I have been meaning to learn how to quilt for quite a while now. But, well, I’ve already got enough on my plate and I also didn’t want to have to splash out for a class and a bunch of supplies. Believe me, I was thrilled when I found out about Craftsy free quilt block of the month class. Sure, I still need to buy a few supplies, but no where near as many as I expected, and the class was free. Who doesn’t love the word free?
Firstly, I needed to decide on fabric. After much poking around on the interwebs, I eventually ordered the McKenize fat quarter pack from Freespirit Fabrics, and settled on black for my background fabric. (I got a great deal, of course, on both.)
Honestly, it took me along time to work up the nerve to give the blocks a try. The videos for the class are superb, but my sewing skills are only just sufficient. But, yesterday morning I screwed up my courage and got to work on the four blocks that have been released so far.
The finished size on all the blocks are 12.5″ square (I got a nifty ruler to finish them off, on sale). And, even with my inability to sew a straight line, I managed to get all my blocks the right size.
I’m also pretty happy with my fabric choice. The black and pastels look really great together.
My corners aren’t turning out too well, unfortunately. But, I think my finished product looks pretty good.
Occasionally, I luck out and get a really nice corner, like the one above. But some times…
I end up with something like this. Yikes! And, take a good look at this last block:
What happened in the middle there? Those seams are so far off! Thankfully, I was able to square the block off to 12.5″, so no real harm done, I hope. And, if I’m still unhappy with it at the end of all of this, I will just redo it. I’ve got lots of fabric!
Oh well done you, and in any case I think they look lovely like that, it looks more authentic somehow, you are back in the 1800’s after all and using up old scraps from here there and everywhere, aren’t you. !!
What a pretty project – and being an utter non-quilter, I can only be in awe of your getting the pieces attached to each other in the first place, never mind the corners, lol.
What great progress you have made. For a beginning quilter you have done wonderfully! Keep it up.
And mismatched seams – they work too!!
Nice! You’re right, the colors really do pop against the black.
Well done. Quilting doesn’t have to take a lot of $. One of my favorite things to do is to go to GoodWill and find old patterned shirts, sheets, and whatever I can use for crafts. As long as the fabric isn’t threadbare or stretched out it can be cut up and used for quilting or other projects. 🙂