The One

 

This.  Block 60 in the Sampler Spree book.  Simple, elegant.  And the one that got me.

I'd been feeling a little smug, 59 blocks in.  I've always been a bit challenged when it comes to fitting pieces in various configurations.  (Remembering that awful day in second grade when we had some kind of standardized test where they showed a hand or a foot from different angles and we had to mark whether it was left or right.  Absolutely awful.  I had no clue.  I remember sitting at my wooden desk in despair and realizing that I was stupid.  My second grade self figured it must be so.)  

But many years have passed and I'm not stupid and now working with the sampler blocks has been affirming and I was feeling pretty good.  Minimal ripping in that regard.

And then block 60 came along.  There is a LOT of fabric in my wastebasket.  I finally figured out to cut according to the outer edges of the strip set and ignore the inner triangles.  Just don't even look at the little pictures in the book that are supposed to help.  Totally ignore the template.

Thing is, I realize that most people probably breeze right through this block, feeling relieved, it's only 16 pieces.  Some of those little blocks have 36 or more pieces.  It's ok, I have learned to work around this little brain glitch of mine.  On to block 61.  I can glance at 61 and know how it goes together.