First Block Finished for Anders' Modern Building Blocks Quilt

30" Finished Block

Well, THAT was more bother than I'd expected it to be!  In case you missed my earlier post here, I'm adapting the Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt to fit my 13-year-old son's twin bed.  The finished quilt will look like this:

Moda MBB design in EQ7, Modified to finish 70" x 96", Kona Solids

Since the original Moda pattern is for a Queen bed, I had to resize all of the blocks to make it work, and this block that was originally supposed to be 36" square did not work out to be "ruler friendly" as a 30" block.  I chose to paper piece this monster, which I would not do again (way too many sheets to tape together, and the triangle pieces were so big that they were shifting and flipping around under the foundation papers).  There was much more swearing and seam ripping than anticipated! 

Paper Piecing In Progress

Future blocks like this will be cut with old-fashioned templates and traditionally pieced.  Also, those giant green triangles should have been cut with straight grain on the outer edge rather than bias.  I starched them and was really careful not to stretch the bias edge when I pieced the block sections together, and I have also scolded and threatened them to behave, so they should be fine once they're sewn to adjacent blocks. 

You know, these massively oversized blocks look cool in the finished quilt design, but they are a pain in the arse.  I am going to follow Moda's suggestion to make all of the large blocks first (to ensure that you have fabric pieces big enough to cut them out of), but I'm still going to need to buy more fabric because I've already made a bunch of cutting mistakes.  More scraps for my scrap quilts, as far as I'm concerned.

Since it's Monday, let's take a look at my design wall, shall we?

Design Wall as of Monday, October 10th, 2016

So, I have a few things going on.  I've pinned my first block for Anders' MBB (Modern Building Blocks) quilt right over top of the completed and abandoned baby quilt that was based off a doodle in Lars's 8th grade math notebook (he's in 10th grade now).  I'll quilt that top later, when I get a Round Tuit.  To the right you can see the assorted 6" sampler blocks, sourced from both Farmer's Wife sampler books as well as a few from Charise's Vintage Quilt Blocks Quilt Along that I resized to 6".  Above those you can see the completed first block of my needleturned applique FWR (Frankenwhiggish Rose), and to the right of the 6" sampler blocks you can see another of those blocks in progress.  Just above the partially completed applique block, you can see some pieces of interfacing or something for the yoke of the skirt I was making (not in the right mood for that at present, as I've hit a roadblock and haven't yet decided how to proceed),  and in the very upper right corner, there is a memo sample of my bedroom drapery fabric pinned to my wall to remind me to incorporate some of those dusty, muted teal blues and sage greens into my pineapple log cabin blocks.

I'm still working on those FWR blocks here and there.  Since I was combining and adapting a couple of different patterns, I made one block first in its entirety and now I'm making 8 more just like it, but assembly line style so as to be more efficient.  I've got all of the large layered petals assembled off block, and I made all of the stems and managed to glue baste them to my pieced block backgrounds last week. 

Positioning Applique Stems with a Light Box

This is much, MUCH faster and easier with the light box than with the vinyl overlay method I was using before, by the way.  It only works with the stems because the edges are preturned and I'm glue basting them instead of pinning them, though. 

Now I'm stitching the stems down, but only on Tuesday afternoons while I'm sitting in the carpool line outside the school and then during Anders' violin lesson.  I don't really have much free time lately.  I have a work event coming up this Saturday, the usual demands of home and family, and 75 Christmas carols that I need to review Alto harmonies on prior to the first Holiday Singers rehearsal at the end of the month.  It will be time to climb into the enormous Victorian Christmas caroling dress again before I know it!

I'm linking up with:

·       Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times www.patchworktimes.com

·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/


·       WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

·       Let’s Bee Social at http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/