Cspoonquilt

Lynn over at http://kleinmeisjequilts.blogspot.com  has been making a whole bunch of boat blocks! I took a screen pic to pique your curiosity.  Check out Lynn's blog she's got a bunch of recent posts with some great projects. I just love the way these blocks look together!  Picking a good BOM is hard but I think this one really holds up to the test of 'what works'. Next month I'm kicking the idea around of a Scrappy Modern block.  We'll see... Thanks to Lynn for linking with me it's been fun seeing her collections of boat blocks grow! Cheers, CW

The genesis of choosing this block for BOM was a picture of a quilt from one of Barbra Brackman's blogs.  Here's the link: http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2015/03/symbolism-in-abolition-quilt.html I liked the quilt right off and the thing that made me think it might make a good BOM is that it really did not seem to make a difference what the background was (as long as the sails and background had good contrast) because the bright solid sail boats are really what catches and holds your attention.  I figured maybe I could supply a batch of solids for continuity and the fun could be in choosing the prints! I started by making some sample blocks. Well, yes, I got a little carried away but they were so much fun to make I just kept experimenting with background prints and they all seemed to play well together! So here's how I put these blocks together to get accurate 10.5" blocks unfinished. Cutting instructions: From the solid: cut 1- 3.5" ...

This month I start a year long commitment to provide the BOM (Block of the Month) for my local guild.  I will be posting each project the second Monday of each month.  So I have been thinking a lot about accuracy and that 1/4 inch thing.  Accuracy is not a huge issue for most of the kind of piecing that I like to do but for some and particularly people receieving the winnings of the BOM it can be a big deal.  So I thought I would do a pre-BOM post about how to check ones 1/4".  If you are new to the game, have trouble getting things to turn out the right size or if you are like me with a new machine this is a worth while exercise! I recently bought an old model Singer from my friend  Randy .  It's such a cute little machine I could not resist!!  And since my Bernina is in the shop this week I got out the 301A to give her a test run. This machine did not have a 1/4 inch foot.  The seam allownances are marked on the metal throat plate...