Making Progress! EQ7 Scrap Challenge

While voting is still going on in the Blogger's Quilt Festival (you can still vote for my Oceans of Love quilt, if you haven't yet!), I've been busy trying to finish the EQ7 Spring Cleaning Scrap Challenge quilt.

Funny how the smaller the pieces, the longer it takes to put together!

To start with, I had to decide how to join all those little 2" squares (whether a solid square or a HST/Half Square Triangle unit) into the 4-patches that would then become the rows. I didn't want to just start sewing, so first I laid out all of the individual pieces according to the EQ7 diagram, and played with layout.

Did I want scrappy orange diamonds, or single fabric diamonds, distributed in a scrappy layout? What about the black arrows....? and how to distribute the various blues and such...? I counted how many pieces of each different color, sorted them into piles, then started laying them out in rows, making swaps and decisions as I went.

                        

I decided on single-fabric orange diamonds, and let the blacks be mixed up; the rest didn't bother me (and there is actually only one fabric in the dark blue arrows, so that part was easy). 

Once I got it all laid out, it was time to turn individual pieces into 4-patches, which will then later become rows. I had to make sure the diagonals lined up on each one, which is not my favorite thing -- I'm more of a "good enough" quilt maker than a "precision is everything" quilt maker. When I get one just right, I get a little bit giddy and stop to take a picture.... ;) 

                    

I'm still in that phase of construction right now....slow going! It took me a few rows to figure out a way to chain piece the 4-patches without mixing them up and getting things put together wrong; if I flip the top patch down onto the bottom one, and stack those, then carry them to the sewing machine *just.like.that.*, then they are  oriented the right way for me to just take the top one and sew along the right-hand edge (which is the seam between top & bottom). 

Then I just have to keep them in order as I unfold them, finger press that seam, and sew into 4-patches. To help with this, I keep them stacked and only unfold one pair at a time, sew that one, then unfold the next one. 

It takes me roughly 20 minutes per row, so if I actually work on this today I should be able to finish. Then assembling the rows ought to go quickly, and then rows into a top just as fast. If I can get the top totally assembled today, that leaves me.....four whole days to get it layered, quilted, and binding on in time to submit. Egads.

Hope I can make it!