I could have also called this post – First Squirrel of 2024! LOL

I made a change in my sewing room – I moved my cutting table in front of the patio doors and now I can stand at my design wall! It feels wonderful.
I watched Pat Sloan’s video today and it is her 10th anniversary of her group on Facebook. Yay Pat! I met a great group of quilters that I still chat with on her previous Quilt Mashup forum. And Pat being Pat, she designed a quilt block to celebrate. 
And me being me, I jumped right in!

I decided to challenge myself using my little stack of Alison Glass fabrics for this one large block.

I fussy cut a circle print for the middle of the star block.

Then I fussy cut this strip of fabric to take the floral print area to make squares for the star points.

I had to use every last piece of this fabric to make enough squares! I pieced 3 bits together to make one square.  

Here is my center block. Pat used a stripe where my turquoise blue is and that’s how I started; I put the stripe print as the corners then had difficulty figuring out what would work for the background. I went for a coffee break and decided I would switch the stripe print to the background print. It works so much better! 

So, taking breaks when making fabric placement decisions is a good idea!

I was able to use this leftover backing strip to make the border squares – I’ve been waiting for the right project for this fabric!
 

I decided to use 6 different fabrics for the alternating squares to make this a really fun rainbow effect.

Here’s a photo of me using my design wall to plan out the placement of the squares. I’m smiling!

But I noticed the beautiful burgundy fabric looks really dull in this photo.

So I went and got a lamp! It’s feeling good, bright and cozy in here now.

Here’s a photo with the lamp on. Better. 

Here’s my finished block. I’m so happy that I took the time to make this block. I’m also planning to quilt this to have it finished for my January guild meeting – because I really don’t want to make any UFOs this year!
You can find Pat’s anniversary block on her blog post – Month long Celebration
Have you found a ‘squirrel’ yet this year?
With Joy,
Sarah V.