Sometimes you need a push...

... to get things done.

It is shameful of course, I have not been posting anything at all for MONTHS. A dear friend across the pond has even emailed me to see if I was okay?! - thanks for your kind concern, Lara! -

I really have no excuse, apart from not being able to sew for a good while with a hand that was slowly healing (and still is, I am rather impatient with it). It meant I did get into a habit of not sewing, and not walking either (this winter was so wet I almost could have rowed down the garden, but that's not quite my thing!), and therefore not blogging. And everyone ever trying to break a habit knows that it can be hard to do, especially if it's a bad habit!

So even with my best intentions as mentioned in this blog post, I didn't do much for months. Until last week...

I was asked to give a presentation of some of my work for the Cork branch of the Irish Patchwork Society (my local quilt guild). With a week to prepare I said "yes", of course. And then I panicked a bit...

And then I got sewing!

These stack-and-cut improv log cabin blocks have been lying around for almost two years. High time to do something with them!

auditioning a setting fabric

Previously I had decided to use the lime fabric for the alternate squares, but now I changed my mind. However, it meant that the dark red fabric in the blocks fell away against my chosen setting fabric:

the dark red and the brown are too alike

Action was required. Rather than choosing a different fabric again for the setting squares, I decided to add an extra strip to the log cabin blocks where the dark red was placed at the outside edge:

sewing on extra strips

trimming the excess

squaring up the blocks

And when I gave my presentation to the guild, I included this top:

And if you are interested to see what else was included, the recap post from the Cork IPS website has a slide show of my presentation.

I'll be off to do more sewing now - of course!

Linking up with the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters.

Sandra