Hive 5 blocks for Rebecca

Hello all, it's Genevieve.  Here are the two spiderweb blocks that I made for Rebecca this month.  

Like Kim's February block, this one was a great way to use string scraps.  I'm loving the whole string-piecing technique, and the results are gorgeous.  I definitely want a quilt like this, but I'm not sure I can stand making all the block myself.  Can anyone say Stash Bee 2016...?  :-)

Before I assembled the blocks, I couldn't help laying them out to emphasize the "spiderweb", instead of the star.

This is going to be a gorgeous quilt.  Rebecca, I'm jealous.

As for going back and changing my career choice...  I actually recently changed careers.  18 months ago, I was a research astronomer at Princeton University.  It sounds cool and fun, but in reality academia is a slog.  Every detail of every project has to be nailed down so tight that by the time you release it into the world as a publication, you're bored to death by it.  Also, it sucks to constantly relocate your family every few years.

So now I'm the Chief Data Scientist at a small San Francisco-based start-up.  The work is fascinating.  I've learned more in the last 18 months than the previous 5 years and I'm loving it.  It uses a much larger set of my skills and my brain, not just the pointy math part (although I need that too!).  Also, I get to live in Santa Cruz, which is essentially paradise.  All the years doing the astro PhD and the subsequent research weren't wasted---I absolutely needed that background to do my job today.  

So no regrets, no re-do for me: I just did that!  One of the best decisions I ever made.  It's never too late to stop something you don't love (anymore) and start doing something new.