One I was searching the Internet for fabric to complete another project when I came across www.thefatquartershop.com. Darn them anyway! They had the most wonderful pictures of this AMAZING Christmas quilt that you could complete one block at a time over the course of the year. It even has a super cute name, The Block of the Month Club! The description promised that only a moderate degree of skill in quilting was required to complete the blocks! I could do that, I have moderate skill! Sold.
I waited and waited and 4-6 weeks later, the materials for the fist block arrived. I held the crisp white envelope in my hands bursting with excitement as I ran for my quilting supplies. (Recently purchased quilting supplies. Like I had that crap laying around before I got this into my head.) I tore open the envelope and squealed we glee at the CUTEST damn Christmas fabric you have ever seen. Plans for a coordinating Christmas tree skirt, which I would also quilt were already forming in my head. At this point Eric is rolling his eyes and sighing. I ignore him and open the instructions. Complicated instructions. Hmmmm I was sure the website had said "moderate degree of skill", oh well. We were packing up to move anyway, like I had time to quilt. I make a promise to myself that I will make this block as soon as we are settled in the new house. I should only have two blocks by then. Easy to catch up! One block per month for twelve months! Easy peasy!
Fast forward to yesterday. I brave the rain and run up to the mail box. Uh oh. There it is, the shiny white envelope containing my latest block of the month. Gingerly I open it and am shocked when I read that it contains block number eleven. Really? Eleven? I run upstairs to my closet and open the drawer where I have been stashing quilt stuff. Uh oh. It's true, I have eleven of the twelve blocks. Guess this means I should get started on number one! So I drag out my quiting ruler and cutting mat. My rotary cutter and my fabric pen. Let's do this! O.o Star Trek TnG marathon on ScyFy!! Yes please! And as Captain Pikard and Commander Riker bravely lead the crew of the SS Enterprise through uncharted space, I lead myself through uncharted quilting space.
First thing is first. Cut out the pieces. Easy! Well not really. If you have ever dodged kids and a dog and a cat while trying to cut out precise 1.5 inch squares with a razor sharp rotary cutter you know what I mean. Two successful missions in the final frontier later and the cutting is done!
In case you are not a Star Trek buff, I mean two hours later. And yes the pieces are labeled. A through freaking P!!!!!
Time to sew these bad boys together! I am less intimidated by this then I should be. Even the tiniest mistake will skew the block turning it into a much larger mistake later. But to my delight the first bit of sewing seems to go smoothly. The construction isn't really THAT hard. But at this point it is 11 o'clock and I am wiped out. Bed time for this trekky.
OK So I skipped a few pictures, but this blog post is getting really long. So here is on part of the block all put together. I don't know how long this took me there was no good TV on so I turned on some music. Thank God for Pandora radio on my iphone! And yes that is a coffee stain on my ironing board.
Almost done! To my great delight this really isn't as complicated as I feared. It is however REALLY hard to keep everything square and straight. REALLY, REALLY hard. So if anyone is reading this as has any great insight as to how to keep thing in line without wanting to punch something that would be awesome. I would like to add now that Eric has popped his head in several time to "check" on my progress. I think he is laughing at me in his man cave....
And there it is!!! OK so it's not perfect. It's uneven at the bottom which I am sure is going to come back and bite me in the ass. But for now I am pretty proud of my accomplishment.
Now on to block two........
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