The first block is made - there will be seven of these

and I can feel the excitement building! As soon as I returned home from work this evening at five, and after I fed the hungry cat guys, I set up my sewing area in the dining room and started on the first quilt block of quilt #113 - Road to California. Here is a picture of the work area:



Bear in mind, gentle readers, I have an entire semi-finished attic as my designated sewing spot but it is up at the top of the house (most attics are!) where NO ONE else ever goes and not too well lighted. It is also a bit cold in the winter (and early spring) so here I am, trashing the dining room so I can be where the action is!






So the first block of ocean waves is done. This block is also know as Snail's Trail. It has 84 pieces and measures 12 x 12 inches. I tried very hard to be true to the physical attributes of an ocean wave in my construction. You will notice the bottom of the wave is very dark where the water is deepest and dense. As the wave crests, it's blueness is diluted by air so I used lighter blues to represent the crests of the foamy waves.

People always ask me how long it takes to make a quilt. And every quilt, I resolve to keep track. So I can tell you tonight that in block construction alone, the quilt has taken 2 hours so far. Two hours to make this one block. Am I crazy or what????

That, of course, does not include all the time thinking about it, cutting the strips, cutting the blocks from the strips, drawing the design, calculating the necessary amount of fabric and actually purchasing the fabric. I am probably over 40 so far on this quilt if you include all those activities.

Oh! and one last note...remember last night I laid out the three possible versions of this block with different arrangements of color? Well, forget variation 2 and 3. I am totally besotted with this arrangement and George likes it to. It's a keeper! Of course, when I work it into the body of the quilt, I may change my mind or the quilt may change it for me!