This and That - Several Projects This Week

Since I returned home, I've worked on several projects, and have had some trouble with one of them.  Block #4, from the Barbara Brackman (BB) block of the week, was a puzzling one, but I finished it.  Here's how:

I looked at all the other people's solutions to piecing it, and looked at my own skills, and decided to do a combination of machine piecing, and hand applique.

Here are most of the pieces (cut out last week) ready to assemble:

If I machine pieced it, I knew I would be using the seam ripper a lot.....that didn't appeal to me.  If I hand pieced it, it would take me forever...not appealing either.  So I decided to first machine piece segments.

Here are the back side of a couple of the three piece segments, with the edge turned under, ready for the next step:

Then I arranged them on the ironing board, and fanned them out to overlap

each other:

Hmmmm, I need to close the gap!  This is how it would have probably turned out if I'd machine pieced the whole thing.  After adjusting the pieces, I have it how I want it:

I pinned everything and appliqued the seams to get the "sunflower" petals.  Then I appliqued a black circle over the center hole, and to finish it, I cut an 8.5 inch black fabric piece, and cut a hole in the middle of it and appliqued it over the above piece.  Voila!

Here are the blocks for BB's Suffragette quilt so far:

I'm also working on Lori's (http://humblequilts.blogspot.com) little quilt, and have made little four patches that are made from pieces that finish at 3/4 inch wide.  That is, each square shown below is 2x2 inches unfinished.

Aren't they cute little guys?