Back in the game with Craftsy BOM

Now that the Patchwork Prism Quilt Along is no longer distracting me, I finally caught up with my blocks on the Craftsy Block of the Month. This project is turning into what I would call "eclectic". There is sooo much variety in the block styles from month to month. I'm hoping the consistent colors and fabrics will hold it all together to make a beautiful quilt.

In April, we learned English Paper Piecing, hexi style. I had never tried this technique so it was exciting to learn something totally new. The hand stitching slowed me down a bit, but was well worth it. I learned new admiration for anyone who makes an entire quilt out of hexagons.

The background is a Kona Ash and it is saving me on many of these blocks. I am terrible about choosing all mediums and darks for quilts, which often makes for a dull quilt. The Kona Ash is plenty light enough so it makes up for my leaning toward darker fabrics.

All that light background just begs for some interesting quilting. In May, we learned about Wonky Log Cabin blocks. These were fun to make because perfect piecing was not required. Neither was perfect measuring. I enjoyed feeling a bit improvisational while making these blocks.

I was a little disappointed that two sides of my center ended up parallel to the edges on the second one. That took just a bit away from its wonkiness. This version of the Wonky log cabin is essentially string piecing without a foundation so I had to be careful not to stretch or distort my strips as I made my way around the block.

In June, we learned about Modern 9-Patch blocks. It was nice to go back to some standard techniques with these two blocks. I can't say enough good things about this FREE class and the instruction offered with it. Amy Gibson is an excellent teacher. Each month offers a video lesson that runs a little under thirty minutes. My theory on classes is that no matter how skilled you are, there is always something new to learn.

When I'm all caught up, it is hard to wait for the first of the next month to get here. There aren't many more days left this time and in July we'll be learning about Dresden Plates. August is Stars and September is Curved Piecing. Here's how April, May, and June look all together:

Add those to the blocks from January, February, and March...

...and we're well on our way to a quilt!

Patchwork Prism Finished

My first big finish for the year! I am so pleased with the way this quilt turned out. It's one of those quilts where I just had to go with the process. There were certainly times where I thought, "I don't know about this," and I'm glad I didn't hesitate.

This quilt was made "charm" style, meaning there are no fabric repeats in the quilt. It is also made entirely from my stash. The only purchase for this quilt was for the batting. For the quilting, I wanted to accent the fabric without taking away from it so I went with simple quilting 1/4" away from each seam. It's been a while since I quilted something this large so I added extra support around my sewing machine to hold the weight.

The ironing board was lowered to the same height as the sewing machine, and a folding table was set up behind the sewing machine cabinet. It worked great. This really helped the quilt move smoothly through the machine without a lot of pulling and tugging.

I had a few large triangles leftover that didn't make it to the front of the quilt. They worked nicely into the backing which kept them from going to the scrap bin and added some interest to the back of the quilt.

The fabric on the back is a Kona solid. I don't have the exact color name, but I've been calling it cranberry. I also used it for the binding. Here's a close up of some of the quilting as seen from the back.

And here's the finished front.

This quilt was made as part of the Patchwork Prism Quilt Along. The deadline to finish is this month and there are some great prizes for winning participants. That gave me just the motivation to get this one done on schedule.

There are lots of beautiful quilts being finished with this quilt along. Some have used all solids, some have changed the color placement, and there's even one being made in neutrals. I always love seeing how the same pattern can turn out so many different ways. You can check out all the quilts that have been posted by going to the Flickr group.