Show & Tell: Ocean Waves

Ugh! I hate the time change. And the older I get, it seems the longer it takes me to adjust to it. It doesn't help that Damian's been fussy and not sleeping well lately. I don't have a shade on the window in his room, but have added that to my "to do" list. We hung a blanket in his window and that seems to have helped him settle down at night, now that it's lighter later. As for the cough/cold/sinus thing that's keeping him awake at nights, Sophia and I are wondering about a possible allergy: dairy milk or cats. Well, the dairy milk thing will be much easier to solve than the cat issue because I'm not getting rid of the cats. It might help if I brushed them, but since Damian and Sophia moved in, I put the cat brushes somewhere and I cannot recall where. 
So between the time change and Damian's restlessness, I've been very tired. Too tired to feel like contending with the one inch squares in the pixel quilt. My Kona nautical fabric arrived, so I made one of the blocks I intend to use for the corners on the Bluenose II pixel quilt. For the border, I selected two ocean-related fabrics, but wanted something different for the corners. I decided to do four traditional type quilting blocks with a nautical theme and use Kona solid in the colour "nautical" as the background. For the piecing, I chose 4 different prints from my stash that bring out some of the colours from the border fabrics. Since the pixel part of this quilt top is primarily monochromatic in various shades of blue, I wanted to add some more colour. 
Today's block is Ocean Waves. You can find different variations of this block both online and in books. You can complete it using half-square triangles, templates or paper piecing. I opted to use paper piecing, as found here: http://www.quilterscache.com/O/OceanWavesBlock.html In printing out the templates, even when I clicked on Actual Size, I found the templates still slightly small. Since I have a tendency to end up with my blocks smaller than intended, I definitely did not want to start out with the templates too small. Fortunately, my printer is a multi-function centre and I copied them at 104%. Just that 4% made the difference. 
Once I had them the correct size and all cut out, I arranged them in the right order. 

Once I had them laid out, I colour-coded the sections with markers so that I could keep track of which fabric went where while sewing. I used the strip piecing method as taught in Craftsy's Quick Strip Paper Piecing Class.

I also used a dry iron and freezer paper on the ironing board. This protects from ink smudges from the copy paper. Once I'd removed all of the paper, I pressed again using spray starch. This will help retain the shape, since many cuts are on the bias.

Ocean Waves: all sections finished

With the sections all finished, I then sewed them together in three pieces.

Finally, all three pieces were joined to make the completed block. 

Traditionally, this block is done in blues and white, but I have plenty of blues in the pixel section of this quilt top. And, as I said, I wanted to add some more colour. 
By the way, I've been using 60 weight in my bobbin and it's not stitching tight enough. It caused some problems when I was pulling the paper off. Anyone else experience anything similar?
Damian's been pretty clingy to his mother and me since he's not feeling well, so I'm not sure how much more I'll get done...
How has your week gone? What have you gotten done? Share your link here.

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Guidelines for Show & Tell 

1. Link up any recent post that features your current creative project. And it can be a work in progress as well. 
2. Please remember to link to your actual blog post, not your main blog page, so others don't have to search. 
3. Somewhere in your blog post, you must link back to my blog or put the 'Show & Tell' button in your sidebar. 
4.  Please don't just add your link and go. Check out a few of the other links and comment. The best idea is to check out the 3 or 4 links just previous to yours. That way every link will get visited. And maybe you'll pick up a few new followers along the way. 
5. You don't have to follow me to post your link on my blog, but that would be much appreciated. 
6. Have fun. This is a party after all.

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