This month I’m pleased to be a part of The Beehive, a quilt block tutorial series hosted by Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts.
My block of the month is called Double Star, which finishes at 12″ x 12″.
Be sure to hop on over to Alyce’s blog for the Double Star block tutorial, plus see what the block looks like in repeat, and check out Alyce’s version in an alternate colorway. If that’s not enough, there’s also an extra bonus for EQ users!
Since I’m not planning any new quilt alongs for 2014, I thought it would be fun to share what my friends are doing instead! Alyssa from Pile O’ Fabric is hosting a fabulous new quilt along, “For the Love of Sewing” consisting of 15 blocks, finishing at 52″ x 56″.
I participated in Alyssa’s 2013 skillbuilder quilt along which was just fantastic! She covered many of the basics including piecing and quilting and it was a great chance to practice piecing modern blocks. Here are some of the blocks I made for the 2013 BOM:
And here are a couple of my quilted blocks from earlier in the year. Doesn’t this look fun?
Alyssa’s BOM’s are incredibly thorough and detailed. She’ll walk you through step by step on how to piece and quilt each block using quilt-as-you-go methods. New for this year, she’s set up an online “sewing room” platform consisting of video tutorials, downloadable PDFs and all the instruction you need to make this fabulous quilt.
She’s charging a nominal fee of $25 for the entire year which means you’ll have exclusive access to each monthly step! It’s quite a deal if I may say so myself. 🙂
Click here to join the fun and get ready for a terrific new quilt in 2014!
I am adding to my list of UFO’s with my BOM and WIP! What in the heck does all that mean?
It means I am starting some more quilts that are quickly becoming Unfinished Fabric Objects. My newest quilt is a Block Of the Month project where I make a couple of quilt blocks each month until it is done. As long as I work on my quilts on a regular basis, they become my Works-In-Progress.
Sound Wave
Magnum
Here are my two blocks that I just finished, following along with the Skillbuilder Block of the Month at PileOFabric.com.
I absolutely love these blocks. I think they are turning out very modern and I am gaining more color confidence in working with solids. I am using Kona Coal Grey as the background and am very pleased with how it looks against the solids.
Modern Block – Not!
A few months ago I tried to make my first “modern” quilt block by adding grey to a paper pieced block I was making from bright mottled fabrics.
The block design was awesome, but it just didn’t work with the grey! I think my blocks above are much better.
In these last few months I have learned that it takes a lot more than simply adding grey to your quilt to make it modern. 🙂
While sewing my BOM blocks, I used lots of starch to keep the skinny strips nice and straight. I also cut the strips on the grain parallel to the selvedge (instead of cutting them WOF – the Width of Fabric). This grain has less stretch and give to it. While sewing, I also flipped my sewing direction on each successive strip so as not to distort the fabric.
It’s amazing how much this block shrinks up due to the seam allowances!
I pressed all of my seams open first with a wooden seam roller (loving this tool!) and then with a dry iron. They are nice and flat!
You can read my previous BOM post about picking fabrics. If you would like to join me, my friend Alyssa and a few (hundred) others making these fabulous blocks, just go to PileOFabric.com and check out her Skillbuilder Block of the Month.
