Nearly Insane…Nearing the Finishing Line…Blocks 27 to 33

My sciatica pain is not yet gone, and that keeps me away from the sewing machine! So I continue my series of posts on the progress of my Nearly Insane Quilt,  based on a 19th century quilt by Salinda Rupp... I have now less than 20 blocks to finish! The blocks are all set on point, with 7 and 6 blocks in the alternating rows.

The blocks are 6″ square and except for a few, foundation paper pieced by me.  I drafted all the patterns for FPP on the free Quilt Assistant software, based on patterns in Liz Lois’s book, which contains only line drawings of the finished blocks.

Most of the fabric used is Summer Breeze 3  (with a fat quarter bundle of matching solids) by Moda Fabrics, and the Dutch Garden 2 Collection by Boundless Fabric. I also used a couple FQs in blues and greens plus a jelly roll of yellows I had in my stash.

These are the seven blocks from the fifth row :

Nearly Insane Block 27

Number of pieces: 16

Level of Difficulty: Difficult. A number of y-seams there plus the eight seams meeting n the centre! I also attempted some fussy cutting there! The block could probably have been prettier with more of a contrast; but I do like the soft colours too.

Technique: English paper pieced and hand-pieced

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 27
Nearly Insane Block  28

Number of pieces: 69

Level of Difficulty: Easy… despite the fair number of pieces. Again I did some fussy cutting for the corner pansies.

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP).

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 28
Nearly Insane Block 29

Number of pieces: 45

Level of Difficulty:  Easy. Took me longer to cut the striped triangles ‘just so’ than to piece the block.

Technique: Foundation Paper Piecing

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 29
Nearly Insane Block 30

Number of pieces: 34

Level of Difficulty: Easy.  What a delightfully whimsical block this is too.  I quite love it.

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 30
Nearly Insane Block 31

Number of pieces: 24

Level of Difficulty:  Easy. Not my favourite block and I just might end up re-doing this one. I do believe it needs more contrast to work.

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 31
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 32

Number of pieces: 58

Level of Difficulty: Moderate: Has a lot of points to match, so I would call it moderate. The plentiful half square and quater square triangles also meant there were several templates in the foundation paper piecing pattern. But it a pretty block, typically Ruppish, where she put together whatever she had at hand to make it add up to 6″!

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 32
Nearly Insane Quilt Block 33

Number of pieces: 28

Level of Difficulty: Easy but pretty. The larger pieces gave me the opportunity to use the larger prints from the Summer Breeze 3 collection.

Technique: Foundation paper pieced (FPP)

Nearly Insane Quilt Block 33

In case you have missed my earlier updates, you can see

Row 1 ( Blocks 1-7) here   ; 

Row 2 (Blocks 8 to 13) on this post.

Row 3 (Blocks 14 to 20, with a couple missing) are to be found on this post

Row 4 (Blocks 21 to 26) can be seen here

Breaking News!! The Foundation Paper Piecing Block Patterns for this quilt are now available for sale on my store !