Little tiny pieces

Hi all!  Are you ready for the weekend?  I sure am.  I have had a hard week, capped off yesterday by thunderstorms, which was nice for the temperature drop they brought, but not so nice for the traffic woes they also brought.  I can hardly wait to see what happens when the snow gets here.  That will be super-exciting, won't it?

So, because I was having a hard time, and a little homesick on top of it, I thought that I would make something simple this week.  You know, not a lot of complicated sewing, maybe something using some simple fusibles but would look fantastic, too.  Yeah, this is where I made a big mistake.

First, let me show you how it turned out, just so the pretty stuff is at the top of the post:

Kind of pretty, right?  It better be, for all the trouble it gave me.  This was a small McKenna Ryan kit.  I got a couple of them a few years ago when I was on a shopping trip with a friend and we both thought they looked easy and relaxing to make and would be pretty.  We were quite naive.

Here is what the kit looks like:

It came with detailed instructions and all the fabric needed to make the block.  Here's why I thought it would be easy and relaxing--all the pieces come pre-cut and pre-fused.  All I had to do was lay them out and fuse them, right?  Well, take a close look.  Some of those pieces are really, really tiny.

So I had this fantasy of an easy block and it quickly turned into a disturbing reality.  First, you punch out all the pre-fused pieces, which are still attached to the larger piece by tiny little tags, so I had to use little tiny scissors to cut the tags without cutting the pieces. 

Then the process calls for you to use an applique pressing sheet and assemble the major parts before they are fused to the background piece.  But at that point I had taken all the pieces apart and they were unlabeled, so I had a heck of a time figuring out how they were supposed to go together.

I peeled those babies apart several times because I couldn't figure out how they were supposed to fit together. Yes, there was a diagram.  It made very little sense to me.  I gave up more than once, but didn't want to let the stupid fabric defeat me.  Those tiny green stems almost did me in, though.

And we won't even talk about the squirrel, which may or may not have brought tears to my eyes. Did you see that the squirrel has both an eye AND a nose?

Those are not big pieces!

Anyway, I eventually figured it out, over the course of a couple of days, which was about 10 times as long as it was supposed to take, I'm pretty sure.  I'm actually kind of happy with the finished block.  My intention is to quilt it just a tiny bit, mostly outlining the pieces, and then put it in a frame, hang it, and enjoy it.  And not make another one ever.

I hope you had a much less stressful sewing week!  This weekend, I plan to sew using very big pieces and much easier construction.  And my scraps will finally get here! They've been stored for the last few weeks, but the scraps are finally coming, which will be a very happy day!

Just a cheerful flower!

Have a wonderful weekend! Happy sewing!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and Finish it up Friday.