The Quiltalong of Stops and Starts...

When I was literally two weeks into a new (and labor intensive) paper pieced quilt, I saw that Lee at Freshly Pieced was hosting a quiltalong at We All Sew for her latest pattern called Chandelier.  I loved this pattern so much and was already dying for a change from the crazy tiny paper piecing.  But I was determined NOT to go fabric shopping - I had done too much of that recently.  So I gave myself a couple of self-imposed rules

Rule #1: I wanted to try and look through my hefty Pinterest folder of color schemes and pick something that I liked but wouldn't usually be immediately drawn to.  Plus, I wanted to pick a color in that palette for the background that was not my usual light or white background.  The above four choices were my top picks.

After a lot of IG hemming and hawing, I decided on the deeply saturated tapestry palette with the bright aqua blue as the background solid.  Which brings me to Rule #2:  I could participate in the quiltalong if I shopped from my own stash - with the one necessary exception being if I needed more solids for the background. I did a fairly quick fabric pull and came up with a solid selection.

I was JAZZED and ready to go!  And then came the cutting.

So. much. cutting.

But I powered through and was still on track for week two!  Celebrating, I opened up the instructions for week two.  And then read about the epic amount of HSTs.

So. many. half-square-triangles. to. trim.  Spoiler alert:  I did not stay on track for week three.

In fact, I did manage to complete a few blocks but only because I stopped assembling all the HSTs as my brain was begging for a break.  And sadly, they are still all hanging out to the side of my ironing board.  Just waiting for me to pick them up and start again.

I'm coming lovelies....eventually.