“The piecing” as I think of it, is a rather time intensive process, and time is something I never seem to have enough of. Yesterday after I worked out the details of this bullion stitch flower:

I had a chance to show it to my mother who then asked me a question I had not stopped to consider: So will you have time to block this?

The real answer was “no, not really.” Truth be told I don’t feel as through I have the luxury of time required to block a piece.

But this morning as I looked at the panels I had completed, I realized that I should block them.

So even though I live in what is termed a “humid subtropical climate,” and even though moisture from Hurricane Matthew is headed my way even if Hurricane Matthew is not, I decided to block the pieces.

I started with the four corners:

and then moved onto the top and bottom center panels:

And then I ran out of dry towels that I could use to get the water out of the blocked pieces.

Fortunately for me, the rain that was forecast had not started to fall, so I was able to put all of my towels and crochet panels out on my back deck to dry.

Then, mindful of the fact that the weather could change with barely a moment’s notice, I began decorating and joining new crochet pieces for the crazy quilt center panel:

and although it is starting to come together, I have only three full days left to get this done, so I will return to the panels this evening working forward one stitch at a time.