Storm at Sea Update and a start on a Shamrock Table Topper

Another colour was added to the Storm at Sea Quilt which means 11 diagonal rows have been completed.  I really like the fabric in these two new rows!

Because it's March 1st, I thought I would work on something for Saint Patrick's Day.  I string pieced a block which was 18" by 12". I used cheap Christmas wrapping paper which is like news print as my base.

I then cut out three 6" by 12" strips which were each then sub-cut into a 3" strip and a 8.5" strip.

I then added 2" snowball corners to the adjacent wide ends of the 6" by 3" strip and two adjacent narrow ends of the 6 x 8.5" strips.  I also cut out 3" by 3" squares to complete the corners.

I then cut out a 6" square of background fabric and a 1.5 strip of one of the green fabrics and cut the square diagonally and inserted the strip and trimmed it back to 6".  I then cut out a 6" x 3" and a 8.5" x 3" strip of background to make an 8.5" square to attach to the three 8.5" shamrock leaf squares.

And voila, a shamrock block.

Not bad for using some green scraps and a bit of background fabric. The block is currently 16" square but I will likely put a border of background fabric around it before I quilt it.