Salvageable Classic

I started the Lady of the Lake quilt this weekend while I was waiting for the paint to dry on the bamboo quilt. I've wanted to make this quilt for years and decided I'd better start it or it would never get made. I like having these four blocks on my design wall as inspiration.

The pattern is from the fall 2000 issue of Quiltmaker. I'm piecing all of the triangles the standard way instead of foundation piecing, because removing paper foundations is a bother and I need to work on my piecing accuracy anyway.

These are supposed to be 7" finished blocks, but they are going to be slightly smaller. Why? Well, I went crazy and cut half the fabric into strips at 5" and 2" (after looking at the templates in the foldout) then, as I was cutting the half-square triangles, realized that they seemed kind of small. Well, duh, I should have seen the tiny rotary cutting legend showing that the squares needed to be 5 3/8" and 2 3/8"!! Since I had cut so much fabric already, I just left the 2" strips and cut down the center square to 3 7/8" so it would work. I wasn't about to waste all of that fabric, plus I didn't have any more since I was trying to use up my red scraps! UGH! It's OK...all's well than ends well.

Piecing those tiny half-square triangles is definitely a challenge for my long fingers, but it will work out OK. I have a renewed appreciation for my friends Shel and Teri who make miniatures, and this is a long way from mini!

It will be beautiful when it is done. I really love this classic!