One nice thing about hand-sewing a quilt is that it’s always there for you when you feel the urge for a spot of meditative sewing. The very duration of the project means you don’t have to make big choices or plans very often at all. I’ve been sewing an Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt for almost two and a half years now. I refuse to rush the process or set any goals for myself, so it’s slipped contentedly in and out of my attention during that time.

The other day, Elora and I found ourselves in the studio feeling creative. I decided to count my finished Ice Cream Soda blocks. The grand total is 50! Wow, what a nice round number. A quick consult of the Tales of Cloth pattern shows that I need only 18 more complete blocks for this throw-sized quilt.

I love cutting fabrics for future English paper pieced blocks. I keep the fabrics I’ve set aside for this quilt in a basket, so each time I prepare EPP blocks I get to play with those pretty fabrics again and try out new combinations. This time, Elora made some suggestions and helped me arrange cut pieces in block formation to preview the effect. Finally, each complete group of fabrics is stacked and pinned together to keep things tidy.

I always look at my finished blocks during this process, both for inspiration and to check for duplication. I do repeat some of my favorite elements, but at least in different color combinations.

I may only have 18 more complete blocks to sew, but I have a lot of work yet to do on this quilt. All of the blocks must be joined with diamond and triangle filler pieces, also hand sewn. I had the urge to start joining blocks earlier on, but decided to hold off until near the end. Now feels like the right time. Here I’m thread-basting FreeSpirit Designer Solids in Caribbean as filler pieces.

5 filler pieces can be attached to each block with continuous stitching. This goes faster than I expected and thus isn’t so travel-friendly, since I need a stack of blocks for one sitting. My thought is to sew only filler pieces at home and save the remaining blocks for travel projects.