Bit of a set back - not the last four blocks!

Though I haven't updated this blog for a while, I have been working on the quilt, albeit a bit spasmodically.  I suppose it is inevitable that the pace lags a bit on this sort of project, because life gets in the way and life in the form of a collapsed drain has managed to intrude! 

The set back wasn't that though!  It is simply that I miscalculated the number of small blocks.  I thought these were the last four -

but when I laid everything out on the spare bed this morning, I discovered that I needed three more, making a total of sixty six.

As I said in a previous post, I am now not drafting exclusively Sundial block patterns, but taking ideas for blocks from other quilts made around the same time e.g. in the first picture only the two top blocks are from the Sundial.  I have just seen a lovely star block in a picture of an old Dutch quilt and I am going to draft that.  Back to the drawing board!

Another at last!

Apologies for not posting, in truth I had very little to show and even now I only have one complete block, the other, as you can see, is nearly there but not quite  -

The completed Compass Rose Block was based on one at the centre of a quilt made in 1799, with a similar layout to the Sundial but with very much simpler blocks. 

The secondary spokes of the compass, which I did in brown, really aren't strong enough and don't hold their own with the outer ring of pieces.  I should have chosen stronger contrasts but I actually quite like its subtlety.  Just to liven it up a bit I pieced it into a striped background which gives the block a bit of zing!

The unfinished piece is from the Sundial and I'm struggling with the piecing of this much more than the Compass Rose.  I can never understand why these Compass blocks are considered difficult because they are all straight piecing, you just have to get the fabric choice right!

After these two, I have only four small blocks to work and I have cut out two today, so will be able to settle down this evening and piece while watching "Downton Abbey"  (UK favourite Sunday Evening Drama).  It's  on ITV unfortunately because it there are so many adverts that one needs a diversion!

When I finish the little blocks I then begin the four larger corner blocks and of course the internal borders, so a long way to go!