KFC Scrappy Trip Blocks are Done

I dug in last night and tonight and finished up the last ten blocks for my scrappy KFC trip quilt.

I got all the blocks up on the design wall. I’m going to tweak a little tomorrow and then probably start putting it all together. When it’s all sewn, I’ll try to get some better photos. This just doesn’t snow the richness and brightness of these fabrics.

The close up photos show it so much better.

I love finding tricks and systems that make blocks go together quicker and better. When I first started making these blocks it took me a little bit of time to select the next seam of each strip to unpick. There were a few blocks where I unpicked the wrong seam and got all messed up.

The first strip has the color you want as the main diagonal focus in the upper left corner. For the next strip, you unpick the seam between the two bottom fabrics, indicated here by the seam ripper.

So on the second strip, I would unpick the seam between the turquoise and blue as shown above.

And for the next strip, I would unpick the seam between the green and turquoise at the bottom of the second strip, shown below.

Once I took the time to make this mental marker for myself, I didn’t make any more mistakes.

I also have a pointer on ripping out the seam. A lot of people know this trick, but I’m sharing it here just in case you don’t.

When ripping out the seam, get a nice sharp seam ripper and slip the point under every third or fourth stitch and cut the stitch. Once you’ve gone down the entire row, the seam will tear apart really easily.

This goes a lot easier and your fabric stays nicer if your seam ripper is nice and sharp.

After being stuck in the house all stressed out last weekend with the ice storms, I have been really itching to get out and have an outing. Rico’s sheep herding lesson was canceled today because the sheep farm got a lot of snow and it’s really muddy there.

So I met some friends for a nice 6.5 mile hike. The first mile featured some really wet slushy snow on the trail that made it difficult to walk. We thought we’d just get up the hill and let the dogs run, but once we got a little further along the trail cleared up so we kept going.

I’m really glad we kept going! I really needed some exercise and the dogs got a lot of running in. It was a good day.

When we got back to the car my feet were pretty wet and I was cold. On the 40 minute drive home I cranked up the heater and turned on the seat warmer. It helped take the chill off, but I didn’t really warm up until I got home and had a hot cup of coffee.

My friend brought along her older pug because he was not wanting to be left at home. She carried him in a back pack the entire hike. He looked pretty pleased to have been brought along.

And then there’s Bender. He’s such an excellent poser. He just sat there looking handsome and letting me take photo after photo!