Sparkle block

Today I made my 6-inch Sparkle block for this month's Block of the Month assignment.  It was the only block I needed from the 5 blocks that were assigned this month.  It's going to catch up with me soon, though.  I think I will need to do 3 blocks next month.

I tried to be very careful with my cutting and sewing today.  I measured each unit as I went, and trimmed down anything that wasn't exactly the size given in the measurements.  For some reason, when I'm making the units, my units are always just a little bit bigger than what the directions call for.  I know it's because I use a scant seam allowance when I sew, that's not surprising.  What is surprising is that once I sew the unit together my completed block is usually just a little smaller than it should be.  So why are the units bigger, but the finished block is smaller?  I use the same seam allowance guide on all of them.  It's not a MAJOR difference, usually 1/8 of an inch or less, but still, it's odd.

So I'm still not enjoying making the small blocks.  In fact, I haven't been that enthusiastic about sewing in general lately, and this project doesn't help matters any.  My original plan was to use the twinkle light blocks as a border, but I'd have to make 44 individual light bulb units, and I'm not sure I'm up to that.  We'll see how I'm feeling when I get to that point, but it doesn't look promising.