Peacock Blocks

The change to Daylight Saving Time is a nightmare. What a dumb idea or an idea whose time has passed. I changed the clock by my bed the night before so when I woke up, I saw that it was already later than usual. For some reason I felt awful. It might have been the dread of knowing that I had lost an hour. I got up and got some caffeine and went up to my workroom.

I needed to just sew, so I looked at the projects I had that were at the rote sewing stage. After a very short deliberation, I pulled out the Peacock blocks and started sewing.

Peacock Blocks
Peacock Blocks

I don’t remember how many sets I cut up at the Retreat, but the prep I did there allowed me to just sew pieces and parts together. I now have about 40 blocks. When I say blocks, I mean two halves of blocks because I can’t sew the pieces of the blocks together until I lay out the entire quilt. Once I lay it out, I will sew it together in rows.

It was great to just sew. I only had to sew straight seams. I didn’t have to make a lot of decisions beyond how to press the seams and the stack of blocks got bigger and bigger.

I wanted to do more, but don’t I always? That was the kind of sewing that I needed. I finally feel like I am making progress.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

10 thoughts on “Peacock Blocks”

  1. I love your blocks, but I also loved the fabric when I used it for a project, too! I’ve got to start my second OBW (with a Van Gogh panel set) soon…

    1. I can’t wait to see what you come up with using the Van Gogh panel! That should be super interesting. I love the way the sense of the fabric design stays, but the overall design is so different when the panels are cut up.

  2. Isn’t it so lifting to do mindless sewing sometimes! I’m not the biggest fan if cutting so it rarely happens to me 🙂 cutting out a quilt in advance is like pulling my teeth. I wish I could persevere sometimes and enjoy the fruit 🙂 Good for hou for a chance go sew on a Sunday morning, the best way to spend the weekend!

    1. I agree that cutting isn’t my favorite task. I also try and break it up into pieces. This was one of the few times where I cut out an entire top at once. I couldn’t avoid it because of the nature of the technique.

      It was wonderful to sew on Sunday. The house was quiet, it helped me get through Daylight Saving Time. All good!

  3. Love these blocks. They are gorgeous! Can’t wait to see them come together.

    This is one of my goals for organizing my sewing, to have work that I can do when I am in need of quilt therapy (as I was, desperately, last night) and can’t think through a lot of details.

    I’m about to get a new space and will be reading over a lot of your old blogs for ideas of how I want things set up.

    1. How great that you are getting a new sewing space!!! I can’t wait to see what you come up with and hope it is your dream space. Don’t compromise!

      I think it is really important to have some rote sewing (check out: https://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/2010/05/brain-dead-projects/). Pam’s idea of cutting up her scraps into usable sizes accomplishes that. I do the same sort of thing with my scraps in random sizes (mosaic piecing) in order to make journal covers. Accomplishing something is much better. Just organize one project that is ready for sewing. You don’t have to organize your entire sewing room.

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