A Little Sew Along Fun

I think it's always been clear to anyone that knows me that I have a hard time resisting a Sew Along so when I saw on the Moda website that they were once again participating in the American Patchwork & Quilting Quilt Along I knew I'd be doing it. I did this last year and made a lot of my blocks but sadly I've never finished.... Maybe this year.

 If you've missed getting your copy of the magazine, you still have time.  It's still available at a lot of grocery stores and also at Barnes & Noble.

I actually have 2 copies of the magazine because I couldn't wait for mine to come in the mail so while I was out one afternoon I picked a copy up at B&N :)   

It's no surprise that out of the 3 sample quilts that I picked " Rainbow Rows"  that Moda Lissa created.  I love working with pinks, purples, greens, yellows etc. and no lie....I have hundreds of low volume/neutral fabrics that are perfect for this project.

The above picture is from the night I bought the magazine.  I used a charm pack that was already out on the cutting table and made up 23 in a few short minutes....easy peasy!

I'm doing the 4 patches as a leader/ender project so on Monday night while I had Bonnie Hunter's Quilt Cam on, I sewed up about 30-40.  Bonnie by the way is one of the participating designers along with a long list of others.  You can check out the Moda site and there is also a list in the magazine.

Here's my box full of 2-1/2 inch 4 patch blocks....a far cry from the first day :0  I now have

303 4 patches!

Another Sew Along i'm doing is the Red Sky At Night QAL.
Jodi at http://www.talesofcloth.com is putting out one12.5 inch block a week on her blog and on Instagram and has quite a few girls sewing along with her.  The majority of us are using red but since it's really an individual choice, there are a few girls that are just using whatever they have in their stash...and each and every block is awesome.           

My absolute favorite color fabric to sew with is red and combined with my favorite Kona Snow, then it's a Win Win for me.  I'm using red on reds from the "Redwork Renaissance by Chloe's Closet" for moda fabrics.  I have 12 different prints from the line so I'll keep to the red with white but after I have all 12 done I might make another dozen or so using the other Red on White prints from the same fabric line to make the quilt a little larger.

Now....just when you thought it was safe to move on, there's one more Sew Along I'm doing with some girls on Instagram.  

It's a 52 Week Churn Dash Challenge.  Next to the Ohio Star block, the Churn Dash is my 2nd favorite block.  This challenge is 6-1/2 inch blocks.  A lot of girls are using Civil War fabrics but due to my lack of them in my stash, I'm using my scrap bin with Kona White.  I have a few ideas on how I'll set them in the end but I'm reserving that decision till the end.

I'm doing double duty with the cutting, I cut what I need for these blocks and then cut the leftover prints into 1-1/2 inch strips for the APQAL.  

I'm doing another QAL but I'll have to post about that next time.  It's the Women of the Bible blocks with Little Quilts in Marietta, Georgia.  They post 2 patterns every other week in their newsletter with a nice writeup about the woman of the bible they named the block for.  I'm using all my Fig Tree fabrics in this one but I'm behind about 4 blocks so when I catch up, I'll post again.

Good thing I'm retired huh???