Just ONE Monthly Goal for January: Complete Four More Blocks for My Retro Building Blocks Sampler Quilt

 Y'all, I am hangin my head in shame over this one.  Here I am, gleefully ordering fabric for my son Anders' high school graduation quilt, when all the while the quilt that I started for him back when he was in MIDDLE SCHOOL is still languishing on my design wall.  Where did the last 5 years go?!

13 Blocks Completed, but 35 Remain

I told you about my plan for his high school graduation quilt in yesterday's post, and yes, that will need to be a priority in 2021.  Hopefully, Anders will get to participate in the quilt blessing ceremony that our church usually does for the graduating high school seniors in June (if this pandemic abates, anyway), so that gives me a hard deadline to work towards.  But I can't start on that one until the fabric gets here, and I don't know how long that will take due to how backed up and messed up package delivery has been lately.  So until then, my version of the Moda Modern Quilt Blocks sampler will be my top priority.  Anders deserves TWO finished quilts in 2021.

I pieced this 15" blue and yellow block on the bottom just yesterday, so I'm counting it towards my January goal:

Newly Completed in 2021: Block 7, Resized to 15 inches

Just to refresh your memory, the Moda's original Modern Quilt Blocks Sampler looked like this:

I liked a lot of things about this quilt, but when I started drafting my own version in my EQ software so I could play with the colors, I got carried away.  I redrafted all of the blocks that had been simplified to eliminate Y seams, adding them all back in.  I swapped out blocks that bored me for other blocks that were more interesting to me.  

Nancy Cabot's Cathedral Window Block, Bottom Left, Was Not In Moda's Version

And, fatally, I resized the quilt multiple times throughout my design process to get the exact size I wanted for Anders' bed and make room for the Mork-Suspender-Like rainbow borders.  

My Version, Currently In Progress.  90 x 101

So now a fairly easy quilt designed for 6", 12", 18", 24", 30" and 36" blocks -- all multiples of 6", did you notice?  -- now I had a version of this quilt that I liked much better, but my blocks are all multiples of 5" instead of 6".  This results in horrific fractional measurements that do not play nicely with rotary cutting,  so 90% of the quilt is foundation paper piecing now and the other 10% involves cutting fabric patches out with card stock templates, like quilters had to do in the Dark Ages before rotary cutters were invented.  Those of you who have been with me for awhile are not surprised by this.  You know I like to torment myself by making every project as complicated as humanly possible.

Okay, so at the start of the New Year, I only had 12 of the necessary 48 blocks for this quilt completed.  Yesterday, I pieced the 13th block and made the unpleasant discovery that I never ordered more border fabric after I changed the border colors in the final design revision, and I seem to have misjudged the quantities of a few other colors, so those fabrics were ordered today.  (See, I told you I'm doing my duty to keep our fabric companies in business while the rest of you have made resolutions to only sew from your stash!)

And so, without further ado, I present my One Monthly Goal for January:

My January OMG is to Make a Bunch More Blocks for This Sampler Quilt!

The rules for the OMG Linky Party say that my goal needs to be "specific and measurable."  I would LOVE to complete another 12 blocks for this quilt in January, and in fact, I printed out foundation paper piecing patterns, cutting charts and templates for another 11 blocks today.  I even printed out the FPP patterns for the border corner blocks.  But I don't want to set a clear and measurable, yet overly ambitious goal of 12 blocks because that feels like setting myself up to fail, and who wants to start a new year off with a failure?  So how about this: My secret, private goal for January is vague and unmeasurable -- to "make progress" by sewing "a bunch" of blocks for this quilt.  My "specific and measurable" goal for the purpose of the OMG challenge is to complete a total of FOUR blocks during the month of January, including the one I made yesterday.  Anything beyond four is gravy!