11.09.2014

Sew Sunday ~ BOM

Almost every month our quilt guild does a block of the month for a charity quilt.  Some are more challenging than others.  While I like a good challenge in my paper crafting, I love the months that are easy for quilting.   This month's block was one of those easy ones.  YAY!


In fact, this one was so easy and fun to make that I made a couple more blocks the next day to add to my sampler quilt.  This time I played with color placement a little more.  it might be fun to take the same 4 colors and create an entire quilt with different color placement.


My ALYOF goal is not going as well. After careful measuring and marking the first border for mitered corners I sewed on the double border only to find that I had sewn right side to wrong side.  grrrrr.... It had to be ripped out, but a few days before I did this I broke my seam ripper. Murphy's law, right?  I went to town TWICE and forgot to buy a seam ripper.  After I ripped it out, I tried to erase my pen marks only to find I didn't use my erasable pen, instead it was permanent blue ink on a cream fabric.  UGH!  I'm frustrated with it, so I put it aside.



Instead, I picked up the half square triangle blocks from the class I took last winter.  At the time I took the class I didn't really have a stash built up.  I bought some fat quarters and took several squares that my generous guild mates donated to me to pull these blocks together for the class.  Some of these fabrics really just stood out like a very sore red thumb.  I decided to see if I could salvage the quilt, and if not, to just sew these blocks together and get this UFO out the door.


Taking out the fabrics that really didn't belong, and sewing a few more blocks together to even it out helped greatly.  Then I used the trick I learned in class to figure out contrast.


Her trick was to convert the photo to black & white.  In black and white, you can more easily see which blocks need to be moved around, or removed all together.  During the class I tried hard to find contrast without the use of my phone, but yesterday I decided that was silly.  If I had the tool, I should use it until I can spot it without using black & white photos.  As a bonus I have referred often to my pictures on my phone to make sure the pieces stay in the right position for the pattern I am creating.

3 comments:

ednamburgess said...

Thanks for the idea. I needed an easy one to finish up a quilt that still needs a couple of blocks. But even though it's easy, it's still pretty. Edna

Heather North said...

Glad I could help, Edna. If you would like to see the instructions they are posted on the South Sound Modern Quilt Guild blog. http://southsoundmqg.blogspot.com/2014/10/crossed-diamond-block-tutorial.html

Anonymous said...

Love how your hst top is coming along. The reverse blocks are interesting, too!