"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." I am getting to a short list of blocks left to be completed. Most are those with strange angles, curves, inset seams or applique. M8 seems to have been overlooked as it has none of those. It's an X-block, then on point, with triangles inset in a "courthouse steps" type border.

The central 4-patch of this block is very easy. You've seen all that before. With lots of practice appliqueing the melons or leaves from other blocks, J8 went faster than I thought. At first I was going to piece the outside borders as miters, to make it easier to place the melons, but in the end I opted to do it just like Jane's.

The challenge of I4 is definitely the center. In fact, however, it is easier than M13, which I did long, long ago. The sides are, of course, half-square triangles and flying geese. Even though I'm piecing this quilt by hand, whenever I work on flying geese, I always itch to zip them out by the 2-Square method, but I'm not working on this quilt to get it down, but to learn hand-piecing and be challenged.

How could I have overlooked such a simple block as J9? Could it be my foolish aversion to applique? Do I still even have that? I've been using those single-sheet labels for my applique for a while now. They seem to stick better on small pieces than freezer paper. At least for me.

K10 will always remind me of getting lost in Lowell. I was taking my room-mate to her dentist appointment on Central St. It should have only taken 20 minutes, but ended up taking an hour. Lowell is riddled with one-way streets (going the wrong way, of course) and canals that you can't cross when you want to. And then, after that drive, this was the block I ended up working on while I waited for her.

I had planned to do F2 much earlier. In fact, I don't know why I didn't. I might have gotten scared off by the 8 points coming in to the center, or the odd angles of the background pieces on the outside. Whatever my reason, it's done now and I believe this is the most successful center point I've done this far in the quilt.

I had done the third of the Triangle Challenges before, so I took some time off. This is the fourth, but I decided that I didn't like some of the proportions and I didn't see why the leaves should be two different sizes. I ended up redrafting the thing and am much happier with it.

As I look back on the dwindling list of blocks to be completed, I note that many feature curves, like G7. It's not that I find curved piecing so difficult, it just that I dislike drafting them onto the fabric. It takes longer to cut them out than to sew them. I pieced G7 like an X-block. I suppose you could make it easier on yourself by appliquing the quarter circles before you piece, but I find it's just as easy to piece them.