Random Blocks

Since grades have been submitted and I am out of school for the summer, I have been doing a bit of catching up on various projects. Through the winter semester I was totally faithful about printing out patterns for two projects that interested me, both of which are quilt-alongs. One is a block-of-the-week, the other is block-of-the-month. In quilter's lingo those would be referred to as BOW and BOM.

Making any headway on these two projects just didn't happen while I was teaching, and this first week of the break has given me a chance to breathe a little bit and devote some time to them. It feels really good to work on things without the stress of grades and lessons and deadlines.

The BOM project is hosted by the well-known quilt historian Barbara Brackman. I have followed her blog Material Culture for years because she is so knowledgeable about dating quilts and fabrics. She has hosted many quilt-alongs which I have just watched from the sidelines. The current quilt-along, Antebellum Album Quilt BOM, I am going to try keeping up; a new block pattern is released on the last Wednesday of each month, and it started this past January. Here's the link to the first block which includes some of the details about the quilt-along.

My first block, Wandering Lover, was made way back in February. I shared it on Instagram and even got a comment from Barbara Brackman herself approving of my fabric choices! Whoo-hoo!

Above is block #2. It is called Lend and Borrow. My color is off in the upper right corner of this photo; must be a lighting thing. The truer color for the neutral is what you see in the lower left corner.

And I have also made block #4, Quaker Pride. This was super-easy, as you can see. You also might have noticed that I skipped block #3. It was a template-made design, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get that bugger to print at the proper size. So I will hold off until I can get some technical help. (Usually in the form of my kids!)

Now the second quilt-along, a BOW, is hosted by a pair of quilters I have "met" through Instagram, Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. Both links are to their blogs.In March I made Dovecote, shown below.

I decided to use my leftover scraps called A Day In The Country by Joanna Figueroa and Lisa Quan of Fig Tree Quilts/Moda - ages old stuff. I know I will not have enough to do all the blocks, I may begin searching the interwebs for some bits of this long-lost line.

This week I have made the second block (they've now released 10 or 11 blocks), this one is called Kitty Corner.

If you are trying to figure out where you've seen this fabric before, think back to last year when I was doing my UFO challenge and my July project.

So, one of these days I will get back to houses for my Village quilt, but this week I have just felt like playing around a little bit. It definitely is giving me some steam to get going this summer.

Happy Quilting, Friends!