Another Year, Another Block-of-the- Month Quilt

Well, I don't actually have a finished quilt from last year's black-and-white blocks that I made with Quilter's Way, but that shouldn't surprise you! I do, however, have the first four blocks from this year's project, that started in June. I decided to pick the most colorful version this year. They are calling this quilt Music Moves,  and this colorway is the Rock 'N Roll version.

Each month we will do a pieced block with half-square triangles. We also have the option, for a small fee, to do an extra block. These are the circular blocks. I have a feeling that the piecing in the center of the circles will get more complicated every month. This should be fun, hmmm?

Getting Back Into Creating

Even though most of this week is focused on the Younger Daughter and her friends, I've managed to work on a few new projects. Yesterday I did something a little different when I was doing some volunteer hours at the Leominster Art Center. Instead of taking along a sketchbook and pens, I took a piece of PDF fabric, and fabric markers. I spent my time doodling on the fabric.

I want to add some color to this. Not sure whether to color in the shapes, or just brush color over the top in an abstract way. Then what I'd like to do is applique something (not sure what) over the top. I do have trouble with layering, though, as I get too attached to the individual layers. That's why I'm not much into art journaling. This will be a struggle.

I finished my block of the month for the Quilter's Way project. Amazingly, there were no mistakes on this one! I managed to turn the block and the ruler in the right direction each time, and got the correct result.
 

I also pulled out some Harry Potter fabric that has been sitting around for a long time, waiting to be made into a donation quilt, and got started. At least one Harry Potter fanatic approves.

This weekend, I need to count up and catalog some UFO's, as my guild is starting a UFO finishing challenge. Could be scary, digging that deeply into the piles. I just might end up buried under a fabric avalanche. I hope your weekend is filled with excitement, of the not so scary kind. Have a great one!

On The Sewing Table

This post would have happened earlier in the day, but like usual, my block of the month for the  Saturday Sampler quilt offered by Quilter's Way took much longer to sew than I expected. As I've mentioned in the past, I am really struggling with the ruler that we are using in this project. I have difficulty both with the seam allowance, and with what direction to turn the pieces before cutting the new edge on each step. Last month, I had to buy new fabric, because I cut triangles off the wrong side of the block! This month I went (very) slowly, and managed to put the whole thing together correctly.

I really hope that at the end of the year,  the finished project is worth all the struggle!

The other item on the sewing table is the quilt for the November Color Palette Challenge from Three Creative Studios. I started by pulling fabrics from my stash. Throughout the year, I have managed to make  these little quilts without buying any new fabrics. This was my selection. I had some difficulty with the red/rose/pink shades this time. If they are a bit off, I'll blame it on the computer monitor.

The pink  I ended up choosing is a nasty 1980's leftover, which looks horrible on first viewing. It will become the "grout" in my tile quilt. Once all the "tiles" are added on top, very little of the pink will be visible, and I think it will be OK.

Next I started trying different arrangements of tiles. The light gold will eventually form a motif on top of the quilt center. I decided that I wanted darker tiles in the center, for better contrast with the gold. This arrangement wasn't bad.

This one looked way too busy, and probably would distract too much from the gold motif.

This is slightly better, but still too busy.

I finally decided on this design.

I've straightened out the tiles, and fused them to the background. Tomorrow I hope to stitch them down, and start working on the next layer of the design. With any luck, I'll have a finished quilt to show you on Monday morning.

Have a great weekend, everybun!

Trip To Paris

OK, not a real trip to Paris, unfortunately. Paris is the name of the colorway for a block-of-the-month project that I am participating in. It's being offered by Quilter's Way, a beautiful little quilt shop in West Concord, Ma. I chose Paris because it is done in colors I wouldn't normally use. Here's a couple of the early blocks to show you.

See what I mean? No color at all. Definitely not my usual style!

We are using this ruler, called the Lazy Angle ruler for each block. Every month we get the fabric for a new block, and the option of also doing an extra block. You know I'm in trouble already when a ruler is involved, right? Since I almost never use a ruler anymore?

And, have I ever told you about my dislike of the "scant quarter inch" used in quilting? When you go to the trouble to buy an accurate quarter inch foot, the whole "scant quarter inch" thing is just annoying. Using your judgement as to whether that is 1, 2, 3 or some other number of threads short of a quarter inch is just asking for inaccuracy. A quarter inch should be a quarter inch.

When I got to the first class, imagine how I felt when the first thing that the teacher said is that not only do we need to use a scant quarter inch with this ruler to make it work, but it has to be a scant, scant quarter inch! What? Are you kidding me? Let's just call it 3/16ths of an inch (or maybe even 1/8th inch), and stop trying to kid ourselves. Are we really that afraid of fractions? Grrr.   

So anyway, between the lack of color, and the scant quarter inch, I am struggling. That's probably why I procrastinated, and ended up doing this month's blocks today, just barely in time for tomorrow's class. Here are the pieces that I cut.

And, the pieces sewn into sections.

And finally, the completed block.

I also did the extra block for the month. There is an extra charge for the kit, but if I do these blocks, I will end up with a large quilt.

Something else I am struggling with on this project is the fabric choices. Or actually, its the color values that is the issue, as the block patterns don't seem to be as distinct as they could be. The other two colorways available have fabric with more distinct value transitions. I guess this is probably harder to achieve using just black and white. I have no idea what the final setting of the blocks will be, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out all right once it's all together.

So, I'm curious. Has anyone out there reading this tried out the Lazy Angle ruler? If you have, I'd like to see what you did with it, and hear your thoughts about using it, especially if you have any tips for making this project easier. And for everyone (and everybun) out there, have a wonderful weekend.