Block-a-Palooza Block 4

I'm happy to report that my machine is back from the spa and purring along "like buttah." I sat down yesterday to sew up some of the piece sets I'd cut earlier in the week. Here's Block-a-palooza Block 4. (Design by the talented Cherri at Cherry House Quilts)

This pinwheel block features my current favorite fabric, the lime on white batik, which I've had since last year sometime, a more recent purchase (the Philip Jacobs coral print framing strips) and a Bird of Paradise print that's been in my stash for at least five years. The corner squares are all Kaffe Fassett prints from the scrap drawer. I love how this block turned out. It's very "me."

I haven't entirely given up, though, on following the tone set by Blocks 1&2 and the fabric guidelines I came up with to (fingers crossed) ensure some kind of balance between variation and consistency across the 16 blocks I'll end up with by the end of this journey.

Block 4 above does repeat a couple prints from earlier blocks (in the corners), and bring new ones in, but does not include a solid. And, as you know, I've earmarked a certain purple stripe for more "geese" (or, in this case, their close cousin, the pinwheel). Plus, I'm really liking the little green leaf print I've used in all 3 previous blocks, so I've added "include the little green leaf print in every block" to my 'palooza self-challenge.

So I made a second Block 4:

I'm not as excited by this one, but since I was aiming for a transition block (in terms of color intensity and style) between Blocks 1&2 and Block 3, it turned out perfectly. It does a very good job of pulling this set of blocks together. With Block 4 in the picture, Block 3 (upper right) feels more like a member of the family:

I also made a couple more Block 3s just for fun (including my wildest block yet!), but they refused to be photographed yesterday, so I'll have to try again in a little bit when the light is better.

My sister rightly asked "how many 'palooza quilts are you making?" to which the answer is still "one." Probably. I do expect to collect extra blocks along the way, but it's too soon to say what I'll do with them. I might have enough for a second quilt top, or they might end up as pillows.