Sugar Block Club 2014

Last year I participated in the 2013 Sugar Block Club by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock.  I enjoyed it so much that I signed up to sew along with her again for the 2014 Sugar Block Club! On the first day of each month Amy sends a new pattern and a yummy recipe.  This year she decided to go beyond a pattern and recipe and has included a personal challenge for each month.

I must admit that I have not focused a lot on the personal challenge aspect of the BOM.  Not that I don’t want to, I’ve just found myself so busy that I haven’t had the time.  What I find interesting is that I’ll read through the challenge and even though I don’t have time to really meditate and think on it, I will remember it as situations come up during the month.  So even though I haven’t made it a focus of my month, Amy’s words resonate with me throughout the month.  And I appreciate the extra “food for thought” aspect of participating in this sew along.

Last year I went with Kate Spain’s Cuzco fabric line when sewing up my blocks.  This year I decided to challenge myself in my weakest area as a quilter: Color.  My fabric pull was inspired by the grey Medallion print in Denyse Schmidt’s Florence line. It is a print that has all the colors/shades that I am not comfortable using together.  I determined that if Denyse Schmidt could put a fantastic fabric line together using them, then I should be able to put together prints and use them together in a block.

I had fun with January’s block. I will be using the Medallion print as a focal part of each block. Choosing the black fabric to be part of the center of the block had me chuckling at how “rebel-ish” I felt at doing something different.  I really liked how it turned out!

February’s block was a bit more difficult for me.  Lately I seem to be having trouble with making my seams too scant.  When I trim the block up I end up taking too much off so that when the blocks are finally assembled any points at the edges will have been taken off because I cut into the seam allowance.  I had a particularly difficult time with this on a couple of other blocks. It’s not as bad on this block as it was on another (that I ripped out and re-sewed THREE times), but this is clearly an area for me to work on.

Again with the black in the center!!  I am having fun with these fabrics and using them together.  I think 2014 is the year of trying different things and so far I’m loving it!