Sampler Blocks

With 8 blocks already stitched for my MILs birthday quilt, I am finding it increasingly difficult to decide which blocks should be next in my selection.  I'm not sure if it's just that there are so many to choose from, or if it's because I am looking at the finished blocks and trying to ensure that whatever I make next balances out the quilt.  Am I over thinking it?

Anyway, for my next two blocks I chose the Churn Dash Redux - tutorial by Jenna at Sew Happy Geek (really like this one)

 and the Rambler block from 501 Rotary Cut Blocks by Judy Hopkins.

My MIL has been in a rambling group for many years, so I thought including this one would add a little meaning to the quilt for her.  It looks lovely, but it was badly misbehaving in spite of me starching the life out of the fabrics.  It's finished a fraction under 12.5" and I think that the centre square has wonked a little but I'm going to hold on to it and hope that I will be able to make it work when the time comes to make up the quilt top.

I showed you this book before when I made the cushion for my MIL for Christmas and said I would show you the inside of the book, just in case you might be interested in it for yourselves.

I would not recommend this book for beginners as there are no written instructions beyond cutting measurements and diagrammatical construction drawings, but if you have some knowledge of patchwork blocks, then you should be able to follow the construction diagrams without any problems.

All of the blocks in the book are shown in colour diagrams at the front of the book in alphabetical order for ease of reference.

The block instructions are then listed in black and white diagrams with a very handy cutting measurements table which lists the cutting dimensions for various sizes (usually 6) of each finished block.  Really handy if you don't want to do the maths to downscale a block yourself.

There really are 501 traditional block patterns in this book, so it's reasonably good value for money if you like to have block patterns all in one resource.

So, 2 blocks this week means just 2 more to go - guess I'd better start checking out those 501 suggestions!