June – Block of the Month

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You may have noticed that this BOM is a bit late to the party…this is for several reasons, but mainly,  my two year old began teething with her 2 year old molars and it has not been fun.  My obligations should not impact your sewing adventure and for this, I do apologize!

I feel like I’ve had a very successful experience completing new blocks for my personalized sampler quilt…I hope you have too!  How is your new sewing adventure going?

We’ve completed the Garlic Knots block, the Rosebud block, Uneven 9 Patch, Sawtooth Star, and even Flying Geese!  Time for another variation to add to my quilt top.  This month, I’m choosing pinwheels! Well, it’s a modified pinwheel I guess.  I of course, found this block while searching on Pinterest for new and great ideas to share.

I saw this and my heart screamed “YES!”.  I love it.  Absolutely love it.  Not quilt sure why…perhaps because it also has a star around the pinwheel?  Don’t you love it too?

Image from aquiltinglife.com

I clicked the link on Pinterest because when I saw this image I had to find out more about this blogger.  I simply love her style.  Now these are not my colors for my BOM sampler quilt…not at all.  But I still love it!

I have much brighter colors for my BOM quilt I’m making with all of you.  Which colors did you pick?  Comment below your colors!  I’d love to see the different color combinations everyone is using.

Image from A Quilting Life Blog 

Back to the blogger – Check her out here: A Quilting Life Blog.  I did see another block she made and I’m dying to make it too!  It may next month’s block!  Here’s the other one I just love!

Don’t you love it?!  I do…If I can find the tutorial on her page, I’ll share it with you all.  So far, I’ve had no luck…Seems there is a gap in blog posts from 2018 skips backwards to 2012.  I’m sure it’s user error but I hope I can figure it out.  If you find it, put the link in the comments.

I feel that we should all share our favorite quilt and sewing bloggers with each other.  Quilters/Sewers support quilters/sewers!  I love scouring the internet and finding someone awesome and sharing them with you!  Everybody has something to learn and with the amazing fabrics, we can really have lots of great things to enjoy with each other.

Back to our BOM!

I pulled out my box of fabrics I have stashed for this quilt top and I’m looking for colors that have not been used a lot already…I try to keep my projects organized in different boxes or tubs for easy clean up and easy to pull out for more fun when creativity starts!  My mom cleaned out her classroom and had a ton of plastic tubs with lids of various sizes.  She gave me a ton of them…and I simply wiped them out, let them dry, and labeled them for my projects: Scraps (to be cut), 2.5″ squares, 2.5″ strips, MCCL BOM (this project), J’s quilt project, and many others…This has truly helped me stay on top of projects and keep my sewing area some what cleaner and more organized.

This block was so easy to layout…unknown to me, I had all of the pieces already cut out!  How did I do that?  Well, I tend to go overboard when cutting with my AccuQuilt Fabric Cutter.  Why only cut one layer when the fabric is already folded?  Weird, I know.  Thankfully, I keep all the extra pieces in a small plastic bag inside my box for my BOM project.  I just pulled them out and it seemed like I had a ton of half square triangles.  Almost all of my extra pieces were HSTs from 2.5 squares.

So I used what I had and this month, I’m all about the orange colors shining bright in my quilt.

To make this block I used 12 orange HSTs (from 2.5″ squares), 16 neautral/white HSTs (from 2.5″ squares), and 4 color popping HSTs (from 2.5″ squares) for the corners.  I added a border around it as you will see later using 2.5″ strips.

I simply sewed a 1/4″ seam (SCANT) to match up the squares.

Then I pressed the seams to the darker colored fabrics and laid them out in the correct block format for sewing.

I noticed here that the block will not be a 12″ finished block in the quilt (or 12.5″ unfinished) and decided I would sew it up anyway.  It looks like it is 8.5″ unfinished…and so if it’s 8″ finished, a 2.5″ strip border all the way around will make it a 12.5″ unfinished block for my quilt top.  This is also becoming style marker for this quilt.  I want every other quilt block to have a border around it.  I have blocks with a neutral/white & gray border and a purple border.

I sewed the squares together going across to make each row…I chain stitched each row together.

Sew the blocks in pairs and then sew across building the row.  Press your seams to the darker fabrics throughout this entire block.

Then I sewed the rows together…

If you’re like me, I was concerned with the two middle rows.  It just didn’t look right.  I felt like I should take them apart and try to resew them to make them line up better or just plan correctly.  I checked my seams and they seamed right though…so I continued.  And I encourage you to do so as well.

I started with the middle rows frankly because I was concerned my points wouldn’t line up and if they didn’t line up, why even bother with the top and bottom rows?  I pinned as carefully as I could to make sure they would line up and be beautiful.  After I sewed it together, I set it on my ironing board, used Best Press on the seam, set the seam, then opened it up with all my fingers and toes crossed hoping that my center points were right….
AND THEY WERE!  Except…it still wasn’t right!  So I checked my picture again and had to fix the top right pair of squares and turn them correctly.  Somehow they got turned…

With that fixed, I added the top and bottom rows, matching points and seemed to go together very well!

I really love this block but with it sewn together…it’s not the right size for my sampler quilt!  So, time to add to the size!  I took a simple 2.5″ strip after I auditioned fabrics in my project box and once deciding – I just sewed them around the block.  I have developed the preference of sewing the sides on first and then having the top and bottom sewn on to complete the border.  That is exactly what I did.

Border sides sewn on but still trimming…

Final block! 

Now it’s the right size!!  I’m pretty happy with the orange and yellow popping in this block.  I think it will be a great addition to my sampler quilt.

I hope you enjoy this block as much as I did!  Don’t forget to share your blocks on social media using the hashtags #mcclbom & #mycharmedcabinlifebom!  And don’t forget to tag @aquiltinglife too!  I’m sure she would love to see all of our blocks from her patterns!

I like this block so much I think I’m going to make it again larger without the borders…I think 3.5″ squares will work!  I’ll give it a try and share it with you later this month.

Happy Quilting!

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About Sew Much Charm

I enjoy gardening, quilting, sewing, & cooking as a relatively new stay-at-home mom of two girls.

I make custom handmade quilts for clients and recently decided to learn how to sew garments for my little girls.  Watch my journey & learn from my mistakes.

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