Math issues (again) on Design Wall Monday

So remember that yellow Halloween quilt I had on my design wall the last time I was here...well it is gone with the wind - literally. I was straightening up my sewing studio and I turned on the fan, cause I was working up a sweat don'tcha know, and I wasn't paying attention, and the fan blew the blocks onto the floor - arggh!! I figured this was God's way of telling me that there was no way I was getting this quilt done before Halloween, so I might as well sweep it away and move onto other projects...and I listened...this time.

Onto a NEW project-I was quite productive this weekend making these crazy pieced blocks. The fabric line is a new one by Lily Ashbury called Fancy and it is wonderful! Pretty,bright, saturated colors and interesting prints! I made 28 blocks.

Ahem, there is a little problem... the pattern calls for 30 blocks - 18 plus 12 equals 30. Not 28. Some how I added 18 plus 12 and got 28 - I don't know how I ended up with that number. I even have a calculator on my cutting table... but I didn't use it as that equation is second grade math - sheesh. So after making the 28 blocks I still needed 2 more and it took more time to make 2 than it did to make a stack of 6.

Now I in my defense I don't actually have a complete pattern to follow. I am making the Moda Love Layer Cake Quilt that all the designers made about a month ago - this one. I can't seem to get a picture of the layout to show up here so just click and look at the pdf.

However, I want to make one that is one similar to the one  Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts did. This one...

I think the crazy quilt version is WONDERFUL! I couldn't find any explanation of how Edyta made these blocks but I assumed I could figure it out myself... now let us analyze that statement - I can't add two 2 digit numbers correctly but I'm going to figure the block out myself -oh yeah. Well, I looked closely and saw that each full block had 8 fabrics in it. I assumed that was because a stack of 8 is about all one wants to rotary cut at one time. I'm familiar with the Stack, Shuffle and Slide technique where you stack the fabrics, cut the fabrics and then shuffle the piles so you don't get two of the same fabrics in each block. And off I went...

The first group of blocks were like this - 8 different fabric in each block.

The next group started with 8 fabrics but I only cut the stack into 7 pieces -oh well - it still looks nice just not as scrappy.

At this point I had 16 blocks and I was operating under the premise that I needed 28 blocks so I had 12 more to go. Twelve divided by 2 is 6, see I can do 2nd grade math! So I made 2 more stacks with 6 fabrics in each one.

Ta dah!!! Twenty eight beauyoootiful blocks!! But you need THIRTY - argghh!!! I ended up making the last two with bit and pieces of the squares I still had left. They were scrappy but it involved lots of running back and forth between the sewing machine, cutting table and ironing board. I considered it my cardio for the day and then sat down and had some Ghirardelli chocolates.

So now that I do have 30 blocks, I'm onto making the half square triangle units. Tune back in on Wednesday and see what progress I make. I just found some lovely fabric in my stash for the background - yippee!  Free fabric!

happy stitching-
carol fun