Needlework Tuesday - Blocks Abound

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share my current needlework projects and their progress or lack of progress.  You are invited  grab the cute little mouse, add him to your post and then leave me a comment with the link.  I find is a great way to gain and share encouragement in stitching.

 

Welcome to my many new readers and followers.  Continuing till the weekend is the Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop hosted by the Quilting Gallery.  There is still time to join the hop and visit the blogs of more than 200 participants. As a bonus, every blog is hosting a quilt related giveaway.  For those who haven't entered my giveaway, be sure to follow this link to my post.

 

In the blog hop post I showed you a little star block I was working on.  They have grown and turned into log cabin blocks.  Measure 9 inches.

Add a bit of sashing and I now have a wall hanging measuring 27 x 39 inches.  The pattern is Serendipity designed by Pix Martin of Cardinal Street patterns. The pattern is available through Kallisti Quilts.
 Not sure how I will quilt this.  I could go traditional and stitch along each log, but I am thinking swirls or something loopy.

Each year at my local guild, each member pieces a block for our president.  This year she has chosen white and blue.  This block is called "Flag Day" and is from the book Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts by Judy Martin.  Judy offers the most unique block patterns.  To see presidential blocks and quilt from previous years, visit this post.  This book has also been adapted to an EQ7 add-on software program.  I've bought it, though still have to install it on my computer.

Block of the Month programs seem to be a main stay with quilters.  We love them as we get to try something different with every block, yet we hate them, because once we've pieced our block, then we have to wait a whole month for the next block.  I have started a new BOM at my local shop, Reichard's The Quilter's Store.  It is called Building Blocks and its by Sharyn Craig.  Each month we get a pattern, but it is uncoloured.  We get to chose where to put our lights, darks and mediums.  The back page is for colouring, though I have put my block into Electric Quilt and coloured it there.  This month I pieced two variations of the block named "Hammer and Nails".
 The colouring on the first block is a bit off, the colours in the second block are more accurate.

To make my piecing more accurate, I cut my pieces using these templates from Marti Michell: 1, 4, 5, 6 from set A.  I find cutting with the templates, while it takes longer, I get more accurate results.   We were told that we will be using the same templates each month, though new sizes may be added as well.

Previously I started a BOM with my local guild. It is called Quilter's Celebration Mystery Quilt and it is from Border Creek Station.  I haven't shown too much about it as it is a new mystery quilt and there are many people making it. I don't want to post too many photos here and spoil the surprise.  This is my block from baggie C.  We finished it after clue 4.  I have now completed clue 5, but this piece didn't change.  Sherri, the designer, will be the guest at my guild in June and we are supposed to have our tops finished by then.   I'll be taking lots of  photos that day and will eventually post them to my blog.

 

Do you participate in mystery quilts?  Leave a comment as I'd love to know why or why not.

 

Next week I'll be back with the results from the questions: What is your favourite quilt block? that I asked of the visitors during the blog hop.

 

Tami at Just One More Thing, is musing over her UFO's.  Drop by and encourage her to focus on one.