When I first counted up the pieces for E11, I counted each melon as one, but the easiest way to do this block is reverse applique. First you cut away the dark fabric from the background in a circle, then you cut away the background from another piece of dark fabric and you're done! The corners can either be pieced or appliqued. What alot of fretting over nothing!

I had cut out B7 before doing E11. If I had known how easy E11 was going to be, I would have also considered doing this one in reverse applique, except for the corners. As it was, I pieced it, but you could straight applique the melons on just like in A3. That seems SO long ago!

I can't resist. I'm so close to finishing the blocks, that I think I'll do them in "one fell swoop." My version of H8 differs from Brenda's draft. To me, it looks like Jane pieced the center circle into the square before setting it on point.

If you are not comfortable doing applique, you will be by the time you finish J10. First I pieced the ground block, a red square framed by background, then I just went to town applique-ing leaves. Jane uses lots of these leaves, and if I could have been sure they were all the same size, I probably would have been smart to save the templates. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

I had planned on piecing M7 the same way M13 is pieced and simply applique the corner leaves (which are the same size as in J10, so I did reuse the templates at least once!) However, I had been so pleased with the outcome of E11 and reverse applique, that I decided to do it here as well. Not quite as nice as I'd have liked it. I'm worried about fraying in the narrow bands in the center, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

I pieced the block part of F9 the same way I did M13, all these months ago, and used the same template for the leaves as I did for M7 and J10. But, I've discovered an Essential Truth about large projects like this quilt. The closer you come to being done, the less you REALLY want to be done and the longer the later blocks seem to take. F9 took me a longer time than J10, even though there are half the number of leaves to applique. Go figure.

I end the block portion of the quilt with I5. I had thought about reverse applique-ing it, but even though I liked the results in E11, I didn't in M7, so I went back to my "roots" as it were and treated it as if it were a curved block on point. It was like swimming in sludge to get this done, like M13. I had "one more seam" to do for 24 hours. I only hope I don't run into the same mental block when finishing the triangles...

I took a bit of a "vacation" from this quilt...it ended up being longer than I had planned. A month and a half! In the meantime I worked on other quilts (and a Dear Jane pillow cover) and made some clothes. I cut out LS13 with the intention of working on it on a retreat I was driving Peg to, but I didn't work on it there. I finally started again on my "one year" anniversary of starting this quilt, and finished it a couple of days later.