Block of the Month

I've become quite fond of a few FB Groups.  When you do most of your quilts by hand, you have to search out kindred spirits. The FB Groups provide me with quilters that have something in common with me.   Quilters are indeed on the rise, but hand work is still a small minority. I've joined a number of groups that are strictly for hand working quilters; but I've also joined several groups that are not exclusively hand work but are at least excepting of quilters who work by hand. 

One of these groups, Quilters Block of the Month is not all hand piecers and maybe not any but I like the group and the challenge of making at least one block a month is fun  The blocks the group presents come from Quilters Cache.   The group has divided the BOM into Easy, Intermediate, and Advanced.  They have also presented a number of alternate blocks. I'm hand piecing the blocks....no surprise here.

First I recreated the blocks on EQ7 and played with the colors.  It also gave me a better understanding of the pieces I needed to make the block.

Then I checked out  Cathi's List  on Inklingo.  This gave me the collections I would need to make this block with Inklingo.

From there I then printed the shapes I needed and hand pieced them together. 

Each block is 12 inch square.  The first block I prepared is called Four Winds (an alternate block on the FB Group) by the people at Quilter's Cache.  The block was easily broken up into 2 inch sections.  I used Inklingo Collections that I already owned.  If you wish to do this block you will need 2 inch half square triangles and 2 inch squares. 

The photo directly below shows my string piecing process.  String piecing makes hand piecing go faster, just as string piecing moves things along when you are machine piecing.  Down in the bottom left corner of the photo you can see a print out of my EQ7 rendition of the block. I needed this to follow the block pattern.

Four Winds Process of Piecing

Here is the finished block.

Four Winds Block Finished



This first block went so quickly that I decided to piece the January Block as well.  Named Arrowheads by Quilter's Cache, this block can also be divided into sections that are found in various Inklingo Collections.

Arrowheads Block Finished
Rotation Spinning Counter Clockwise

The Quilter's Cache block spins clockwise.  I made mine spinning counter clockwise.

The Arrowheads block is made of 1.5 inch squares, 3 inch triangles, 1.5 inch triangles. and 2.12 inch triangles.  If you want to piece this block using Inklingo, head off to Cathi's List for the collections you will need.

I plan to make the rest of the blocks using this same method so I spent time recreating the blocks in EQ7 so that I can continue to play with color way and possible changes.  Love EQ really because it allows for so much creativity. I love Inklingo because it allows me to piece with ease and accuracy.