Two Stinkin Fish

You know those days where nothing goes according to plan? That was me today! I think I remember telling you all yesterday that it is only 6 weeks until Christmas and I have a ton of things to do. Well none of them got done today. I have been in my sewing room most of the day and once again my seam ripper has been my best friend. Remember when I told you guys I don't do paper piecing, well lets just let it stand that I still don't! This month for Bee Stitched, Mary sent along two paper pieced patterns and asked that we make of each block as she will be alternating them in the quilt. Last night I managed to make the first one and get started on the second. This morning when I got up the pieces for the second block just weren't right so I started over. All day I have spent in my sewing room (with the exception of a few interruptions) and still I have only managed to make 2 out of the 4 fish necessary for this block. I don't know what it is about this that I am finding so hard but I keep making mistakes. And not the same one over and over but I find new ways to mess it up every time I try to make the next fish. So at the end of the day all I have are two stinkin fish.


The first block turned out okay but when I look at it in detail I can still see a few mistakes. Hopefully they are all in the seam allowance or will be covered up by the quilting. I hate sending bee blocks to someone if I don't think they are great. But at the same time I have to admit that paper piecing is not easy to me and even though it's my best I'm sure someone else could do it better. What do you think, can you find the mistakes?


Finally I decided I was going to make a peace offering square. You know an extra block so a I could tell myself today hasn't been a total waste and b just in case I never get the two other fish right. I mean after all I would hate to not do my part for this bee. I am the bee mama after all. But get this just now when I was snapping a photo of that peace offering block I realized I made it 12 1/2 inches. Why, well because that tends to be the size block I make all the time for bees. Only when I went to put it with the other paper pieced block did I realize that the paper pieced blocks are only 8 1/2 inches. Oy! Hopefully she will still be able to use him. I'm calling it a him because I think of goldfish that way for some reason. Maybe on the back she will be able to find a place for him. It was my first time doing an appliqued block and I have to admit it wasn't that easy but the end result I think looks pretty good if I do say so myself. And it was good practice for the next bee block I have to make which is also an appliqued middle.