chain piecing the gypsy child

these are the last sets of fabric pairings for my "gypsy child hst" quilt. the fabric has been sitting in a pile by my pressing table for months and months. finally, i got to them this week.

i now have all the blocks i need for "gypsy child hst" quilt. in fact, i have several dozen extra blocks. that seems to be a theme for me and my quilting life lately. all three projects i'm currently piecing are either in this state or came from leftovers in this state. even when i do the math ahead of time and know what i'm going to need (which i did with this one - 567), i tend to end up with overage.

and then projects beget projects as i try to find a use for them. (as if i didn't already have enough quilt ideas to make.) that's why this is called "gypsy child," after all - it came about because of a block from the "gypsy wife" quilt.

although i suspected i had near enough blocks for the quilt already, i spent an evening earlier this week making the last pairings of hst blocks i wanted to include in the quilt. most of them were the ones i most wanted to include in the quilt, so i wasn't going to leave them out in place of others i wasn't as keen to use.

i ended up with a very long chain of squares. i just love how this happens when chain piecing. i will never get tired of making bunting out of it until it gets snipped apart, a job for my littlest one.

i really do get a kick out of the bunting effect and want to photograph it every time it happens. this IG post from @thencamejune reminded me of this the other day. i'm glad to know i'm not the only one!

i like photographing it so much, that once i had the chain done, i put it aside to photograph the next day in natural light, and pulled out another project, also begotten from another quilt, to work on the rest of the night. besides, my little one wasn't available to cut it apart for me and i don't like taking up her job.

the next step to getting this baby gypsy finished is to trim the several hundred hst squares i have pieced and pressed.

i wish i was as excited about this as i was about the chain piecing.

but since "little quilting chores make big quilting finishes," i'll keep going.