6 months of Blogger Girls

This month, the last 2 blocks of Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls Block of the Month were posted.  Here are my blocks for this month:

The block on the right had a mind of it's own, and it came out looking like this at first:

The setting for this quilt requires 13 blocks, so an additional block from one of the previous months had to be made.  I chose the Dutchman's Puzzle block from February and made it in the traditional coloring for my 13th block:

I am hoping to get the quilt top all put together by July 1st, in time for the finishing instructions.  I'm kind of going to miss making 2 of these fun little squares each month.

10 Block Pile Up

I'm all caught up with the latest Blogger Girls BOM.  This month the blocks were variations of the "Double T" quilt pattern.  I made the first block to emphasize the "T":

For the second block, there was a addition of a small square in the corner units, which led to all kinds of possibilities.  I ended up using just 3 fabrics and sewing up this one:

To sew the second version, Monica showed a really cool method for making these corner units:

To make two of these units at the same time, you start with a large rectangle plus 2 squares of the background fabric, and 2 small rectangles of the purple fabric:

Sew a background square to each of the purple rectangles, and press towards the background square:

Flip the top one 180 degrees and sew the two units together:

Pressing this unit is the key.  You snip the seam allowance in the middle, and press the long seam in opposite directions:

Draw a 45 degree line from the top left corner towards the bottom, and from the bottom right corner towards the top:

Put this unit right sides together with the large white rectangle and sew directly on the lines:

Cut them apart in the area between the 2 lines, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance:

Press open:

The measurements Monica gave us made slightly oversized units, so out came my faithful Tucker Trimmer ruler and it was easy to size them to 2 1/2 inch squares:

I made two sets at the same time so that I had four corner units for my block:

Pretty cool trick!

This month we are supposed to make 3 blocks instead of the usual 2, but I am going to wait to make the 3rd one until I see all 12 blocks in case I want to use certain colors for overall balance.

It's not to late to jump into this BOM.  All the instructions for the blocks are still available for free at this page
on Monica's blog.

Last Minute

I can't believe that tomorrow is May 1st.  Two new May  blocks for the Blogger Girls BOM will be posted, and as of today I had not yet done the April blocks.  Thankfully, I got them both done today.  Here is the first one:

And here is the second one:

The difference between  the two block patterns is the the top block has the "house" shapes (in red) pointing outward, and the bottom block has them pointing inward.  I made one other change to the second block and that was to use a "square in a square" (the purple and yellow) instead of a plain square for the center unit.

These blocks are really fun to do, but choosing fabrics can be a little tricky since the pieces are so small.  If you use a larger print, it can get muddy looking.   I placed a quarter in the next photo to show the scale.  These little cuties finish at 6 inches.

I'm not going to bother putting away the 30's repro fabrics, and hopefully I will be more timely with the May blocks.

Blogger Girls and Flying Geese

Today I finished the March blocks for Monique Dillard's Blogger Girl's Block of the Month.  The two blocks are from the same pattern, although the Flying Geese units face toward the center on one block, and away from the center on the other block.

I realized that I had a Flying Geese ruler from Lazy Girl Designs that I have never used before. It's called the "Flying Geese X 4 No Math Ruler".   Strange, but I didn't even remember I had this ruler.  I just came across it recently during a sewing room re-organization.   This month's block was a perfect time to use it.

For each set of 4 Flying Geese, you cut one large square and four small squares.  The ruler has markings for up to 12 different sizes of Geese.

After cutting, you mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of the small squares, and start by lining up 2 of the small squares onto the opposite corners of the large square:

Stitch 1/4" on each side of the drawn line:

Cut them apart:

Press, and you have two units that look like this:

Take one of the remaining 2 small squares and place it on one unit like this:

Stitch 1/4" on each side of the drawn line.  Do the same thing for the second unit.

Cut apart on the line.

After you press them open, you have four very nicely made Flying Geese units.

 For each step with the purple and white, I also made a set using green and white.

Putting them together with some  half squared triangle units and my two blocks were sewn up in no time:

Here are the 6 blocks I have made so far:

Sewing for a snowy day

The second installment of Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls BOM was posted on February 1st.  Here are the two blocks I made from this month's pattern:

I had a little trouble deciding on fabrics for the block on the left, because most of my 30's repro fabrics tend to read as "mediums" and it can be hard to get a good contrast.    I started out with  the pink fabric of Mary and her Little Lamb,  and worked from there.

Both blocks are made up of 8 Flying Geese units.  Monique's method for making the blocks uses a neat little "Fit to be Geese" ruler, but since I don't have one of those, I made mine using a ruler that I already had called the "Quick Trim and Circle Ruler", using the method I blogged about here.

It's not too late to get started on this quilt if you are interested.  By making 2 blocks each month, the timetable is only 6 months instead of the usual 12 for a Block of the Month.  I am enjoying seeing how much variety you can get in a block pattern just by rearranging the fabrics, and playing with these cheerful colors on on otherwise gloomy winter day.

Blogger Girls BOM

I decided to take the plunge and do the Blogger Girls BOM designed by Monique Dillard at Open Gate Quilts.  The thing I liked about this BOM is that the block size is only 6 inches square which is a size I like to work with.  Here are my January blocks:

It's hard to tell, but both blocks are made from the same basic block pattern.  Each month Monique posts the directions for one block, and you select your fabrics to create 2 different looks.  I decided to pull out the 30's repro fabrics and work with those.  It's refreshing to work with Spring-like colors at this time of year.

The blocks in the photo above  have their white sashing already added, and eventually, an additional colored triangle will be added to each corner.  I haven't yet decided what color I want to use for the triangle corners, so I am leaving them as is for now.

I have finished the quilting on my Monkey Wrench quilt.  Here's a photo that was more about the SUN than the quilt.  Been so long since I've seen the sun this winter that I took a photo to remember it by.  LOL!

I'm happy to have two quilt tops quilted so far this year. It was fun to take a little break and do some piecing with the Blogger Girls, but now it's back to my goal of getting some tops turned into quilts in 2014.

Next up  is this Rangeley Star quilt.

Rangely Star is a pattern by Deb Tucker.  I sewed it up as a class sample probably 2 years ago, and it has been waiting to be quilted ever since.  Time to clear the decks and  get out those basting pins....