Standardized Tests, Quilt Planning, and Lone Blocks

You might be thinking, what does standardized testing have to do with quilting? Tonight, as I carefully referenced my Sew Intertwined template, I was reminded of the test category that always gave me trouble: visual and/or spacial reasoning. These are the questions that give you a 3D object to visually manipulate. Or there's a picture of a puzzle missing a piece and a bunch of pieces and you have to figure out which one fits. Go do a google image search for "spatial reasoning" if you don't know what I'm talking about. I'll wait.

I worked on my outer blocks for the Sew Intertwined QAL this evening. My four square patches and HSTs are done and it was time to match them up. In order to do this, I needed to really concentrate. I had to take my four patch and lie it in it's exact position (dark green-top left, dark pink-bottom right) and then do the same for the HST and then double check and only then could I pin. I crossed off each block as I went. My template is starting to get very marked up.

I had a few minutes of panic when I was left with a lone four patch. How could it be? What did I miss? All my blocks were crossed off! Thankfully, after Kivi counted my pinned blocks (twice!), I concluded that I had somehow made an extra one. Phew!

Tomorrow is Quilt Sunday at the Workroom and I'm hoping I can finish my 40 outer blocks. Some of the women in the QAL are already done the entire quilt top! I have no idea how they did it so quickly. It took me several nights just to sew my four patches, trim my HSTs and prepare these blocks for the new phase of sewing!