We’ve come to the end of this year’s Block Challenge sew along and all my blocks are done!
Block 15: “Center of Attention,” by Heather Peterson
Not a bad little block. I’d like to see an entire quilt made of these. I threw this together in a short amount of time, so there’s not much to say about it.
Block 16: “Kaleidoscope Star,” by Tara Reed
I think this is a particularly striking block. Another block that I’d like to make an entire quilt out of. We shall see.
Finishing
The finishing instructions were released today, and they differ from how I thought they were going to go. I had preemptively started working on the setting blocks in the manner I thought they’d be constructed, so I’m just going to go forward with my method. I had made the goal to finish this quilt in its entirety by the end of May, but that will not be happening; and with Rachel’s graduation only weeks away, my focus is going to shift to preparing for all the festivities and preparations for that. Hopefully I can come back to this quilt before the end of the summer.
Thanks so much, Riley Blake Designs and all of its designers, for putting on a lovely sew along. This quilt is going to look so beautiful in my front room.
Everyone in my household is flabbergasted that we’re already a week into May; like, where did April go and when did it actually happen? Needless to say, spring is in full swing around here! Lots of fun stuff, plenty of sunshine, and a reinvigorating of the soul as we cast our eyes towards the end of the school year.
Debrief: April’s #craftygoals:
Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge Sew Along: GUYS. I am officially caught up! Fourteen blocks sewn up! Patting myself on the back here because it is rare indeed when I get that far behind on something and then am actually able to truly get caught back up again. I haven’t had a chance to do photoshoots on all the blocks yet, so I’ll have to come back and do another post for that.
Fat Quarter Shop’s Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: Staying caught up on that! The Cherry Limeade quilt is coming along beautifully, and I’ve found some great internet friends via the Sewcialites Facebook group. It’s such a nice group of people who are cheering each other on and lavishing praise left and right on everyone. This might be a sew along I continue with for many years because I’m enjoying both the actual sew along and also its participants so much.
Renaissance’s Chef Clothing Tailoring: She never approached me about it and it doesn’t seem to be bothering her that much, so I may not actually help with this after all.
Rachel’s Prom Dress Tailoring: I had to install a lining because the bodice was made from see-through MESH, but I figured it out easily enough and did a good job. Minimal hemming, woo hoo! She looked gorgeous; I’m so thankful that she really loved big, poufy ballgowns and we were able to go crazy with the full skirts over the years. Also thankful that my formal dress-hemming days are OVER. (No, I will NOT be making their wedding dresses, making the prom dresses cured me of that dream.)
Graduation Quilts: I have all but one signature for Renaissance’s quilt. I’ve marked the seamlines on all of the blanks for Rachel’s quilt and have handed out quite a few of them to former teachers. I also realized that I think the signature “top” should actually be a signature “backing” because both of the girls have said they think they’d prefer that. SOOOOOOO…I’m designing new tops for the quilts to match the vibes of the now-backs of the quilts. Because when I said I’d make them a quilt each, I really meant two quilts each but cleverly packaged as just one quilt. ::rolls eyes::
Penguin Party Quilt: Quilt top completed! Yaaaayyyy!! And that is where it will remain for a few months as I shift my attention to Rachel’s graduation. Anti-climactic? Yes. But I told you that THIS IS THE YEAR I FINISH THIS QUILT.
Smitten EPP Quilt: I did put some time in on it. Can you tell? Not really. Rachel started her own Smitten quilt in the last couple of weeks to deal with the boredom of the last weeks of senior year. Everything is wrapping up and she’s tired of wasting time on her phone, so she asked me for some pointers on fabric placement and the like and then employed the EPP skills she acquired when I taught it to her and all the other Activity Days girls in our Utah ward forever ago. She’s completed about five of the large blocks and two or three of the small blocks and they look pretty good. It’s been so much fun to hang out in the craft room together in the evenings as she cuts fabric for her next block; like a little pause between school days Rachel and adulthood Rachel. I’ll cherish these conversations forever. So much is changing on the horizon for her and it is running at us full-tilt.
Jingle Bell Socks: They are done! They still need blocking and finishing, which probably won’t happen until the knitting bug hits again in autumn, but they are technically done.
Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Not technically a goal last month, but I decided to start every sewing session with fifteen minutes of quilting/finishing and lo and behold, the Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt is officially quilted! I’ve also trimmed it and created the binding for it. I’m just as shocked as you are. It’s only taken six years.
May #craftygoals:
Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:
Graduation!: I’ve got some massive graduation party planning to do in the next month, so my craft progress may be extremely impacted, but it’s totally fine. I need to make graduation leis for Rachel and her friends, and all the random things that will make her graduation party extra nice. So many fun projects!
Riley Black Designs Block Challenge Sew Along: This ends this month! There are sixteen block and I’ve sewn fourteen of them! Woot woot! There are a handful of setting blocks and sashings to actually finish this thing, but we’re not going to focus on that too much. I’m trusting that the energy of finishing the last block will push me to keep going. Wouldn’t it be great if I just finished this whole quilt by the end of May? A girl can dream…because if it’s not finished by the end of May, it will languish due to graduation and the absolute insanity of our summer schedule. So yeah, I guess the goal is to finish this completely by the end of May.
Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: Almost halfway there! Block #12 comes out tomorrow! I am still just absolutely loving this sew along. I ordered my border, backing and binding fabrics last week. It’s going to be such a pretty quilt! It’s so different from what I normally do and it’s proving that deviating from your comfort zone can be a really, really good thing. With graduation coming up and some really crazy scheduling in the weeks right after graduation, it would be a good thing if I could actually finish both May’s and June’s blocks during May. I’ve mocked up the entire quilt already so I’d be working off my own guesses at how the scheduled blocks are going to go together, but who cares?
Graduation Quilts:
Renaissance’s: I might be able to really get going on Ren’s here soon. Needing to also construct a new top is going to slow me down, obviously, but the quilt will be used a lot more as a result and I cannot stand it when people stuff a quilt in a closet, so here we are. It would be good if I could finish Ren’s quilt entirely.
Rachel’s: It could start moving forward; I’ve received quite a few signed blocks back already. I’ve mocked up her quilt top design and she’s enthusiastically approved it, so the fabric for that was included in the Sewcialites order and will be here next week. It would be good if I could finish the top this month and add the borders to the blocks that have already been signed.
Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:
Machine Stitching:
Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: It’d be good if I could get this finished for good! That fifteen minutes at the start of each sewing session accomplishes a lot! We’ll see…
Sew Many Stars BOM Christmas Quilt: This is the next UFO to finish on 2026’s list. I highly doubt I’ll get through my other projects to the point where I’ll work on this, but I’m listing it as a possibility.
Hand Stitching:
English Paper Piecing: Smitten EPP Quilt: My Smitten quilt is permanently located in its rolling cart next to the couch in the TV Room, and I’ll pick it up here and there to work on, but with daylight lasting longer and life being busy I don’t know how much work will go into it during the month of May. Watching Rachel’s quilt come together makes me want to get my own quilt going again, though, so perhaps her enthusiasm will rub off on me?
Knitting: I need a new car knitting project. I could wind some cool yarn and just make some regular ol’ socks? Although, with warmer weather coming up I probably won’t accomplish much knitting in the next while. I do prefer to do embroidery or EPP in the warmer months.
Embroidery: Perhaps, given the knitting conundrum, I should figure out an embroidery car project? There’s a beehive embroidery kit that’s been languishing for some time. I could pop it into the car for the summer.
It’s a great time of year, full of all sorts of fun things! I hope your projects are going well, and if you’re too busy with other things at the moment, remember that it’s totally fine to take breaks because the yarn and the fabric will wait for you. Enjoy the sunshine, the celebrations, and the time with family and friends, if that’s what’s pulling you away.
Summary of May’s Crafty Goals:
Graduation projects: Leis, party prep, etc.
Riley Blake Designs Block Challenge: Finish up last blocks, maybe finish the entire thing?
Fat Quarter Shop Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: Definitely finish May’s blocks, but try to get June’s blocks done ahead of time, too.
Renaissance’s Graduation Quilt: Try to finish completely. Crazy goal.
Rachel’s Graduation Quilt: Try to finish the new top and add borders to the already-signed blocks.
I had the goal to get caught on this in the month of April and I’m happy to report that I did just that! Here’s the blocks that I sewed up in the last month:
I think this is my favorite block of the entire sew along, and just about everyone else agrees with me. My daughters comment on how pretty it is whenever they wander through the craft room. So pretty! Might make an entire quilt from it someday.
Bit of a heart attack-inducing block due to the “backwards is forwards” nature of construction. It all turned out fine, but I had many a moment of “Wait…OH NO!…wait…no, it’s fine…wait…no it’s not…yes it is…I think?”
Bit of a devil block. Matching those cornflower edges to the snowball edges was torture. I managed it fine enough, eventually, but eek. Not a fun experience.
Ugh. I did such a good with matching up my HST points, only to botch the strips. And I suspected that that was going to happen and still didn’t adjust my seam allowance during construction. I might go back in and fix them at some point, but I got to the point where I was just so sick of this block that I don’t want to look at it anymore.
This is another darling block that everyone loves. The blue frame behind the pinwheel is delightful!
Block #12: “Cactus Blooms,” by ME
The schedule block for Week 12 is “Majestic View,” by Casey Cometti, but it just didn’t have the look I wanted in my quilt. So I poked around in the Electric Quilt Block Library until I found a block I wanted and then tweaked it to make it fit. I cannot remember the actual name of the original block, but I’ve been calling it “Cactus Blossoms.”
In the rush to get all the blocks finished and caught up, I lost track of this one and literally do not remember making it. Must have been an easy one?
Technically a March block, but last month’s round-up post didn’t include it because of timing. This one makes me think of Starburst candies. Starburst limeade!
When I saw this block I thought it looked like a watermelon, and seeing that I’m making a very fruit-inspired quilt, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at altering the block pattern to look more like a watermelon. So I did! I’m really pleased with how it turned out! Watermelon Flower!
BONUS: Renaissance was making cookies for Easter while I was sewing this up and she made a watermelon and limeade pitcher cookie for its photoshoot! I wholeheartedly enjoyed the experience of creating this block!
It wasn’t until many weeks after finishing this that I realized I flipped the flying geese units. It’s not supposed to look like a star! Ha ha ha, nope, not fixing it!
I appreciated this simple block. I chose to feature a fabric leftover from an apron I made for my cousin years upon years ago, and then to try to use some of that olive woodgrain fabric that’s been sitting in my stash for years. And then I added the beloved cherry print to make up for the ugly woodgrain fabric.
Isn’t this the cutest little block?!?! Loved making it; and it’s a really easy block to put together! I’m tempted to make an entire quilt out of this in the future. I love berry blocks so much!
I am so tired of reporting that I was sick and it affected my ability to move forward on my crafty goals each month, but alas, such is what I need to report. Yet again. Ugh. February kicked my butt, but that’s pretty normal for this time of year EVERY SINGLE YEAR, so I’m not too terribly upset about it, just annoyed. I caught that nasty flu that was going around and that took me out for two weeks. And then, because I was lying around for two weeks, my back spasmed once I got back on my feet and I was down and out with that flare-up for ten days. I finally got to moving around somewhat normally, enjoyed a couple days of productivity, and then BAM(!) migraine for two days. Then another migraine for six days that require an ER visit to shut down. ARRRRGHHHH. So, y’know, basically four weeks of no real progress on anything. I remain optimistic that my luck will trend upwards in March. Always optimistic…
Debrief: February #craftygoals:
Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Can’t quilt when you’re sick. Sigh.
Secret Project: I’ve made a lot of progress on this, but it’s not ready to unveil.
Penguin Party Quilt: Did make progress here and there.
Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt: I’ve gotten a few of the blocks signed, and am in the process of getting the blank blocks sent out to various people. I am killing this.
RBD Block Challenge: I am almost done with Block #1. Let’s just ignore the fact that SIX of the blocks have been published. Progress is progress.
FQS Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: I am done with the first block! Yay me! I’ll get to working on the second block this weekend. I haven’t photographed it yet, sorry.
Jingle Bell Socks: Coming along nicely in the stolen moments.
March 2026 #craftygoals:
Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:
Guild Show & Tell Quilt: I’d still like to finish the Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt to show, and I’ve got the Sew Many Stars BOM Christmas Quilt on my list for March. I’m so far behind, so I have only the faintest glimmer of hope to get both of these done, but hope I will!
Secret Project: I had to push it back a couple of weeks due to the illness and injury, plus I grossly underestimated how much behind-the-scenes learning I was going to have to do to pull this off, but it should be ready to unveil sometime in March. So excited!
Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:
Machine Stitching:
Penguin Party Quilt: I’m going to commit: I want to finish the top for this THIS MONTH.
Easter Say-It Sew Along Banner: Easter is April 5 this year so I want to sew this up in March so everything is ready for the big day.
Renaissance Graduation Quilt: Hoping to make more progress on this. I’m still waiting on some signatures, so I’m doing the best I can.
Rachel’s Graduation Quilt: I don’t know if I’ll get to touching this, but it’d be great if I could get some signatures back so I can start assembling the blocks. It’s largely dependent on others’ efforts/timeliness, so I’m keeping my hopes low so I don’t feel disappointed if nothing happens this month.
Hand Stitching:
English Paper Piecing: It’d be good to get work done on Smitten. It’s a weird time of year, whatwith the weather changes and garden needing more attention, so I have no idea how this will shake out.
Knitting: It’d be great if I could finish the Jingle Bell Socks.
Embroidery: I don’t have anything in the works for March.
There’s a lot of stuff to get caught up on in regular life before I can really get into the craft room, so this might be a low achievement month. However, sometimes things come together easy and then I get to do lots of crafty stuff, so we’ll see. Gardening needs to start happening too…it’s that time of year! So much fresh goodness coming our way with more light and sunshine as well. We made it through the darkest part of year, friends! Good job! Enjoy the upcoming spring!
Sorry there’s no pictures to go with this post, but if I take time to do pics, it takes up time to craft. I’m going to get caught up eventually and then it’ll be Picture City ’round these parts!
It only occurred to me now, as I sat down to write this blog post, that this isn’t actually a scrap project. BUT…it was in my scrappy project bins for some reason; I’m thinking I threw the blocks into whatever bin was handy as I packed up my craft room three years ago, and I didn’t think beyond “What’s in the scrappy project bins?” when deciding what projects to put into the Scrappy Thursday rotation. Oh well. It’s been a long time that this has been waiting, and this is the way I’ll be able to get it done the fastest, so I’ll just go forward with it.
Of course, just because I put some of the fabrics into the project bin didn’t mean I put all of the fabrics into the bin, so I spent a large portion of my sewing time trying to locate the background fabric for this quilt. It was tucked away with a completely different quilt I was working on when we had to pack up, and those two quilts were jammed into the back of a Christmas drawer, despite not being Christmas-related quilts whatsoever. (I never want to move again.)
Alright, Month #3 is the Peaches & Plenty block, and geez…these blocks took forever to make! I don’t know if I’ve gotten extremely slow or what, but I think I put at least six hours into these. Not my favorite pattern, but it doesn’t matter anymore because they’re DONE and now I’ll move on with my life. Woo hoo!
It was nice to revisit this project and look through it again and start getting excited. It’s an interesting-looking finished quilt that is different from anything else I’ve ever made, and I’m looking forward to the completed project…which should hopefully happen in May. Slow and steady…
Month 3 blocks are the ones on the right. Building up a collection!
I was supposed to get these done last month, but it didn’t work out that way. I’m hoping to get onto the Month 4 blocks this month as well, but we’ll see how well that pans out.
We made it to the end of the sew along! We’ve made it to the end of 2020! When I volunteered to take on this task at the beginning of the year, I didn’t imagine in my wildest dreams how this would end up going this year. But I’m glad we at least had this little block of the month to keep us connected. Thanks for going on this journey with me, and thanks for the little texts and Facebook messages with pictures of your blocks! I love seeing them!
So here it is, the finishing instructions for this quilt:
I hope your quilts come together with ease and I look forward to seeing them in actual real life AT SOME POINT when all this craziness has passed us. Pat yourself on the back for finishing this up! Good job!
As always, if you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!
When I volunteered to do this Block of the Month, I don’t even think I’d heard of COVID-19, and we got a late start on it because of quarantine and not knowing what the heck was going on. But here we are, nearing the end of a very long year, and I’m so glad to have been able to offer this little spark of light to you throughout it. Hopefully your quilts are looking good, and I hope that the time when we can finally gather in-person to see each others’ blocks arrives sooner than later.
I left this block until to the end because I didn’t know how I was going to be able to “draw” it in the PDF. I gave up and just threw in some actual photos on the second page of the pattern. If the directions are a little unclear, this block has a lot of pattern explanations all over the internet…I did my best.
You can download the instructions for the Martha Washington Star block here:
OK, let’s see if my blog is finally going to let me publish an actual post…it’s being weird this week, and coupled with how lousy I was feeling yesterday, I decided to just wait out the bug. A few hours late shouldn’t hurt anyone’s plans, I hope…
We are getting so close to the end, you all! How exciting!
If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!
We’re starting to get close to the end of our sew along! School has started, and hopefully that means a little extra time in your sewing rooms! Alright, this month’s block is the Shoofly Star Block:
If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!
That Crafty Cara 