Making my mystery block of the month: April

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and yesterday I shared the test blocks which I made into my sixth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the friendship star block I made for my own quilt.

I had a feeling that this month would be another star block, after all there’d been the cute houses, the vintage star and then the heart last month - and I wasn’t wrong, was I? So I suspect that the alternate months will also be stars, and so I formulated another plan, in that I’d use the navy materials for all the stars using these blocks to ‘punctuate’ my quilts.

I don’t know if I’m right, but I do know that next month’s block isn’t a star, so I’ve a fifty-fifty chance when the next block is released at the start of June, haven’t I?

Anyway, with navy chosen and with my test blocks completed more easily than I expected, I was ready to get going. In fact so much so, that I only stopped to take a picture once it was completely assembled.

I’m about to blow my own trumpet here, but I was really pleased with how the points lined up with the centre square of the star, and I was keeping most things crossed to see how the outer points worked out when I added the outer borders.

Back to the original border fabrics

Last month I spent some time pondering whether or not to introduce new green fabrics into the borders, even drawing myself a scribbled plan. And that helped, a lot. It meant that this month I knew that this block was the first block on my second row of the finished quilt, and so the borders needed to be the original greens.

Though I did need to lay them out and double check that before attaching them.

Happy with that, and they were soon attached.

And look, I kept all the points too. I’m super happy with how this one turned out, points and all - though I’m sure this is more by luck than judgement, but also because the more I sew I seem to gain in competence and confidence.

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.

Making my mystery block of the month: March

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and yesterday I shared the test blocks which I made into my fifth charity quilt, today I’m sharing the fabulous and quick to make heart block I made for my own quilt.

For this block I was keen to use the yellow patterned fabric, so that’s what I did. I also realised that I had some fabric from the first block already cut which was the correct width, so that made it an easy choice for the background. I was pleased that this block looked to be relatively straightforward as somehow time was short this month, I’m not sure why.

I do love some chain sewing, it really speeds things up - and with its relatively simple construction it worked well for this block.

I even managed to trim all of the heart blocks I made - this one and the four test blocks - correctly, managing to not cut off the wrong piece of material, so that’s a bonus.

Pondering while adding the borders

I’m really pleased with how this simple but effective block has turned out. The more eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that the fabrics for the green borders are different this month, and that involved a lot of pondering. But during that pondering I’ve also found a new way to store the completed blocks - with a skirt hanger, which is just as well as my niece has now collected my old sewing machine and I can no longer drape the blocks over that!

I’m pretty sure that I won’t have enough of the green fabrics from the first two blocks to complete the whole quilt, and my plan all along was to use complementing fabrics for the green borders. But I didn’t want to use those just when I’d run out, as I wanted to incorporate the changing patterns into my design, and I realised this was the month to start that.

But I still needed to convince myself, and so a hastily mocked up version of the final layout confirmed that it needed to be this month whichever layout I opt for in the end. Additionally Sherri released more information about the sashing, which are borders in between the blocks, this month and where I previously thought I might need four blocks across, now I think I probably can manage with three - next month’s the crunch month for that decision though.

THIS MOCKUP OF THE BORDERS REALLY HELPED

And so, here’s a peek at how the first three blocks look together - I think the quilt is going to be a gem, but then again I am slightly biased!

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my previous posts for my mystery block quilt or the charity quilts made from the test blocks.

Making my mystery block of the month: February

You’ll have seen that I plan to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt and earlier this week I shared the test blocks which I made into my fourth charity quilt, and today I’m sharing the vintage star block I made for my own quilt.

I’ve chosen the three fabrics with navy backgrounds for my block, and a more densely patterned pale background fabric. Thankfully I remembered my learnings from the test blocks, despite my hesitation to get going with my own block.

I wasn’t sure how this one would go, as I shared in the earlier post that matching the seams on my test blocks had been, well variable. And it’s a great block, but I didn’t find it as enjoyable to make this one, but - spoiler alert - it turned out pretty well and I think it’s probably the best version I’ve done.

Phew. And isn’t that often the way?!

Adding the borders

For this block I’ve used the same fabrics for my borders as for my January block, but I’ve reversed their placement so when the quilt is assembled the greens are together. I suspect that I might need to make some adjustments to the planned layout at some point so that my quilt is wider than it’s long, as I already know that I want to use this on a double bed. It may mean that I make extra blocks at the end of the year, but there’s plenty of time to work that out.

Doesn’t it look great?

I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and like the patterned star against the light background.

And I was even more pleased when I placed it alongside January’s block of the month. I think that when it’s done the quilt is going to be pretty special.

Join me next month to see how I get on with the next mystery block, and check out my posts which contain charity quilts made from the test blocks.