first (wobbly) curves

 i seriously don't know what i got myself into with this "single girl" sewalong thing! yikes. piecing the patchwork strip itself isn't so bad, but attaching it to the background is so outside my experience and comfort zone. this is where i need my mom! i think garment sewing would be a good background to come from for this project. all the cutting of odd shapes rather than rectangles or squares and the subsequent fabric waste is very new to me other than it harks back to my mother's garment sewing of years gone by.

i'm tight on background fabric and so i've had to adjust the size of my blocks slightly, which is quite reckless (or maybe brave?) considering i don't have any experience with this type of piecing to begin with. unlike the garment patterns my mother used to use that i'd help her lay out sometimes, this pattern didn't come with any placement instructions for how to best fit the pieces on the background fabric so as to waste as little fabric as possible. i'm having to make my best guess but since it seems i'm short on fabric and i really shouldn't be, i think i've not done it as well as i could have. 

my blocks are definitely wobbly and a little wonky. there's been stretching to try to make things right and there are puckers in a few spots. 

but ... all in all, it's been a tentative success. it is okay! i'm trying something new and learning as i go. that is something in and of itself to be happy about. if the resulting quilt isn't my best work, that's alright. trying is what's important.