Splendid Sampler blocks

I'm learning a lot doing these Splendid Sampler blocks . And several things I've discovered go to making these 6 1/2" blocks with success when they have so many pieces as in SS#2, 12 and 17 so far.
Here is what I've learned:

 1. Sew a scant 1/4" by sewing just to the right of the diagonal you have drawn not on the diagonal.

2.  Always sew that scant 1/4" on the side of the diagonal closest to the outside corner you are going to flip your fabric toward.

3. To reduce bulk trim seams to 1/8" on these tiny pieces.

 4. Always true up the units you've made before you sew them together. Even a tiny bit can throw the size off. And press, press, press.

 5. Abut your seams where they intersect and pin them so that the under piece will be sewn correctly to avoid bulk.

That's what works for me. Any other tips you'd like to share? Would love to hear what you do.

PS:  If you'd like to see my SS blocks, you'll find them on the right sidebar.

Some WIPs Be Gone progress and 2nd Giveaway

Our winner of last week's giveaway is Susan of Desertsky Quilting.  Hope to hear from you, Susan, so I can send you the list of books to choose from.  Yes, list - I've been weeding again.  It's interesting how likes  and style change as time passes while I quilt.  I seem to be moving away from the more traditional quilts to new challenges.  Have you seen your project preferences change?

Here's another outer row for that Jubilee quilt which is WIP #3:

It's going slow because I have been spending almost all of my quilting time trying to finish this:

The quilting for WIP #2 is about 90% done.  After the SID on most of the seams I've been concentrating on quilting the motif for the squares and the sides of the squares:

I got the quilt motif from a pattern from Allpeoplequilt found here .  I just modified it by making it simpler.  You have to download the pattern to see the motif on page 6.

That's my WIP progress this week.  How about you?  Link below and you'll have a chance at another book. I'll be sending the winner a list of three titles from which one can be picked. Remember if you don't have a blog, you can always post a photo from a photostream.  Please be sure there is some way for me to contact you.  I'll be linking to several parties - Tab above.

An InLinkz Link-up

Some of This; Some of That.

Put a back to one of my WIPs - so pulled 2.5 yards for that.  Made two Splendid Sampler blocks means I used another fat 8th, plus the one from last week. So my new YTD total de-stashing is 15.96 yds.

My arthritic hands are a lot better, but I still can't hand sew more than 15 - 20 minutes before they start stinging. So not much progress on my hand quilting my oldest WIP.  I'm sure glad I finished this hexie center while I convalesced and before the hand issue.  I got it done and then didn't like it - the flowers didn't show up with those light teal hexies below them.  Here's the before:

So I ripped them out, added some darker ones and moved some gray ones and got this:

I think this works better.  What do you think?  Don't worry - you won't hurt my feelings.

Leave a comment and I'll go by and see what you're up to.  There are so many of you and one of me - I can't always find you all and thus I miss your eye candy, so you have to remind me - and the giveaway is still on - see previous post.  Blessings during this ongoing Easter season.