Maggie's Swinging into a Square Dance

Month Five! For real! Can you believe it? The BOM has just marched on this year and it feels like every few days that I'm getting a friendly reminder from Jacquelynne to kindly get off my butt (my words, not hers) and make my blocks and blog about how amazing I am (again, my words, not hers). So here we are, and here we go!

Ha! Remember my butterfly sitch last month? I just noticed the butterfly is on the logo up there. The whole thing. Jacquelynne really is so much better than I am in all ways.

So this month we make five blocks. ACK! FIVE! Does this mean in month six I'm making SIX, because if so I better start now. I saved it all til yesterday and while they weren't hard, between picking out all my scrappy fabrics and cutting and sewing all five it was one of those projects that "expanded to fill up the time allotted," ie took me all day. However, I love my blocks, so well worth it.

I decided to add a little more color and scrappiness to my blocks, so I chose to use five different fabrics in each of my four main colors (blue, purple, green, yellow) rather than just yellow. So that meant a dive into my scrap bins.

I know many scrappy quilt designers like to preach that you should cut and order your scraps into special sizes, like 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips. To this idea, I always say "What happens when you need a bigger piece of scrap, or feel like doing something more exciting than using a couple of different sizes?" To my knowledge, none of the famous designers who order their scraps has actually heard me ask them this nor have they felt the need to answer me personally, but whatever. To each their own. My bins are scraps from tiny to just under 1/4 yard and I like it that way.

Actual randomly sized scraps found in my purple bin.

 I found what I needed and cut them all into the size given. Because I am a quilter, I own tools to cut things, and that is what I do. Doesn't bother me at all that they weren't all precut to 2 1/2" strips. Because now I have more of most of them in bigger sizes and I STILL got to use them in this project. #winning

You can probably tell my greys were all different too. Because why not. My middle name is Random.

Cutting and sewing for an afternoon lead to five blocks, three illustrated here, along with the cautionary tale of "If you store your scraps in jumbled bins as I do, they tend to be wrinkly even after pressing." Bad news: I was too lazy to repress them before taking this photo. Good news: I can and will press them to death before I put the quilt together.

What you can't tell is that all these whites are different, even within blocks. This is a truly scrappy quilt.

Remember my issue with that one purple last month, and my musing that, should I decide to care, it might not really go with the rest of my purples? Well, I think making these blocks scrappy has sufficiently rendered the point moot. One of my constant quilting mottoes, along with "Perfection is Overrated," is "Whenever possible, Deflect." I think all this color does that well.

I'm already kind of excited about an idea I have to add a little more color to these alternate blocks. This of course assumes I will finish it. Because as you can see, I don't even have the whole thing together although I should, and you likely will never return to my blog to see if I do finish it because this month has proven I am slacking. Here's hoping we can all just picture it for now. I do promise to have it together AND WITH BORDERS next month! You heard it here first.

Someone who never slacks is this month's giveaway sponsor - Christa Watson of Christa Quilts. I've gotten to know her professionally over the last couple of years and she is a wonder. She designs fabulous modern patterns and wrote the best book on machine quilting I've ever come upon (no money was exchanged for me to say that) "The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting," which she penned along with Angela Walters. Angela covers the long arm parts, and Christa covers the domestic machine parts. As I am a domestic machine quilter, or of as I call it the "roll, stuff, swear, drink, repeat" variety, her tips on quilting designs and using your tiny machine for big quilting impact are amazing.

However, disclaimer. The book is amazing but that is not the prize this month. Never fear, though - Her patterns are just as fabulous! I mean look how cute!

In order to win the pattern pack, you must leave a comment for me telling me your favorite fall soup or stew. Recipe optional; you know we are all just going to look it up on Pinterest anyway if it sounds good. I considered asking you to tell me your brand of iron given my nasty wrinkled blocks, but that was just boring. And iron is only good to eat in cereal.

Thanks for stopping by!