Building Blocks

It's been a crazy busy few days over here - we keep getting snow which means the children get snow days (and it's only a few centimeters - anyone from a snowier clime would thing it crazy, but there we go, that's the UK snow reaction for you!) and then it takes a few days to catch up with myself.

Yesterday, Little Girl went back to school after a day off and the two Little Boys fell asleep after a busy morning at playgroup/nursery. I very selfishly left them in the buggy sleeping and set to making myself a quiet lunch whilst catching up on some blog reading. It was an unexpected moment of bliss in my day!

The boys woke up as soon as I put the spoon down after my last mouthful of soup but still, I had a very relaxing twenty minutes!!!

This week I've been working on my Skill Builder BOM blocks. I've been quite nervous about doing them as I really love the fabrics I'm using and didn't want to make any mistakes in the placing of my fabrics. I spent a few days pairing my FQs together in different orders, walking away, then coming back and re-arranging them. In the end I gave myself a stern talking too and set to cutting, pressing and piecing.

First up was the Soundwave Block. This is the one that I spent the most time rearranging my fabrics for, starting off with the strips grouped by colour, then lights to darks and eventually just random. I actually made a school boy error in joining my strips together! I'd originally laid them out running in the opposite direction to how they are below (so the colours would have run right to left). I don't think it matters too much though, and no-ones going to know unless I tell them....and you'll keep it a secret for me, won't you?!


It's by no means perfect - I'm not sure that my columns are entirely equal all the way down - but for a first attempt at piecing together 1.5" strips I'm quite pleased. Starching all my pieces before cutting them  out definitely helped on the accuracy front, although I think I might have to find another alternative to the can of spray starch I've been using as that's a bit niffy (VeryKerryBerry mentioned one the other day which I might have to check out, there seems to be a starching revolution going on!!!). Interestingly, when I was talking to my local quilt shop owner the other day, she recommended sewing each row together from opposite directions (eg, top, bottom, top, bottom) to stop the fabric curving, which I think I'll have to try out next time.

Next up was the Magnum block. I was quite nervous about this one, mainly because of using the bold flower print, which although it came in a FQ bundle stood out quite a lot from the other softer and more vintage-y flowery prints. In hindsight, I'm wondering if I should have either done the green and/or brown strip a bit thicker, but I think it works okay. 

There's a fair bit of balance in bold print vs. block of colour though so I'm going to stick with it - in the past I've unpicked things and fiddled with them only to realise that it's not made that bigger difference, so I'm going to leave it as is this time!

I'm really enjoying my first ever BOM and it's great doing it alongside lots of other people too as everyone has interpreted them slightly differently and used so many fantastic colour combinations. Sometimes it feels a bit like eating out at a restaurant though....I've spent ages perusing the menu (the fabric shop!), ordered my meal (fabric choices!) and then, when the waiter brings out everyone's dishes there's a slight moment of 'ooooh, there's looks soooooo good, maybe I should have ordered that instead?!'

Next week, we start on the FMQ as we're doing Quilt As You Go, which should be interesting. And if you'd like to check out some of the other amazing blocks then do go and have a look at the flickr group 

I hope you all have fun crafty plans for the weekend - mine is to finish off the sky blanket and maybe make up a top....I've got my sewing groove back!

Sx

Todays sky ● white and chilly cold, no extra snow yet though!


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