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Archive for the category “Block of the Month”

20 Jun 2014

Thistleberry Block 3 Churn Dash

Wow, the vacation has spiraled out of control. Children coming in to visit, children going out, in-laws having some rough patches. As I write this my vacation is coming to a close with the end of the week and I don’t feel I’ve rested as much as I should have, nor completed enough of the projects I wanted to.

The one thing I did complete was the block 3 Churn Dash and it at least turned out beautiful!

Starting with five sets of fabric I started making the nine squares.

Then turned them into strips and finally the square is complete!

Posted in Block of the Month, Blogs, Daily and tagged beginner, block of the month, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sew, sewing

27 May 2014

1 Comment

Thistleberry Quilt Block 2

With Block 2, what you see is what you get. You are given 16 strips of four colors and after figuring out the scant seam that I needed to use, went together fairly quickly.

Sewing the blocks together proved a little tricky, but I managed to get the corners together after five minutes of wrangling and a little bit of seam ripping.

And here is the second finished block!! Two down and 10 to go!!

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, How to, Quilt-a-long and tagged beginner, block of the month, blogging, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Thistleberry

11 May 2014

12 Comments

Thistleberry Quilt Block 1

Starting a new block-of-the-month courtesy of Joann Fabrics. The newest one out of the gate is Thistleberry. This pattern is again from quiltblocks© and I have to say they have another hit in my opinion. The finished quilt will measure 76 ½” x 93 ½” and has the setting kit, binding, and backing kit available as well as the 12 monthly blocks for purchase.

The patterns are very unique and the color scheme is fantastic. I’ve already put the first block together and it looks great.

The difficulty level of this quilt on a scale from 1 to 5 would have to be a two. The patterns are beautiful and the colors reminiscent of Easter. I’ve passed on the last three patterns put out for Joann Fabrics and am pleased to say I’ll be putting this one together.

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, How to, Quilt-a-long, Uncategorized and tagged beginner, block of the month, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Thistleberry

15 Jun 2013

11 Comments

Persian Plum gone Wrong

The sabbatical is over and I’m making some changes to my site in the near future. It is said that the only constant is change and with that I’ve decided to change from my slothful nature and get back to posting what I’ve been up to.

All of the monthly blocks of the Persian Plum block of the month square are completed. When I opened the setting kit it was with a lot of trepidation. As I flipped through the fabric I was extremely disappointed that some of the fabric hadn’t been cut properly. I promised that I wouldn’t go off on a rant about it and proceeded to just make it work. It was so disheartening that I have taken a lot of time to put this together only to find more work for myself to correct the manufacture’s mistakes.

Because of this and my general nature of needing to have multiple projects going at the same time, I completed what I’m calling my “Chopsticks Quilt” and am still plugging along with the “Oh Canada” quilt that I started the year before. I found while going through fabric with my wife a mini-quilt that she started but hadn’t bound and asked that I be able to hand quilt it for her. Yes, another project!! It brightened my mood and I’m almost a third done with that one now.

Back to the Persian Plum however, she’s been helping me piece the other squares together in return for hand quilting her mini. We’ve just about completed all of the other squares from the setting kit and should be finished piecing those this evening. I’ll post up Blocks 11 and 12 over the next couple of days to give an idea of what the collection looks like.

Until next time,

Posted in Block of the Month, Blogs, Daily, Reviews and tagged block of the month, blogging, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, manage, project, purple, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sew, sewing, shopping

22 Jan 2013

3 Comments

Are you like a crazy person?

I love the world of quilting. I love to design, sew, and finish these wonderful projects. I am especially fond of having a finished product to admire at the end of all my hard work. The flurry of the holidays is long since passed for me and my time is starting to open back up ever so slightly. If I am to be perfectly honest, I’ve noticed that something has been missing in my life, a certain lack that when I tried to pinpoint exactly what it was, I realized that I hadn’t created anything new at all for over two months.

Does anyone else feel the same when life has “caught them up”? Given the fact that the holidays are a busy time for both work and life in general, I sacrificed one of my passions to make room for others. It’s the dance we do when a choice has to be made.

The Persian Plum that I started last year will be complete by next weekend and then it’s off to the quilters. Between then and now, I have two flannel blankets that simply need to be bound and they will be complete as well. I should have pictures up of those by tomorrow.

To everyone reading… Thank you for all your wonderful comments, they mean a great deal to me and are very much appreciated.

Sew Happy!!

Posted in Block of the Month, Blogs, Daily and tagged beginner, Binding, block of the month, blogging, Christmas, Christmas quilt, crafts, Fabric, learning, manage, project, purple, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Sew, sewing, Sewing machine

17 Aug 2012

6 Comments

Joann Fabric’s Persian Plum Block 10

Persian Plum Block 10 had so many little pieces of fabric. It had me thinking how I was going to be able to make a block big enough.

Sewing them together I had to make eight flying geese. They were so small and cute, but the fabric is so thick it took a little to get the seams ironed down.

Then sewing everything together the block looked so nice, don’t you agree?

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, Quilt-a-long, Reviews and tagged beginner, block of the month, blogging, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, manage, project, purple, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review

15 Aug 2012

6 Comments

Joann Fabric’s Persian Plum Block 9 Block of the Month

Thought I’d start out with this picture… I saw these outside of a restaurant near the downtown area and couldn’t believe how uplifting a patch of flowers can be.

It’s past time to finish and review Block 9 for Joann Fabric’s Persian Plum Block of the Month. I am excited about getting this quilt finished, the fabric is so heavy and will make a fantastic, long-lasting quilt that I’ll really be able to enjoy during those cold winter months.

Block 9 is ALL triangles and as beautiful as any of the rest of the blocks. This one went together very easily and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

And then the it was finished and I am only three blocks from the end!

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, Reviews and tagged beginner, block of the month, blogging, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, manage, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review, Sew, sewing

20 Jul 2012

Joann Fabric’s Persian Plum Block 8

Block 8 for the Persian Plum was definitely an easier block to put together than block 7 was, at least for me. It was fun and went together in less than 30 minutes!

I can hardly wait to see all of these blocks together in what I hope is going to be a beautiful quilt. Let me know what you think of this one.

Here is the fabric that came with the kit:

And then the sewing began…

Here is the block almost finished

And here’s the finished block

I took a break from my quilt to put this block together and you can see the reviews of my post for the previous blocks

Posted in Block of the Month, Blogs, Daily, Reviews and tagged beginner, block of the month, blogging, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review | Leave a comment

14 Jul 2012

2 Comments

Joann Fabric Persian Plum Block 7

Block 7 was a real challenge and I almost took it completely apart and put it back together. The quality control for my cut pieces left a little to be desired. I would say that 80% of the pieces were cut to the proper dimensions, but it was the 20% that gave me fits. When I started to put this block of the month quilt together however, I promised myself to use what was in the kit only and see how the quilt turned out.

The pieces supplied had me scratching my head for a little while… as a guy I tried to see how everything would go together without looking at the instructions. I think that is hard-coded into our DNA! After looking at the instructions though, I quickly started putting the block together.

It was at this point that I realized that the pieces where going to be a little off-center which I tried to correct. It didn’t turn out bad, just didn’t go together as seamlessly as the other blocks had.

And here is the block in comparison to the picture of it

Posted in Block of the Month, Daily, How to, Reviews and tagged beginner, block of the month, blogging, crafts, Fabric, joann, Joann Fabrics, learning, project, quilt, Quilting, Quilts, Review

02 Jul 2012

6 Comments

Persian Plum Block of the Month 6

I did everything I promised myself I would do this weekend. Yes!!! The Arbor Lane quilt is finished and I’ll post a pic of that one tomorrow along with the nursery quilt that I also finished. I even had time to start the week out right by finishing and being able to post this morning the Joann Fabrics Persian Plum block of the month quilt block #6.

This was an interesting block of flying geese. I will mention right now that no matter how I sew this together I’ve never quite go the hang of having the finished size come out good. The length is always correct, but the height is off by 1/4″ almost every time. We persevere though, don’t we?

It came complete as has all the blocks to this point. The measurements were correct and the instructions clear. The colors I will still say are the most striking aspect of this quilt and flying geese is the motif.

Then we just sew them in the correct configuration for the block

Le me know how yours turned out. Mine ended up being about a 1/4″ off, but I’ll fix that when I go to put them all together. Here’s the comparison to the way it’s supposed to turn out.