Block 10: Milking Day

I called my sister on Thursday for her birthday and she showed me her next block, the Milking Day block. I hadn't even started mine, so I took that as a kick in the pants!

Friday evening, I pulled out the pieces I had ready in a baggie and got started. The center of the block is a basic nine-patch. I don't know if I had a layout in mind when I chose these fabrics, but this is how I placed the fabrics as I sewed them:

Once again, I stopped and started stitching a 1/4" from the edge and was able to fold the seam intersections down flat. I've also learned this has a name: it's called furling the seams.

While sewing these blocks I have debated whether I should be marking all of the seams. I resist because of the extra time it takes and because I think I'll get better at making even 1/4" seams faster without the crutch. But when I got to some of the longer seams towards the end of this block, I went ahead and marked them with a water-soluble ink marker. I think this will be a good compromise for me for now.

Here is the back of the block after it has all been put together:

And here is the front after starching, pressing and a little trim:

I didn't plan it, but I like how the two top pieces of the milk can came together so the white dots roughly stayed in pattern. Have I shown my three little pigs fabric yet? In the lower right corner, you can see the wolf trying to blow their house in.

And here is the virtual mocked-up layout of all the blocks done so far:

_____________________________
Here is Kim's block:

I like her grey fabric for the can lid and handles, and I see we used the same fabric in one of our nine-patch squares! :)