Wednesday 18 April 2018

April 2018 Block Round-up


I’ve made a start on my Pantone Color of the Year challenge quilt. This year’s colour is Ultra-Violet. I decided I was going to make a mini quilt with a few blocks from the Neighborhood quilt pattern from Modern Patchwork by Elizabeth HartmanI love love love the way these blocks are looking so I’ve decided to make the full quilt which means making another 8 and maybe not getting it quilted in time. No problem since there is a “tops only” section. Anyone else thinking of entering? There are famous judges and lots of prizes. It’s possible to win a prize just for turning up and entering and I have my fingers crossed for one of them. All the details are on posts at No Hats in the House and Bryan House Quilts. There’s still a few weeks left to whip something up.


Bee blocks for this month are all about foundation paper piecing. The April  Stash Bee block was chosen by this month’s queen Rochelle (@mcallisterwench). She picked the Global Concepts block by Julie Hirt done in three shades of pink and a black and white print. The pattern for this block and 12 others in a series are available for free from Craftsy. I tried my hardest to match the seams but all I managed was a 1 in 4 success rate, the others are okay… Rochelle asked for the sections to be kept apart so she can decide whether to make it scrappy or not so I get to fool around – I like this setting that I'm guessing is the secondary pattern      (v)


Rochelle gave us plenty of wiggle room with her cutting instructions which I appreciated when I came to sew it, although it was a bit of a fabric eater. Having said that, part of me is overjoyed since I downloaded the Stash Shrinker spreadsheet from Sewjourners a few weeks ago after seeing it on a Hyacinth Designs post. I have set it up to shrink my stash at a rate of 2x (2x is the default) and it’s enormous fun to add the sewn fabric in and see it add up. You don’t need to count how much you’ve already got you just need to use twice as much as you buy and you still get to buy fabric along the way!


Emily from The Darling Dogwood is this month’s queen in Bee Inspired. She asked us to make foundation paper pieced stars using this pattern from fellow Aussie Wombat Quilts in blue and red on a white background. Finished size is 8 inches. I decided to use two blue fabrics for the star and luckily there was a bit of chat in our Facebook group about potential hazards so I was able to make sure to avoid placement problems.



Finally, I just wanted to let you know that my Curated Quilts mini is part of the gallery in the latest magazine about Minimalism. I was surprised to be selected, in fact I was just about to start using it as a pot plant mat when the email arrived, and I kept expecting them to let me know that they’d changed their mind once it arrived in their office. But no.


I even spotted it hanging in their booth at Quiltcon on Instagram (see the arrow on the bottom row?), which was thrilling and if I never get a quilt into the actual show it is something I can count as having been sort of ticked off my bucket list. It was totally worth entering this challenge, especially since there’s a complimentary copy of the magazine on it’s way. That’s a valuable gift once exchange rates and postage to Australia is added so I’m definitely going to be doing another one!

Happy sewing
Sue


11 comments:

  1. Such beautiful blocks! I especially love the color challenge blocks you're making. I better get on the ball with my block for Bee! Is April almost over? Gee whiz. thanks for sharing your blocks on Wednesday Wait Loss.

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  2. The house blocks are so cute! I would make more too if I were doing this. Congratulations to you on getting a quilt into the Quilt Con! Awesome!

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  3. These are all beautiful blocks Sue and congratulations on making it into Curated Quilts. I hope to make it one day...but I have to enter first not that that would mean I would get in.

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  4. Love your blocks and congrats on getting into the Curated Quilts mini challenge, as well as having your quilt on display at QuiltCon. Pretty cool!

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  5. Every single block is gorgeous! I really love your houses the best! I sorta have a couple ultra violet quilts...Not sure they fit the rules though!

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  6. I love your houses!!!! Fingers crossed that you win one of the prizes! Congrats on the curated mini! And I love my star, can't wait to see it in person.

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  7. Oh Sue, congratulations on having your quilt selected for the Curated Quilts Gallery, wonderful news. Your Pantone blocks are quite lovely, the houses stand out beautifully on the dark purple background. You are certainly getting plenty of practice paper piecing, I am catching up with my bee blocks today and you are spurring me on. The seams may be hard to match but you made a wonderful job of it as far as I can tell, wonderful work.

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  8. The house blocks are so cute! I would make more too if I were doing this. Congratulations to you on getting a quilt into the Quilt Con! Awesome!

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    Gclub

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  9. Congratulations on your published mini! And those houses... adorable.

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  10. I love how you have incorporated the ultra-violet for your Pantone Color of the Year challenge, I love an ultra-violet sky! I also love the pink and black block, I've never been a huge pink person but love it with black and I have been thinking about using these colors in a quilt I'm dreaming up! Congrats on being selected for Curated Quilts.

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  11. Congrats on Quilt Con. The neighborhood house blocks are so cute. Yes, I have entered the Pantone Ultra Violet Challenge also.

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