A Few Craftsy Projects

I've been a Craftsy member for years. I believe I first discovered their platform in 2013. I was with them through their BluPrint stage and then back to Craftsy again. I loved their fabric - especially their sales - and I miss that, but I still think that a lot of the courses are worthwhile and currently have an annual membership so that I can access even the classes that I haven't purchased. 
I'm trying to update my blog with projects completed over the last year that I never reported on previously. So this is the post about my projects made through a Craftsy class. 

Years ago, a friend I had was getting married for the second time. Prior to the wedding, she glibbly stated, "If things don't work out, we can always get a divorce." I was appalled, as that is certainly not my attitude towards marriage, nor do I think it's a healthy attitude for anyone considering marriage. I approach it as "till death do us part" and I took my marriage vows seriously. However, I also recognize that there are circumstances where it is unsafe/unwise for a marriage to continue. And thus it was with my marriage. So, once the initial grief and angst was over, I realized that, while it was sad that my marriage had to end, it was a good thing that it did. (By the way, I lost track of that friend over the years, but I heard through the grapevine that her second marriage ended in divorce. And I continue to maintain an amicable relationship with my ex-husband.)
Last year was the 15th anniversary of my divorce. Is it wrong to celebrate that kind of anniversary? When I think of how toxic and damaging my marriage was, freedom from that situation is something to celebrate. So, I looked up what gift is given to celebrate a 15th anniversary: crystal. Hmm, I really didn't need or want any more crystal, but a crystal inspired quilting project might fit the bill. Choosing Michael Miller Fairy Frost fabric and the Millenium Star design by Peggy Martin in her ebook, Quick Strip Paper Piecing, I made what I call Crystal Anniversary Star. While this book is not part of the Craftsy course, Quick Strip Paper Piecing, it is included with the course. I really enjoy Peggy's technique for completing foundation paper piecing as well as her teaching style. 
When it came to quilting this project, I didn't want the quilting to at all detract from the star, so I just stitched in the ditch around the parts of the star, and then used a corner design from the Meringue pantograph set. I also used the same fabric for the border as the background, so that the star would have the full focus. Still waiting to get this one hung on the wall. 

I really like this tote bag. It's fun, pretty and colourful. The technique is from Pepper Cory's class, Scrap Quilting. It's a strip quilting technique she calls Phone Book Quilts. And yes, I actually did use pages from an old phone book as the foundation for creating these blocks. Unfortunately, phone books around here have gotten smaller since this course first came out, but I just made smaller blocks. Wanting a smaller design for the quilting, I used the Seaweed pantograph. 

This set - 3 table runners, 4 placemats and 1 hot pot holder - is from Marilyn Foreman's Quilted Kaleidoscopes class. Well, the runners are at least. I just had enough kaleidoscope pieces left over to make the rest. I had the runner tops finished probably a few years ago, but hadn't decided what to do with the leftovers. Then once I decided on placemats and a hot pot holder, I had to choose backing and a design for the quilting. Pumpkin Fest is the one I decided on,

figuring the colours looked enough like fall colours to make the set appropriate for a Thanksgiving table. 

It actually took me quite some time to get the binding on as other projects took priority. 

I purchased the quilt kit for this class as well. Some day, I will get around to making that project, too.

Tortoise Projects/Yarn Arts Update

Slow and steady wins the race, according to the Tale fo the Tortoise and the Hare. And this year I decided to apply that principle to my yarn projects. I have too many UFOs that have been languishing for months or years and it's time to see more finishes. In 2022, I was finally able to finish Sophie's Universe, and I want to add more projects to the "finished" list. So, I chose 4 projects and set a goal for how much of each that I would work on at a time. That way, I wouldn't get bored with 1 project as easily and would still make slow and steady progress on each. My goal is to work on them daily, but I also recognize that there are times when this might not be possible. And I'll also be honest and say that lately I've kind of run out of steam and haven't been working on them as consistentlly as I was earlier. 

Tortoise Project #1 is my variegated moss stitch throw. I don't remember how far along I was at the beginning of the year. My plan is to do 15 repeats of 13 different variegated yarns. I have now completed 11 (this picture was taken after finishing the 10th repeat). Unfortunately, it appears that I will run out of a few of my yarns before finishing and they are no longer  available. I will likely have to find a best match if I do actually run out, and likely it won't be very noticeable because of the nature of this afghan. My goal is one row.

Tortoise Project #2 is the Shannon Afghan, a complex knitted project that involves individual squares about 8" or 9". I think I started the year with about 6 squares completed and I currently have the 23rd on my needle. There are a total of 48 squares to be made, and my goal is to do 10 rows at a time. I have already ordered more yarn as knew I would run out and wanted to make sure to purchase it before it, too, became "no longer available". 

Tortoise Project #3 was The Poet Shawl, which is now completed. This project is from the Craftsy course, Fair Isle Crochet. At the beginning of the year, I had one pocket completed, but none of the ends worked in and the shawl part was started. I did 2 rows at a time to complete the shawl and I can't remember how I worked the remaining pocket. Working in all of those ends was the biggest part, brecause I had to begin and end the yarn with each row on the pockets, and there were two strands of yarn for most rows. I'm not that thrilled with how the shawl turned out, but I'm pretty pleased with the Fair Isle pockets. 

Tortoise Project #4 is this little 12" latch hook wallhanging. I picked up the kit at a thrift store and had 24 of 45 rows completed at the beginning of the year. My goal was 1 row at a time. I completed the hooking part and then had to wait to finish it until I got some rug binding, which is not that easy to find. I now have the binding and am currently stitching the border to the back, preparatory to attaching the binding and creating a hanging sleeve. Even though crocheting and knitting remain my primary yarn arts, I occasionally like to try a different craft, especially when I can find a kit for a really good price. 

Tortoise Project #5: needlepoint. While waiting for the rug binding for the latch hook project, I decided to put this project in its place in the queue. A few years ago, I bought a small needlepoint kit at a thrift store. The instructions said to work it on a frame, which I didn't have. I checked Michael's and they didn't have what I needed. I found one on Amazon, but was reluctant to pay the price for something I may only use once. And so the project disappeared somewhere in my stash. I think it was last year, while out on a walk, I saw a sign for an estate sale. There I found this mostly finished (about 3/4 done) needlepoint on a frame, together with the yarn. I don't remember the price, but it was very reasonable, and I purchased it, determined to finish the picture in honour of the deceased crafter and then, hopefully be able to fit my kit on the frame and complete it as well. I'm not really sure where that kit is and I realized that I really am not enjoying needlepoint. I have done it before on plastic canvas, but it's quite different when doing it on cotton canvas. My goal is one length of yarn at a time (which was already pre-cut when I got the project), but I'm finding it hard to feel motivated to even accomplish that much. 

Tortoise Project #6: Brackman 3806.5
Once I completed the Poet Shawl, I had to decide what project to add to the queue in its place. While this is not a yarn project, it is still handwork, as there is no way that I can make this block on the sewing machine. The miniscule pieces would disappear under the foot and likely get pushed down into the machine by the needle. It is not a project that lends itself to foundation paper piecing, so I am using English paper piecing. 
Back in 2021, I participated in the Electric Quilt BlockBase+ Sew Along. However, it only made 8 blocks and I decided that I was going to continue along and make a queen-sized quilt for my bed. I am using the Trellis Setting that I used for High Tea and Where the Charming Roses Bloom, so I still require several 12" blocks as well as a number of 6" blocks. I determined to tackle the most challenging blocks I could find in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. Someone in one of my quilting groups on Facebook suggested this one. It has 8 of these tiny LeMoyne stars placed between the rays of a larger LeMoyne star. I know that it's going to be far from perfect because my hand-stitching is not great and I find it almost impossible to line up those tiny pieces exactly. And I find the templates, printed from BlockBase+, don't all match up exactly. Maybe the software can't print templates this small accurately. As they say, finished is better than perfect, and if I can actually finish this block, I will be happy. I haven't really set a goal for this one. 
Now for a few other projects, not included in my tortoise queue:

A previous coworkter asked if I could finish a cardigan for her mother-in-law. The lovely senior lady had some cognitive decline and couldn't figure out how to assemble it. As it turned out, she had completed the body parts correctly, but not the sleeves. So I frogged the sleeves and knitted them correctly, then assembled the sweater and completed the ribbing for the front and collar, plus added the button loops. The woman said she had the buttons and would put them on, so I left that to her. The sleeves ended up being quite long on her and I likely could have done the small size. But she had started in the medium, so that's what I continued with. However, I do tend to knit larger than gauge. 

My youngest sister celebrated her 60th birthday this year and these slippers were part of her gift from me. Several years ago, she requested that I make her a pair of running shoe slippers, a picture of which had been circulating online. I purchased the pattern and found it rather ridiculous, with the sole made of 2 strands of sock yarn and one of crochet cotton, and the body of the slipper made of bulky yarn.  Not only did I consider that a weird combination of yarns, but I knew that I'd be lucky to find all of them in colours that worked together. Not to mention the fact that the pattern did not appear easy to follow. So that idea languished in the background until this pattern popped up in my feed. Unfortunately, the pattern calls for 2 hook sizes, and it wasn't until I got to the laces, where it says to switch to the smaller hook size that I realized that I had completed the entire first slipper with the smaller hook. No wonder it was too small. So I actually ended up making 3 slippers and still have the first one. It might fit my grandson, but I haven't felt motivated to make another one. I didn't enjoy this pattern at all, and I likely won't repeat it. Still haven't decided what I'm going to do with the odd slipper. 

I wanted a couple of dishcloths for gifts, but I don't like using the same pattern over and over. So, I pulled out this book, selected an appropriate stitch and voilà, a new dishcloth pattern. 

And another one. Don't ask me to remember the names of these stitches. I probable made a notation in the book. 

Then I had a bridal shower coming up, and wanted to use a dishcloth instead of a bow on the package. 

However, I ended up using this one on my nephew's birthday gift instead. The young lady getting married had chosen a red spatula in her gift registry (which I purchased as part of my gift) and so I assumed that red was one of her kitchen colours. Plus the dishcloth I used to wrap my gift in had red in it as well. So, I chose a reddish yarn for her dishcloth instead. 

Environmentally friendly, reusable giftwrap. 

The dishcloth pattern is found here. I like it much better than the slipper pattern. 😉
I included a quilted hot pot holder in the gift as well. 

That's a 4" quilt block in the lower corner, called An Envelope Motif. 
Now I think my blog is up to date on all of my yarn projects. 

A Few More 3-Yard Quilts

I first discovered 3-yard quilts through this video from Missouri Star Quilt Company, and I think I've become addicted to them. Here's why I like them so much:

• the patterns are generally simple and quick to finish
• ideal size for covering up while watching TV, working on a craft, reading or napping. With a minky backing, they are extra cozy
• great size for baby quilts. I know that the recommendation is not to have a quilt in the crib until the baby is at least 12 months old, but it's still a great size for once they are 12-18 months or when they graduate to a toddler bed or for a nap even when they get older, as long as the fabric is not too baby-ish
• perfect size for chemo quilts, a quilt gifted to someone who is undergoing cancer treatment or maybe even dialysis or other medical treatment. It's big enough to cover the individual, without it dragging on the floor. And trust me on this, you do not want your quilt on the floor in a hospital!
• the patterns also offer the option of making the quilt bigger without me having to do the recalculations
• a lot of the patterns have larger piecing, so I can use larger prints/focus fabrics
• if I find a fabric that I love, I know I can just buy a yard or a metre, and, together with a couple of coordinating yards/metres, plus 3 yards for the backing, I can have a quilt. That way, even if I don't have a quilt in mind, I know how much to buy.
• my local quilt shop sells it's older fabric/bolt leftovers in precut metres for $8/metre, so I can pop in, find 3 coordinating metres and have a quilt top for $24 (plus GST)
• when I need a quilt in a hurry, I can usually find one that fits the occasion

Because of the butterly fabric, I decided to call this one Take Flight. It was one that I needed in a hurry, and I used fabrics from my stash. In this case, I didn't have quite enough of the black butterfly print or the turquoise tropical print, so I used both. This is the Landslide pattern from the book, Quilts in a Jiffy. 

I used the Butterfly Charm pantograph for the quilting. 

A peach coloured dot minky was my choice for backing. 

The recipient of this quilt said that her favourite colours were blues, but that she also liked autumn colours. So, I was walking up and down the aisles of my local quilt shop, looking for inspiration, when I spied this delightful blue floral fabric from a couple of aisles over. Then I had to decide what fabrics to coordinate it with. Like the soccer fabric in the Game On quilt, it's a large and strong print, so I found solids to be the best choice. This is the Crossroads pattern, also from Quilts in a Jiffy. But I named mine Garden Path (not to be confused with the Fabric Cafe pattern by that name).

Backed with blue minky and quilted with Floral Branch. 

Heard It Through the Grapevine was again made with stash fabrics. The two grapevine fabrics were left over from My Beloved's Vineyard, and I used the same Vineyard pantograph to quilt it.

This is a quilt that I'm keeping, and it's in my living room for snuggling on the sofa. It was made from the Snowball pattern, but I opted not to do the pieced side borders and instead made two full unpieced borders.

A lot of people seem to reallly like blue as I have made several blue quilts. This one, which I called Patches of Blue is made from the Wonderland pattern in the book Make It Christmas. 

Aside from the minky backing, the fabric was pulled from my stash. I quilted it using the Tweet Tweet pantograph. 

Finally, I want to share with you Splendour, which can be found as Splendor in the book The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts. I think this is a great example of how you can take 3 entirely different fabrics, that aren't even from the same manufacturer and make a stunning quilt. This one was a little more complex than the average 3-yard quilt pattern as the instructions said to draw a diagonal line on half of the Fabric #2 rectangles and line it up with the opposite diagonal on the Farbric #1 rectangles and stitch ¼" on each side of the line, just as you would for HSTs, except reversing the direction of the diagonal for the other half of the rectangles. But I just couldn't see how it would work out evenly as it wasn't lining up for me. Rather than chance having to rip out stitches, I chose instead to just cut all of the rectangles apart diagonally and sew them together individually, making sure to do half one way and half the other. Unlike squares it makes a difference which diagonal you use. And I think it turned out splendid. 

I used a cotton backing and Feather Meander for the quilting. 
That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more 3-yard quilts in my future. I've already got the fabric for one for my great great nephew, due to arrive in June.

Wendy's Quilts

Several years ago, I made Grandma's Kaleidoscope Garden for my friend, Wendy, as a gift. Then one time, while she was with me on a quilt shop hop, she asked about animal print fabrics, and purchased a couple of panels from which she commissioned me to make a lap quilt and a wallhanging for her. One of her grandsons fell in love with the lap quilt and tried to leave her apartment with it, so she determined to have me make one for each of her grandsons, as well as one for her son, for this past Christmas, each with a minky backing. 

Face Off was the first one I completed. I wanted the focus to be the Oilers fabric, and didn't want to chop up too many of the logos, so I opted for a 9" square of the focus fabric and 9" churn dash blocks for the solid and blue fabrics. I had wanted to alternate the placement of the fabrics in the churn dash blocks, but the quilt shop did not have enough left of the orange, so I had to make all of the blocks the same. It still looks great, in my opinion, and since orange is the dominant colour in the Oilers fabric, it worked out well. 

I quilted it with the Hockey Swirl pantograph. 

Next, she wanted a soccer-themed quilt. I had a couple of metres of small soccer ball prints that I could use together with a neutral textural print. But while on a quilt shop hop with me, Wendy called ahead to one of the shops we were visiting and found out that they had a soccer ball print and when we arrived there, she purchased a metre of it. 

However, when I put the prints together, it was Yuk! It's so terrible that I find it painful to look at. So, I would keep my two prints (the green and the blue) for another project and use the larger soccer ball print for Wendy's grandson's quilt. But what to do with it? It's such a large and strong print, with very few colours, that it was really difficult to know what design to use, and what fabrics to coordinate it with. Finally, I decided on black and white solids and came up with this design. 

Fairly simple, but striking. And I can't help but wonder how many people actually appreciate how much time and effort can go into designing a quilt, even though it's deceptively simple. And I don't generally charge a design fee. Otherwise, they likely couldn't afford the quilt. Not that I sell that many anyway.

I quilted it with the Soccer Ball pantograph, and named it Game On.

For the oldest grandson, I created Safari. Wendy purchase the small African animal print panels and some fabrics that coordinated well with the panels, and I had to figure out what to do with them. I came up with a basic zig-zag design and quilted it with Marfa. 

I had some assistance quilting this quilt (notice the grey tail sticking out from under the fabric). One of my nephews moved from BC and lived with me for a couple of months, as did his 3 cats. 

Jazz was an enthusiastic participant in quilting. 

Wendy's son is a Mountie, and she had to have this panel for him. But she didn't buy any coordinating fabric at the time she bought the panel, leaving that up to me. Each of the coordinating fabrics is a maple leaf print from the Stonehenge Oh Canada line. I didn't want plain borders, but I also didn't want anything that would attract attention away from the panel. I think I came up with a good compromise. I actually had another friend offer to purchase it when I posted the picture to Facebook. I call this one On Guard for Thee. 

I chose a bold red minky backing, the colour of the Mountie's dress uniform and quilted it with the Maple Breezes pantograph. 
All of the Christmas quilts got finished on time. Meanwhile, Wendy asked me to accompany her on a trip to visit a seniors' housing development in another town. That trip included a couple of quilt shop stops, where Wendy purchased fabric for another quilt for her son and a panel for herself. 

Initially, I couldn't imagine liking a monochromatic grey quilt. And even when I first put these blocks together, I was thinking, "No." 

But once I put it together, I thought it had a certain elegance and distinction. 

For the quilting design, I chose Glory, a strong design that I felt suited the stars and sort-of stripes on the quilt top. While I love this quilt design, now that it's finished, with the polyester fibrefil batting making the quilting more distinct, I feel that the quilting almost overpowers the quilt top. But it could just be the lighting. I had to take this picture indoors as it was too windy to take it outside. 
The quilt pattern is called Oh My Stars! and it's found in Fabric Cafe's Quilts in a Jiffy book, but I called my version It's a Grey Area. 

When it came to the panda panel, Wendy and I discussed whether to make a quilt or a wallhanging. I suggested a lighter weight quilt with a cotton backing, rather than minky, and include a hanging sleeve. That way she could chose how she wanted to use it. 
Once again, I was left with the challenge of what fabrics and design to use. I didn't want solids as I often find them too stark and boring. I chose a tone on tone black, a green tonal forest print and cream print with leaves. 

I chose the Bamboo pantograph for the quilting. Because I didn't want the quilting to be prominent on the panel, I used a 60 weight cool grey Glide thread and a 100% cotton batting, rather than my usual 40 weight thread and 80/20 batting (80% cotton and 20% polyester), which has more loft. This one is called Panda Paradise. 
These last 2 quilts were done under a time constraint as Wendy decided to move back to Ontario and I wanted her to have them before she left. On our last quilt shop hop, she purchased two more panels, plus coordinating fabric for backing and binding. These can wait, however, until she's settled into her new home. 

Tales of Ireland

I don't know how many years ago, I started this quilt, but I mentioned it in a blog post in 2014, so about 10 years ago. At that time, I only made one block.

Lucky Clover Block

Then it sat for several years until a year or so ago (some time in 2022?), I got it out and made another block. 

Irish Cross Block

Unfortunately, at that time I also realized that the fabricI bought for this quilt predated the time when I became more discriminating about the quality of fabric I purchased, and it is inferior quality. I was planning on finishing this quilt for one of my great nephews, whose favourite colour is green, and considered lining the quilt top with muslin, like I did for the Children of Israel quilt, but decided I didn't want to use inferior fabric for one of my great nephews. I then debated on whether I would make the quilt using better fabric, but then what would I do with this bunch of fabric? I decided to continue with this fabric, especially since the finished size would make a good table quilt, but will make an alternate quilt in the future for my great nephew. I cover my table linens with a clear plastic sheet, so they don't get dirty. I would therefore seldom, if ever, need to wash the quilt and so the quality of fabric is not as significant. And I needed a table treatment for the month of March anyway. And since March is Irish Heritage Month, with St. Patrick's Day on the 17th, this quilt would be perfect. 
This year, I determined to finally finish it. March is not only National Crafting Month, but it's also Irish Heritage Month. What better time to finish an Irish quilt. But when I took it out and looked over the blocks, I realized why I'd been stalling. These are by no means simple blocks, and are quite labour-intensive. 

I Left My Heart in Ireland

I spent many hours doing the English paper piecing for the Fairy Ring Block. Remember, I normally avoid hand stitching if at all possible, but I actually didn't mind doing it this time. 

Fairy Ring Block

However, it was quite time-consuming. 
The pattern for this quilt suggests pink for the coordinating fabric for the sashing and block accents. Specifically a pink fairy print, which was to be fussy cut for certain blocks, like the centre hexagon in the Fairy Ring block. While pink complements green very well, it is definitely not a colour I would associate with Ireland. Orange, or maybe gold, but definitely not pink. And I did not want fairies on my quilt. So I salvaged some gold fabric leftover from another project (I cannot recall what project) and decided to use it instead. 

Folktale Circle Block

The Folktale Circle Block was to have a fussy cut fairy in the middle as well. Being a fairly large space (6½" square), I didn't necessarily want to just fill it with the gold fabric or even the background. So, instead I downloaded an Irish-themed colouring sheet from the internet, reduced it to the correct size, traced it onto some solid white fabric, and coloured it with my Inktense pencils. I'm pretty pleased with the results and for me, it's much more appropriate than fairies. Aside from the time spent making the centre square, this is actually about the easiest and quickest block in the bunch. 

Celtic Twist Block

I really like the looks of this block and have actually considered using it to make a quilt for my living room sofa. I recently discovered that Missouri Star Quilt Company has a table runner using this block, or something very similar. 

Connemara Flower Block

For this block, I again did a self-coloured centre, this time using my fabric markers. I skipped the instructions in the pattern for the flying geese units, and instead used the No Waste Flying Geese instructions. I love this method because I hate wasting the fabric with the stitch and flip method. It's interesting that the Tales of Ireland quilt pattern is from McCall's quilting, and so is the video for the No Waste Flying Geese. Why couldn't they put the two together?
Having the first 6 blocks finished, I decided to put the top part of the quilt together (the Lucky Clover block that I finished first is in the bottom half of the quilt). 

I am really happy with how it looks with the gold sashing. Another thing I'll point out is that the pattern uses various fabrics for the background. I decided to stick with the one solid green fabric. I think it gives it a more cohesive look. 

Celtic Knot Block

I have to admit that I sort of dragged my heels about making this block, and I actually delayed it until the other two blocks in the third row, even though it came first. It involved making my own bias tape, following the method in this video. I've used this method once before (following a different video) to make bias binding, but found that I ended up cutting it with my rotary cutter and ruler (think about trying to do that with a tube of fabric) because the lines just wouldn't line up for me properly. This time I found the same thing - I couldn't get all of my lines to line up properly. I did end up cutting it with my scissors, but had to fudge it quite a bit when I came to the seam where the lines didn't line up, resulting in pretty wobbly edges. 
The instructions say to put a strip of fusible web on the back of the bias tape. Not happening here. I've used my Heat'N'Bond Lite enough to know that it's too stiff to be able to bend it to conform to all of those curves, not to mention the added bulk, especially at the corners where the bias tape has to be folded over on itself. Plus, I also knew that I would likely end up sticking it down in places that shouldn't be stuck down until the next loop of tape was under it. 
And I didn't have a bias bar or an applique iron, and couldn't justify the expense (even if I could find them to purchase them) when they might only ever be used in this one block. And I don't intend to repeat it. 
So, I ended up just pinning the whole thing down, finding that the design in the pattern had a couple of errors, with the bias tape going over in one place, where it should have gone under the previous tape, and another place where there was no indication which piece went over and which piece went under. I figured it out, however, and got the whole thing stitched down. I have nicknamed this block the Irish Pac-Man Block because that's what I saw when I finished it: 4 green Pac-Man (Pac-Men?) facing each other. 

Treasures from Ireland Block

For the centre of this block, I used the alphabet function on my sewing machine and stitched in "Ireland", adding a map of Ireland, coloured with my fabric markers. Once again, I used the no waste method for making my flying geese, but miscalculated and they ended up smaller than they were supposed to. I made it work, though. 

Seven Lucky Shamrocks Block

This was one of the simpler blocks, just having to trace and applique the 7 shamrocks. 
I was down to the last two blocks, and they were probably the most challenging - or maybe just annoying - blocks of the quilt top. 

Leprechauns and Gold Nuggets (aka Fairies and Flower Petals)

For the Fairies and Flower Petals block, which I renamed Leprechauns and Gold Nuggets, since I used neither pink fabric nor fairy fabric, I had to make 20 of these miniature 9-patches. 

In the pictures of the block included in the pattern, it appears that the corners of the 9 patches touch the edges of the block. 

And I really wondered why the instructions said to cut such oversized pieces for the setting triangles. 

Nowhere did it indicate that there would be a fairly large margin of the setting triangle fabric extending beyond the corners of the 9-patches. It only said, "The dark green setting triangles on all edges and corners are cut oversized for subsequent trimming." Well, I normally do this with setting triangles, but definitely not this huge. So, not wanting to waste fabric, I reduced the size of the setting triangles to a more reasonable size. Then I wondered why my block ended up so small. There are multiple seams in the block and I thought maybe my seams had been too "generous". But no, my individual squares came out at 1½" finished size, as they were supposed to. Then I started calculating diagonals and realized that there was no way that this block could have come out at 12" if the corners of the 9-patches touched the edges. It would have been more something like 10½". So, I ended up having to add a border of the same fabric as the setting triangles. 😖 Grr! Yes, partly my fault, but also the fault of the pattern - both the designer for not being more explicit, and the picture for not clearly demonstrating that the setting triangles extend beyond the corners of the 9-patches by nearly ¾ of an inch! It's not the first time I've changed a pattern to make it more efficient, but this is the first time that it turned out so wrong. Nevertheless, I still like the finished block and it has not significantly altered the appearance of the finished product. 
By the time I hit block number 12, I was sick to death of this project and hating this block. The technique is time-consuming and ridiculous, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong: I'm not afraid of challenging and time-consuming blocks. But this one is more annoying than challenging. 
First, I was to cut out 72 of these little "mushrooms" (she calls them scallops in the pattern). 

The instructions say to also cut out 72 little strips of fusible web. 

This picture shows the template for cutting the fusible web and where it should be placed on the mushrooms. Not only did I not want to spend my time tracing, cutting and applying these tiny slivers of fusible web, but I failed to understand how well it would actually work. 

Normally, in using fusible web for appliqué, you apply the appliquéd piece to the background fabric. In this case, with such little slivers of fusible web, only the top row will have the fusible web against the background fabric, and not even all of that, since it overlaps the edge, and the mushrooms overlap each other where the fusible web is. So, likely 95%+ of this quilt block wouldn't even be held in place on the background square until I stitched it down. That didn't make any sense to me. What else didn't make sense was cutting out whole mushrooms where an itsy-bitsy piece of fabric would do. And the pattern doesn't suggest reusing those mushrooms on another row at the opposite ends, so that you're at least getting more use out of it. No, let's just go to all that trouble of cutting out a whole mushroom, and throw most of it away... But then, when assembling the block, I found out that I did need those extra pieces, even though the instructions didn't tell me that. I even cut 74 of these mushrooms, instead of 72 and used all 74 of them. plus some of the scraps.
It's a good thing this was the last block.
Anyway, instead of using fusible web, I got a glue stick out of my freezer and put a dab in the middle of the mushrooms, so that the glue wouldn't be along the edges where I had to stitch. Aside from on the tiny little pieces on the sides. And it worked, but not as perfectly as I would have liked. The pieces shifted during stitching, so I did end up with some puckering. But by this time, I didn't really care. I was so tired of this quilt and these ridiculous blocks. 

So here's the stupid thing I did. The glue stick I used was one of those purple ones that is supposed to fade to clear when it dries. But it wasn't all fading like I thought it should. I then decided to just "wash" the glue out by spraying the block with water. Not a good idea because it was insufficient to wash out the glue and instead, by making it wet again, the purple came back with a vengeance. Here's where the really foolish part comes: I decided to iron the block to dry it out fast to get rid of the purple - hopefully, completely - but instead, it appears to have set the purple colour permanently! And if you look for it, you can see it in some of the fabrics in this block. Live and learn. I definitely wasn't going to remake this block and I was afraid to actually wash it lest it make the problem worse. Or the block shrink significantly. I may someday wash the entire quilt and hope for the best. It's still a nice looking block and, as my mother used to say, "a blind man will never see it."
I still had the border to put on (I had been putting on the sashing and cornerstones as I went along). I was puzzled why the instructions said to cut pieces 68" long for the sides and 52" long for the top and bottom. The sides should be 63½" and the top and bottom should be 48½" each. Did the pattern designer expect them to grow? I'm kind of shaking my head over that. I appreciate that, if you cut them before finishing the quilt, you might not want to cut them to exact size, but that much longer? Anyway, for the most part, I don't care if my borders have seams, and so I was able to get sufficient cuts from 1 metre of fabric. 
The border in the pattern was supposed to have been a green ivy print, and I would have preferred something in green. I gave brief consideration to purchasing some, but I decided to use the fabric that I already had for this quilt top, especially since I did have enough of the white shamrock fabric. 
The there was the matter of the backing. Several years ago, I had picked up an old bed sheet at a thrift store. I bought it for sentimental reasons because my mother had had a sheet (set?) with the same print, and I intended to use part of it in a quilt - eventually. I considered using it as the backing, but I would have had to play around with the usable fabric on it to determine if I could make a backing big enough. It was quite worn in the middle and had a tear in it as well. 

But then, while perusing the clearance section in an online quilt shop, I found this fabric for less than $9.00/metre. Perfect, that beats me messing around with that old sheet to try and make a backing out of it. And since I was already planning on placing an order with them, it wasn't like I would be paying any extra for shipping. But it wasn't delivered until after the end of March. So, I finished the quilt top during Irish Heritage/National Quilting Month, but the quilting had to wait until the backing arrived. 

Quilted using the Luck of the Irish pantograph. 
One last hitch in making this quilt: I discovered that the sewing machine was skipping stitches when I was attaching the binding to the back. Sometimes when I don't have the bobbin in perfectly, I have had some problems, but I had already re-inserted because I was having some issues when I was stitching the ends of the binding together. Not sure what really was going on, but I discovered that that there was actually some places where there were pretty big gaps between stitches. But I was oh, so tired and I wasn't going back and starting over. I finished stitching the binding to the front and I'd had enough of this quilt. After 10 years, it's done! I may some day go back and hand stitch those gaps closed, but not right now. 
It's now on my dining room table and even though it's almost May and this quilt was intended for March, I will leave it there for awhile to just enjoy it. 

In the centre of the table, I placed a teapot, cream and sugar set that I think are supposed to be beehives, complete with bees, but feature shamrocks/clover. This set came from my paternal grandmother's estate, and I was able to find the matching salt and pepper shakers on the right at an antique mall. The clover/shamrock salt and pepper shakers on the left also came from an anique mall (I think). 
That's it. Now on to the next project.