For generations, quilting has been a group activity. Today, we may sit our sewing rooms and stitch by ourselves, but we still seek the comradery that comes with quilting. To achieve that, we join guilds that meet routinely, we take classes, and we join FaceBook groups. I belong to a guild, generally am enrolled in at least one online course, and participate in about six FaceBook groups. Each group has a different activity going on – mystery quilts, technique building or quilt alongs. Regardless of the topic, there are always a group of supportive people floating around in the cloud to provide assistance or just cheer for you.
This year, I am participating in the QuiltAlong 2020 from American Quilters Society. Each month, features a different quilt. I know that sounds like a lot. These are one block quilts – so they piece quickly! Quilting will still take a while, but the big blocks will give me room to experiment with my quilting.
January’s block is Royal Star. For this block, I used those three beautiful fabrics from my blog yesterday. Because I loved the collection so much, I bought a lot of it. Good thing as these big block quilts take 1-3 yards of each fabric.
I learned a few things very quickly. First, big blocks mean long cuts and long seams. It is easy to get wobbly, which really shows up. Take your time to cut slowly and carefully, especially on the diagonals. Measuring twice and cutting once is key here. When sewing, pin in the middle and at the end of a piece to keep your fabric from warping on those long seams. If you don’t, you may find one of the two pieces magically shrank while on your machine and your corners won’t match.
I still need to quilt Royal Star, but here is the top!
Have you tried a big block quilt?
Happy Quilting
Laureen