I made a feather!!!!

Today has been one of those productive days I haven't had for a long while. I did the supermarket shop early and fitted a quick trip to Waterperry Gardens to get some pot grown crocus (I can see no sign of any coming up in my garden and suspect the wet weather we had last year has rotted the bulbs in the ground.). Then it was back to run a few errands before making up a big batch of Somerset Sausage Casserole for lunch. A big batch means I have some to freeze.  After that I decided I needed to pull up my big girl pants and get on with the January Bee Block.

Lucy requested the feather block by AMH. The first time I'd read the instructions it seemed to be written in a foreign language. Mainly because the pattern assumes you're making a quilt worth of feathers, not a Stingy Brit trying to make it out of scraps. I couldn't get my head round working out how to get the feather strips to run in the right direction. Di helpfully sent me some pictures. The best tip she gave me was staggering the scraps and I went with this method for making one side of the feather.

I really struggle with my left and right so reversing something can really challenge me.  Then I hit upon an idea. I flipped over the pattern piece and traced through the directional lines.  I lined up strips and kept adding enough until I could fit the pattern piece on in its opposite orientation.

Then in no time at all it seemed I'd made a whole feather block. It wasn't half the drama I was expecting and it does mean that I feel less guilty in getting back to adding some more squares to my lovely vintage sheet quilt. I still have bee blocks to make, but they are at least February ones and it is still February!

I hope you like it Lucy? Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my last post. I'm off to answer more of them. My Mojo may not be back but at least I was smiling as I sewed up this feather.