Block-a-Palooza Block 6

Block 6 joins the fun courtesy of the Happy Zombie. My first rendition adheres to my self-imposed fabric guidelines (new solid and one new print each block; repeat the green leaf print in every block), and turned out very well:

That's the last of the purple stripe, BTW, so I'll have to come up with something equally fun (from stash, of course) for the next ones. Now that I've got six blocks done from these guidelines, the blocks are starting to look more cohesive. This one, especially, helps the first two blocks play well with the others.

Meanwhile, the pile of "outliers" (anything goes versions, not required to socialize unless they want to) is growing. I made two extras of this block, because I wanted to experiment with light vs. dark backgrounds. I did a dark-background one first, with pleasing though not spectacular result:

I've been itching to include a piece of that butterfly fabric somewhere, but with dark b'flies on an ivory background it's a tricky fabric to use. It's okay here, but will be better in larger pieces somewhere else.

This light background one might be my favorite, in spite of my needing a couple time-outs during construction. I repeated the background fabric around the center so the "arrows" would pop more:

This one gave me more trouble than all my other 'palooza blocks combined. Partly due to user error: I sewed in one big unit backwards. Twice. Plus, in spite of what I thought was my usual care in cutting and seaming, nothing about this block wanted to stay square or line up. The fact that it turned out square in the end, and most (not all) points seem compliant, is due to forceful and repeated use of a hot steam iron and an uncharacteristic (for me) willingness to rip out and redo a few inches of seam here and there as necessary. I even used a  pin in one spot! Folks, when I resort to using a pin, even just one, you know things are in a bad way .

I'm very glad it's only early afternoon on Saturday, because I need a day off before the next block goes "live" on Monday.

Plus, I have a secret project up on the design wall that I'd like to work on this afternoon. Don't worry, it won't be a secret forever. I'll show it off in a few weeks when it's further along. I'm also working on a pieced border for the purple and green OBW. That doesn't look like anything but a huge pile of scraps right now.