrapping this quilt up soon and moving on to something new.

Last week, when I shared a photo of the new Slimline lamp I'm enjoying for night time sewing, Nancy asked what happened to the view of the pool outside my window.  The pool didn't go anywhere; it was just hidden behind the window shades!  This is my new morning sewing routine (note the latte off to the right on my IKEA cart):

First Things First: Caffeine + 30 Minutes of Sewing

In our house in North Carolina, our bedroom and my studio were both on the 2nd floor.  My routine was to come downstairs to make coffee, then sit down in front of my computer while I drank it.  Many times I'd get sidetracked by email or whatever and realize that a couple of hours had gone by before I knew it -- WHOOSH!  But with our current house so much smaller and all on one level, I actually have to walk past my sewing machine to get to my computer.  So I am trying a new routine.  Now I go from the coffee machine straight to the sewing machine, still in my pajamas, and get my 30 minutes of sewing in BEFORE I check my email.  Because honestly, what could possibly be in my in-box that can't wait 30 minutes anyway?

All 36 Deco 3B Blocks Completed! Woo Hoo!

Hello and happy Monday!  I am delighted to share that I finished all fourteen of the remaining 3B (in Kona Solid Indigo and Willow green) for my Deco quilt last night!  I am especially proud of how much I got done because I got called in for jury duty on Wednesday and didn't get any sewing done on Thursday, either.

Deco Bed Quilt Blocks 1, 2, and 3B Completed

Those two blank rows near the center of the quilt need eighteen of Block 3A, which is nearly identical to Block 3A except that there is one more 1" square patch and, in my version of the quilt, Block 3A will combine the Indigo (dark navy) background fabric with Kona Solid Thistle, the lighter of the two purple fabrics used in my log cabin blocks for this quilt.  Sensible quilters will have followed the faster strip piecing instructions in the Deco pattern instructions from Lo & Behold, but I have cut out individual patches for all of my blocks for reasons I've rehashed in previous blog posts.

Nine 3A Blocks Ready for Chain Piecing

My method for staying organized while chain piecing those last 14 3B blocks worked well for me, so that's how I'll be piecing the 3A blocks.  In the photo above, I've laid out the 3A block with nine  fabric patches in each stack.  Once I've completed the first nine blocks, I'll lay out the last nine blocks in the same way.