My First 7 Tula Pink Saltwater BOM Blocks!

Happy Saturday!  I meant to get this post up yesterday, but had some sad news in the morning that made me slow down and hug my kids a little more.  I found out that a friend of ours from our graduating high school class passed away suddenly on Thursday. It was quite a shock to my system to see someone I grew up with, the same age as me, just leave this earth so suddenly.  I know that it happens everyday to the best and worst of people, but it is still so sad to see.  Once I heard, I grabbed up my boys and spent the afternoon reading and snuggling a bit more than usual.  Good thing my youngest two are great snuggle-bunnies!

As I’ve posted earlier, I am taking the free Craftsy BOM 2012 class.  Every month there are two blocks to complete and a new skill to learn with them.  Amy from Stitchery Dickory Dock teaches the class and I really like her style of teaching.  I highly recommend this class if you want to learn to quilt!  My quilt will be made with the Tula Pink Saltwater line, Kona Cotton in a few complimentary colors, and RK’s Essex Linen in Natural. I wanted to share what I have done so far…..so without further delay:

January Blocks:  Slashed Blocks.  One asterick and the other she calls a “wonky” pound sign. I really had fun playing around with that block. Plus, I like the word wonky!

February Blocks:  Half-Square Triangles.  This one was a bit more tricky. After a few seam-ripper incidents I finally got it.  I must say a thank you to Amy for telling us to cut our background squares and often other pattern pieces a bit larger.  This way when everything is stitched and done, you can trim it down to the 12 1/2″ square you need and get rid of weird edges. Not that I’ve had any…

March Blocks: Foundation Piecing.  This was my FAVORITE month.  It was so much fun watch these blocks evolve.  The block on the left has the backing fabric left on to piece over.  The block on the right she had us cut out backing fabric to start the piecing on, then cut it away to complete the rest of the block. It was an interesting difference, but I found that I liked the weight of the block better when I left the backing fabric on.

April Blocks:  English Paper Piecing. This is where I’m currently at. I had never done any sort of piecing before, so I struggled a bit here and there.  I never realized how time consuming each hexie was until I started working on this! Now I truly understand why all these great quilting blogs I follow bring their hexie bags with them on vacation! This is the first completed block.  I chose to hand stitch the hexies together then machine stitch them to the fabric.  Blind stitching and I do not get a long, thus machine stitching took over.  I am halfway done with the second hexie block, this time I used a fabric dot to glue the fabric to the paper……I realllly like this glue method….

Well, I’m off to watch youngest start his very first Tae-Kwon-Do class. His older brother has his First-Degree Black Belt so it’s going to feel like old times waiting in the parent room.  Have a great weekend everyone!