I'm glad that I've finished some UFOs this year, it's been very satisfying.  However, I'm in the mood for some mindless sewing for a little while.  I don't want to have to make a single decision, so I pulled out a kit that I made up, about 5 years ago.  All I have to do is send the pieces through the machine.

The magazine that I first saw this pattern in called it Yankee Puzzle, but BlockBase calls it Big Dipper, and Yankee Puzzle is another block entirely.  Oh, well, I'm not fussed, so Big Dipper it is.

 I don't want to finish these blocks; what I like to do is sew all the units and press them, then pin them together in sets of 4.

I can use the sets as leader-enders when I put the Triple Irish Chain together; when that quilt is finished I should have a pile of these blocks finished too.  I think I get better accuracy when I sew all the units at once, if I'm programmed to sew hourglass units, or HSTs, or Flying Geese, I do a more consistent job.

I sewed about 6 blocks together, then checked them to see that they were all the same size.  They were; the problem is that they are all 6 5/8" instead of 6 1/2".  Sigh.If I trim them, I'll lose the points, if I don't trim them I"ll have to cut the setting blocks a weird measurement.  Nothing is ever easy.

The problem is with the strips I originally cut for the triangles; they are oversize, and so the triangles are a little bit too big, and that makes the final block just a little bit too big.  I think I cut these before I got my proper glasses, and with a ruler that wasn't entirely accurate.   I can trim each hour glass, but that's a lot of work.  I can take a wider seam, but then I have to remember to go back to my normal seam on other projects.  I think I'll just sew them together as is and cut the setting blocks to fit.  Least work in the long run that way.

Of course I'd already cut some of the alternate blocks, aren't I efficient, so then I had to do a mockup in EQ7 to make sure that I had enough setting fabric.

 Luckily I will have plenty, so now I can get back to just mindlessly feeding all these pieces through the machine. So much for not having to make any decisions!

I love having them all bagged up ready to sew, even if they are all the wrong size :)