And now for something completely different

2011 seems to be my year of conquering old BOMs. Here is one I started in 2007. I am a huge fan of From My Heart to Your Hands sampler patterns designed by Lori Smith. I own a few of her patterns, but the idea of making all those fabric selections was daunting. Then I happened upon Homestead Hearth's Special Programs page and saw they were doing Golden Memories as a Block of the Month program and one of the choices was reproduction fabrics. I signed up immediately!

The first kit of 3 blocks arrived in August 2007 and I immediately pieced them together, loving all the fabric choices. Then - as is my tendency - I started another project, put the new blocks aside as they arrived and collected them in a project box. I even pulled it out last year and gave some thought to completing all of the alternate blocks, which looked very tedious to me. After an hour or so cutting 1-1/4" strips, the project went back inside the box.

This year, though, I decided to finish. I made all 31 tedious alternating blocks and now I am working on the 32 sampler blocks.

For the most part, I really like the fabrics included in the kit, but at the same time, some of the color combinations are not pleasing. The fabrics in block 5 did not look good laid out on my sewing table, and they certainly did not look any better after I sewed them together. Here is my modified block on the left next to the center that I would have ended up with had I used the kit fabrics. I decided to substitute from my stash if I didn't like fabric combinations, and it's been a lot of fun changing fabrics around and using some of my favorites from my collection.

Can you resist smiling?

When you see this color?   Seriously - can you?  I can't... of course orange is my favorite color.  This is the second finish from my September retreat.  I made all the blocks while there and then assembled them when I got home.  This is a great project to use when you are borrowing a sewing machine - no worries about your seam allowance because you square up the blocks after putting them together.

I used Elizabeth Hartman's Crazy 9-Patch Lattice pattern.   Check out her blog Oh, Fransson! for many other very cool quilt patterns that she so generously shares with her readers.  AND I see she's coming out with a new book in May, which I know I will be buying because I loved her first book.

I've made this before in green for my niece.   It's a great way to use color blocks in a quilt and for some reason, I never stop buying orange fabric.