On the Bench

Well, I am officially out of commission as far as quilting/sewing/cutting/piecing go for a while. Well, I might not actually be, but I haven't tried to do anything yet. Details at the end so those of you who get squeamish when people talk about accidents/blood/etc don't have to see/read it.

I have been working on a lot but not accomplishing too much (unless blocks count) since my last post. I have, however, finished a bunch of Block of the Month/Buck a Block blocks. Blocks and blood are all I talk about in this post. Exciting, huh?

As I mentioned before, I am working on the 2012 Designer Mystery Block BOM from The Fat Quarter Shop. So far, I have finished the first two blocks, and am loving the fabrics, the patterns, and the fabrics/patterns working together! I also received the ingredients for block #3 in the mail on Saturday. Do the happy mail dance!

Here are blocks 1 and 2, which turned out better than I could have dreamed of!

I also tried my hand at the Wonky Cross block from Sew Mama Sew. I increased the initial square size to 12.5" and the strips to 14" long (keeping 2.5" width) and after finishing the blocks, I probably should increase the width of the strips (and subsequently increase the length to compensate) because keeping them the 2.5" width made them look out of proportion in the finished block.

The pattern itself was super easy to follow, except for the whole getting the cross to line up part. On the brown block which I made first, everything lined up without me even trying. Then when it came time for the blue block, I made the mistake of trying to line everything up and of course I failed. So I ripped the stitches out and tried again, and again, and then gave up. It is supposed to be wonky, right?

 This is a definite potential bee block pattern! I made two opposite blocks because I just adore those two fabrics together. I have made so much our of them together. They are like my dream team of fabrics. Poppies and wood grain, what could be better? Here is a close up so you can [hopefully] see what I'm talking about.

Moving on! For those of you unfamiliar with the Buck a Block concept I mentioned in the beginning of this post (not sure if it is just my local quilt shop that has it or if it is a well known phenomenon), it is a neat idea!

For the one I'm in now, you buy, up front, 4 yards of the background fabric and then buy each block bundle (fabric and pattern) for $1 as long as you complete the previous month's block on time. If you do not complete your block by the first of the month, you have to pay like $5 (still incredibly cheap!) for that month's supplies instead of $1.

This particular Buck a Block is all basket blocks. I have never made basket blocks because they looked too old lady for me. But after I completed the first month's blocks (they give you enough fabric to make two 10" blocks each month) I am changing my opinion. Mostly because I just love, love, love the print on the fabric.

Those little birds are adorable!! Spwee! June is done! I'm going back to buy more bird fabric! Too bad I didn't take a close-up when there was still daylight available. What cracks me up though, is that I am at this quilt shop almost every week just wandering around and buying insane amounts of looking at fabric, but so far we are in month 3 and I have never noticed any of these fabrics! So far 2/3 fabrics are things I absolutely need in my stash.

For the background fabric, we are using muslin. I have never used muslin in a quilt before and I still am not too sure how I feel about it. I have yet to figure out which is the right side vs wrong side once I stack my cut bits in a pile. But it irons really well and doesn't seem to pucker, so that is nice!

Anyways, because of not being on the shop's newsletter despite countless tries by myself and the shop employees and being out of town a lot, I did not find out about this Buck a Block until last week. So I bought June, July, and August up front. I also finished the blocks for July this afternoon and I enjoyed this pattern a little less. Hard to tell if I liked it less because I liked the fabric less or if I was just frustrated with the pattern.

Oh well! They turned out really pretty, no matter how I felt about it.

Then I was going to get started on the blocks for August but somewhere between July blocks and August blocks, I decided it would be a great idea to chop off a big chunk of my finger with a rotary cutter. This must be karma for laughing at the safety gloves they wear on the Fons & Porter show on KEDT Create.

Anyways, if you get squeamish at the sight of blood, you might want to leave now or just scroll quickly down to the comment section (aren't I the optimistic one today?).

You have been warned.

Do not keep looking if the sight of gore makes you light-headed.

No, really.

Even if it just grosses you out, you might want to stop now.

Better safe than sorry. (Tell that to me next time I laugh at the safety glove!)

So, in case you ever wanted to know, this is what it looks like right after you run a new-ish rotary cutter blade over your finger that happens to be carelessly flopping over your ruler.

Good news is now that I have tried that out for you, you never have to give in to curiosity and try it for yourself! :)

Not too long ago I had a near-horrible quilting accident.  I dropped a rotary cutter and when I jumped in order to avoid it landing blade first on my foot, I ended up hitting myself with a hot iron. Luckily I was still jumping so I really didn't even get burnt.

I also scuba dive.

Boy, do I need less dangerous hobbies, or what?

I am linking up with BOM Monday over at What a Hoot Quilts!