A Block!

Sometimes you've just gotta make a decision and do it!  I stewed and fretted about fabric and color choices for setting the World's Ugliest Blocks, but decided that one color, two values, scrappy was going to be the way it would be.  Two main reasons led to this decision:  I have lots of blue fabric, and I hope that one color will calm the wild voices of those multi-colored prints.  In addition, my husband actually ventured an opinion:  "I see lots of blue."  If it's that obvious, then why fight it?

Here's the draft of the frame I drew for the block:

It's not hard to piece, although lining up the parallelograms with the triangles takes some fiddling.  The cutting was tricky.  I never rotary cut a parallelogram before, and realized I didn't know how.  I dug out an old book called Measure the Possibilities with Omnigrid by Nancy Johnson-Srebro, and there it was.  The procedure is not at all intuitive, at least not to me.

The big surprise was realizing that you have to add 3/4 inch seam allowance to the finished length instead of 1/2. Also there is a right and left hand to a parallelogram, and since the dark and light have to be placed consistently, I'm sure there will be ripping. And swearing.  

Still, for now I'm pretty pleased.  I love the way the white triangles change the shape of the block.  More cutting tomorrow.