Block 3 of the QAL with a moment of epiphany/inspiration/connection

I got an early start this morning on block 3 for the Michele Foster quilt-a-long I am participating in. I started at about 7.15 am.

The fabric selection

Cut ready to sew

 I liked how it was coming together at this point and my accuracy has DEFINITELY improved!

It was at about this point in the sewing process when something interesting happened. I was very focused on the accuracy of my quilting so my mind wasn't wandering at all until... the name Emma popped into my head. It felt very random and unconnected to my thought processes at the time. It  startled me as I don't know anyone named Emma. But the one person in my life who was named Emma was my grandmother on my father's side, I don't remember her at all because I was only a toddler when she died. But in that moment I was sure that this quilt was supposed to be named Emma in memory of my grandmother. 

I have only ever named one other quilt, see my previous post:I Wonder

But I don't feel like I have named this quilt, it named itself. I am not trying to say Emma spoke to me from beyond the grave, but perhaps I have some long buried memories of her wearing something with similar fabrics (the pink gingham perhaps) and although my brain couldn't access that specific memory it just heard the name. But my mind is open to any possibility and I did finish that block imagining that she was watching over me and proud of my efforts. So I had to redouble my efforts to improve my accuracy.

 Last week I had difficulty with aligning my points correctly which meant lots of unpicking seams, GRRRR! So today I developed a strategy to minimize unpicking. At each point I only sewed an inch or so across the point with the stitch length set to 4.

Then I could turn out the seam to make sure it was aligned properly before sewing the whole line. It worked like a charm. But of course my alignment was fine today so I didn't need to do any unpicking at all!! Typical. I think one of the reasons for my ease with alignment today was my liberal use of spray starch at every point in the process, so the fabric was almost like cardboard by this point and very easy to work with LOL.

Pretty good points for a newbie!

The completed block has a little too much white for my liking but once it is in the context of the whole quilt with all the white sashing/borders/backing I think it will look lovely. And i am loving my pink fabric choices more with every block!