It’s time for the May Crossroads Quilt Along! I have been having so much fun with Kimberly Jolly’s quilt along, I am so glad my friend invited me on this journey. In fact we sewed along together via phone this month and it was wonderful.
Here are my Family Blocks;
The Fat Quarter Shop’s Crossroad Quilt along benefits the March of Dimes. Please join along or donate if you can.
Special thanks to my daughter who was my photographer for tonight’s blog.
What a perfect name for the block I am working on for the Crossroads Quilt Along this month, especially after my last post about Community.
But first, I want to show you this nifty gadget I picked up on clearance from Craftsy.
It’s a handy little seam guide! Do you see the fraction markings? Right next to them is a hole you can put your needle into on the sewing machine.
Like so;
I was able to make sure my quarter inch foot marking was really marking a quarter inch. I’ve noticed my needle can be slightly off center sometimes. But it looks good here.
I used the ruler to mark the machine with masking tape.
I was curious to see if having a longer mark for the 1/4 inch guide would help on my blocks. It didn’t hurt.
Also I used it to mark the diagonals on the small squares for the Friendship blocks. It has the perfect mitered edge for just a task.
Time to sew!
My blocks this month lost some points. I pulled apart and redid pieces many times. In the end I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I even went outside for a fancy photoshoot with them.
Remember, the Crossroads Quilt Along is raising money towards the March of Dimes. Please donate if you are able!
Now that the Crossroads blocks are done, I am (im)patiently waiting for the mini size from Sondra Davison of Out of the Blue Quilts. I am picking out and starching fabrics tonight!
Also, it is almost time for a special arrival!!!!!
I’ve signed up for the monthly Sew Sampler from Fat Quarter Quilts. The very first one ships this week and I can’t wait to share with you the surprises I find inside. I’m looking forward to trying out new notions and tools and giving you all an honest review of it all.
There are so many other projects I am working on too. I can’t wait to share them all with you.
Here is the next mini Crossroads block from Sondra Davison. The last one I made, I tried something new for me. I tried something new for me this time as well. I tried out fussy cutting fabric for the block. It took some doing, especially as the square was only one and three quarter inches big, but I am happy with the results.
The sun was gorgeous today, so I left the craft room for a photography session outside.
Here it is again with the Mama block from Crossroads.
The large block is finished at 7.5 inches and the mini is finished at 3.75 inches.
The Crossroads quilt along is run by Kimberly Jolly at the Fat Quarter Shop and benefits the March of Dimes. Please join along or consider making a donation.
My dearest friend has entered the world of quilting recently. I was wistfully thinking one day how much fun it would be to do a quilt along with her, despite the miles separating us. The VERY NEXT DAY, I received a text from her asking if I would like to join her in the Fat Quarters Shop’s Crossroads Quilt Along. Friends for life, no doubt about it.
There are kits to purchase if you like, I have found the Strawberry Fields Revisted from Moda quite pretty and not something I would have chosen for myself. Kimberly Jolly is quite generous with the fabric in the kits, and I found there is plenty left over for mistakes. The patterns are released monthly on the blog with a link to donate $5 per pattern to the March of Dimes. Fat Quarters and Moda have teamed up to match $10,000 in donations. Please consider to this wonderful cause even if you do not join the quilt along.
In January my kit arrived with cutting instructions and the instructions to make the first block, the House block.
Pretty, aren’t they? The unfinished block is 8″, so I cut a frame with an inside dimension of 7.5″ to get a good look at the finished block. It was easily cut out of an old manila folder.
All my pieces have been cut and organized in baggies.
And another bag to catch all the ‘crumb’ pieces. I have plans for these.
March’s block is the Diamond pattern. We started with half square triangles that I daisy chained.
Here they are all hanging out together.
I just flipped them over and sewed on the other side of the line.
I then cut on the line and got them together to iron them open.
At this point I realized that I sewed them WRONG SIDES TOGETHER!!! I let out a sigh, turned my machine off, and left the craft room for a bit.
When I returned I spent quite a while ripping seams out and re-stitching. Only two blocks had to be remade totally, the rest were salvageable.
The best piece of advice I can give for this quilt along is to measure after each step. The directions are great and give you the expected measurements.
There were plenty of crumbs left over for my stash.
Okay…I need help here… This drives me insane when it happens. Anyone have any tips or tricks to prevent this? Please leave the advice in the comment section.
Here are all my diamonds ready to be put together.
I hate losing corners, so I was very careful when sewing these rows together.
There they are, all nice and pointy.
And one finished square.
For some reason my other two blocks did not measure up to 8″. My husband heard me complaining to myself and came into my room to tell me that 1 out of 3 is a great night for a baseball player. Then he finished reloading his nerf guns and ran off to put the kids to bed.
I’ll post pictures of the other two once I fix them.