Assembling the blocks into an actual quilt top is one of my least favorite parts of the process. I don't have a design wall or enough "safe" floor space to lay out the blocks and carefully consider their placement. When I get a couple of free hours where the kid are asleep or outside, I've got to work fast and do the whole thing start to finish. Not a lot of fun with something like that layered squares quilt or the 225 block rail fence (at least that one was totally worth the effort!)

Glittering Gems is only 42 blocks, and I made things easier by sewing all of the blocks into pairs yesterday. Laying out 21 blocks takes a lot less time, and so does shifting them around to make things look right.



I got the top together and added the pieced border -- doesn't it line up wonderfully! Now the only thing left to do before I can use the long arm in April is to figure out how to miter the border corners.

Tomorrow, if life cooperates, I get to assemble 99 blocks for Birds in the Air.