Crafsy 2013 BOM Blocks

 Craftsy Blocks

Funny but somehow I completely forgot to post about my Craftsy BOM that I started in January.  I love how they are also offering the BOM for free.  It also has a very nice video with it each month and although it struck me last month as too long of a video, I have been surprised at the little hints and things that I am picking up from this series. You can find out how to sign up for it here .  The class is being taught by Laura Nownes and her quilt is done in bright colors featuring polka dots.  For me the polka dots are just too overwhelming.  The whole quilt looks like one big polka dot.  I am going to be making the quilt in a whole different colorway and very scrappy.  Here is my January block.  It is actually four blocks:

 February's block is a series of three of the same blocks :

I think Laura calls these Spring flowers but in my colors they are definitely Fall flowers.  I think they resemble sunflowers.  They are put together with a method I hadn't done before called partial seams.  The first and last additions are sewn using a partial seam.

  

Here is how it is put together.  In Laura's block she made three blocks that looked the same.  I want my quilt to be more scrappy so I made each of my flowers using different fabrics.  So for each flower I used 1-1/2 inch by at least 15 inch strips.  If you wanted three exact flowers you would use WOF x 1-1/2 inch strips.  You need 5 strips of these sewn together.  Once sewn together you cut them apart every 3-1/2".  This will give you 3-1/2" x 5-1/2" inch strip pieces.  The center block is a 2-1/2" by 2-1/2" block.  

You will lay them out as follows:

 You sew that 2-1/2" block to a 5-1/2" side but you sew it only half way.  This picture is how you put them together.

Can you see on the 2-1/2" block I only sewed about 1-1/4 inches at most maybe a little less.  This is the partial seam.  Then you iron the seam open and add the next side to the 5-1/2 inch side this created.

You keep doing this to the next couple of sides, each time adding your strip section to the 5-1/2 inch side you just created.

When you get to the next section you will just fold the fabric back out of the way to add the third side. Like this:

And sew it to that 5-1/2 inch piece that is available then.

And lastly you will be able to go back and complete the seam you started with at the beginning.  Which will complete the block.  

And  

voilà ... you have a finished flower block.  You can see by putting the different color values in different places it sure changes how the flower ends up  looking. 

***Just ignore the bold 'the' above no matter how hard I try or how many times ... the computer has decided to drive me crazy and refuses to get rid of it.  Someone must have given the gremlins water after midnight.  Shame on them!!! ***

Enjoy your day,