April Blocks of the Month, Hexy Quilt Progress

Not For Paper

April has not been a good month for me block wise,  I guess it's only halfway through the month but phew!

First the block for the And Sew On... BOM at Quiet Play was titled either “Snip It Real Good”. or “Not for Paper"  I'm going with the second because don't want to associate this block with vasectomies, for realz!  I need to go back and fix up the seam for this, but I'm feeling very rushed so not in a hurry to do so.  Never mind that my fabric choices...phew.  See how small that picture is?  yeah, that is how much I don't want

Black Hole Star

April's block for the Lucky Stars BOM  is Black Hole Star. I like it OKish, I wanted to add some darker colors into the mix, but because of the layout, I didn't use any of the Moda Bella in Sand in it, it doesn't tie into the other blocks at all.  The measurements given for one of the outer pieces were a itsy bit too small and so that caused some issues too. I might see how it looks with Sand as sashing.

I've been making slow progress on my 1" hexagon lap quilt, I can tell its going to be...eccentric.  Hey it almost covers my knees now, that's something! ;)

January through April Luck Stars Blocks

March's Blocks

March "Just Spoolin' Around" for And Sew On...

This month got away from me, luckily its been busy with good things, not bad.  I finally hunkered down to do my BoM's though.

First was the Just Spoolin' Around block for the And Sew On... BOM at Quiet Play. 

Didn't think a ton about what to use fabric wise, and didn't pull my other blocks out to make sure they'd all work together either, but that's just how I roll.

The background is busier than I planned but, live and learn (or don't learn, Im not gonna tell you what to do).




March's block for the Lucky Stars BOM  is called Ninja Star.  Wish there'd been a bit more fabric at the corners, since they'll be cut off when its sewn together, but at least it seems to be a pattern issue and not user error from what I can tell from flickr (for once ;)  This went together really easily for me all things considered.  There were less places to match and although I see it's a bit off kilter, I'm happy with it.

I do see that I need to PRESS and not iron if I don't want to see the stitches though, and I REALLY need to stop using white thread in the bobbins!

March Lucky Stars BoM - Ninja Star

I'm likely to do some blocks from the Forest QAL co-hosted between Shape Moth and Sewing under RAINBOW, it looks kick ass.  I'm just not in a hurry since I wont be making a finished quilt (it's judged, ya know!) but the first two blocks are intricate and beautiful so hopefully I can make time for them.

February Blocks

I managed to my blocks for a couple of BOM's done this weekend.

And Sew On... February block

First was "You Little Ripper" for the And Sew On... BOM at Quiet Play.  I was nervous because it's the first time I've done such little pieces in paper piecing, but it worked ou OK. When I sewed the sections together, the seam ripper didn't line up.  I grabbed an actual seam ripper, took it apart, sewed it back together with about the same results (it does look more crooked in person) so I'm just going to let it be.  Once I have all the blocks done I will probably feel up to fixing any of my errors that will bother me if left as is.

With the learning curve for all these bits I'm being pretty random in my fabric selection, but there are a couple of blocks I really love from this series that I plan on making second ones of after I've gotten through the trial and error phase, and I'll have a better idea how to choose just the right prints for them then.

Lucky Stars BOM - January

After looking at my January block for the Lucky Stars BOM and really thinking about print choices, decided I probably wouldn't be happy with the results at the end if I didn't switch to solids.  Since I'd gotten the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons without a plan in mind for them, I thought they might work well for this, so I redid January's and made February's in the same night..

Getting the hang of paper piecing seems more difficult some days than others (I still keep forgetting to read directions...) I actually made blocks backwards..TWICE since I wasn't reversing the imagine in my head as I went, so I have two extra blocks from February's star.



 

Lucky Stars BOM - February

On the bright side it encouraged me to get busy thinking of my quilt back design and how to incorporate them, so at least they won't go to waste! 

Things aren't lining up and matching perfectly for me all the time, and neither of my January blocks seem to have quite enough of a seam allowance for two points (top and bottom ones in the above picture).  On top of that the shot cottons are thinner than a lot of quilting cottons, and seem a bit more prone to wrinkle up as I sew them, but I like how they are looking so far and I imagine the fabrics will look absolutely gorgeous on sunny days!

January BoM's & A New Sewing Machine

I'd been using a inexpensive Brother Project Runway I got when I decided to try making clothes a couple years ago.  It has a 5 inch harp, which has been a pain for FMQ.   My husband suggested I get a more quilt friendly machine since apparently this isn't a passing fancy.  As he's not as budget focused as I am, his suggestion for a spending threshold was pretty generous.

I almost got a Janome 6500 (since there's the option to get a long arm if we ever move to a place big enough to hold it!) and seriously, that was tempting.  Really really tempting.  Then I considered a couple of less expensive Juki's, but they were straight line stitching only.  As I do want to do garment stitching still but not switch between two machines all the time, I decided to go for practical and thriftier, and got a Singer Quantum Stylist.   It comes with like...15 feet!  Tons of great reviews on Amazon, and it's perfect for garment sewing, and it has a nice extension table for quilting.   And I <3 the automatic thread cutter.  I think it was quite a practical purchase for under $350.

I've only sewn a bit with it so far but I'm very happy with the upgrade. I got to use the lettering option to sew "BITE ME!  The feed dogs are great, with my Brother I'd have to move a lot of quilt blocks manually a bit at a time for them to catch and start, so with all the layers the practice block for the Lucky Stars BoM was quite difficult, but this Singer easily moved along the foundation paper pieced blocks, even when there were seams on each side pointing in different directions. 

So with my happy new machine I finished blocks for Lucky Stars and And Sew On...

The "Measure Twice" for the And Sew On BoM was a nice simple block & the second foundation paper pieced item I've done (the first being the practice block for Lucky Stars).

I didn't have any ruler fabric around, so I used my machine to make a crappy looking ruler!

Wasn't sure what direction I was going to go in for fabric, but I guess I will be making sweeter softer color choices for this project. (A good way to use up some of my fabrics I wouldn't usually use!)




The January "Lucky Stars" was not quite so easy for me.  I started sewing without reading the directions... ya, that's me.  Then on one square I sewed the fabrics onto the wrong sections.  I sewed on the wrong lines more than once too. Embarrassing! ;)

I still have a lot to learn about how to choose fabric combos, and there is a good chance I will remake this block at some point, as I'm not thrilled with the butterfly fabric in this application.

Turquoise, bright greens, yellows, pinks and creams are going to be my colors for this quilt.  Since I used red & sienna instead of pink those may be other good reasons to revisit this block.



I was worried BoM's would take up too much time, but I think I will be able to get lots of other projects done too, even with the other BoM and Curves class going on.  And my Singer just sewed these together like a dream.  I think I'm going to go pet it for awhile and think of a name for it.