Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 5 - Section E

Well, we are getting toward the end of our quilt along.  At this point we have more than half of our blocks completed, including all but one of the larger blocks.  From this point on, the rest of our blocks are 6" except for Block 2 of Section G that is 36".  I don't know about you guys, but I am so excited to have this mammoth beauty finished.  Have any if you started thinking about how you are going to quilt it yet?  At this point the thought makes my brain hurt a little, so I am going to put it off a bit longer!

So, for this month, we are working n Section E.  This section includes six, six inch blocks: 26, 27, 30, 32, 40, and 47.  Most of these blocks are pretty simple, but a couple have quite a few pieces.  Overall these six did not take long to complete.  

One thing I started doing with my blocks a while back, especially since the giant block I had to redo back in Section B, was rounding most cutting measurement up 1/8 of an inch.  This helped particularly with getting half square triangles perfectly square, because I could sew and press them then cut them down to the correct size.  This also helped overall with getting a more accurately sized finished block.  When using this technique, you do need to pay attention to sizing as you go so that everything remains proportional.  I have to admit I had to take a couple blocks apart because I wasn't paying attention and didn't trim as I pieced the block.

Don't forget to keep track of your blocks and any notes on the pdf checklist found in our original quilt along post, here!

Here are my blocks for Section E:

Block #26 - 6"

Block #27 - 6"

Block #30 - 6"

Block #32 - 6"

Block #40 - 6"

Block #47 - 6"

Here are the Section E blocks in the order within the quilt.

Here is also a photo of all of the sections so far.  It is such a large quilt, making it difficult for me to take photos because my house has limited places to take the photo!  I think you can still get the idea.

Okay, now for our winner for last month's section, Section D.  Congrats Peggy, you won the $25 Etsy Gift Certificate to the shop!  I will contact you with details on your prize. Thank you so much to everyone who participated last month as well as thorough out our quilt along so far.

Our new prize for Section E will be a Color Theory Aurifil Mini Quilt Kit, shown below. This is such a neat kit because it not only has seven small spools of 50wt 100% cotton Aurifil thread, but it also has a Color Theory Mini Charm pack and a mini charm pattern called Lucky Star by Vanessa Christenson.  They are available in the Etsy shop as well, here.

To be eligible for this section's prize, simply link up a photo of your Section F blocks below before 11:55pm on March 31st.  After the link up closes a winner will be chosen at random and posted in Section F's post.  If you have any trouble or questions, just send me a message and I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.  Thanks so much again for stopping by and I hope you can join in with us!

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 4 - Section D

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and was able to get caught up on our quilt along! This month's section has five larger blocks, and they didn't take me too long.  So hopefully they won't take you too long either!

Section D

Block 4 - 24"

Block 7 - 18"

Block 9 - 18"

Block 14 - 12"

Block 18 - 12"

Below shows all five blocks together for Section D.  I might redo Block 4 because I am not sure that I like it with the others, but I am going to wait until I have all of the other blocks finished first.

And now for the exciting part, our winner for last month's Section C is Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt. Congrats Stacey!  I will get your red and white fabric bundle and Aurifil thread out to you as soon as possible.  Thank you so much to everyone for participating and I hope you continue to play along!

For our Section D prize, I figured I might change it up a bit, this month's prize will be a $25 gift card to the Etsy shop!  This way you can choose whatever you like.  Any suggestions for future prizes are always welcome, just comment below.

Note:  Gift card value does not include shipping costs, thank you!

Just add your photo link of your Section D below by February 15, 2015 and I will choose one entry at random for our Etsy Shop Gift Certificate!  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 3 - Section C Part 2

As you know from my previous quilt along post, I was terribly behind on my Section C blocks.  I am sure many of us had crazy Decembers, so hopefully this extra time helped everyone get caught up.  I just wanted to take a moment to post my photos of my completed Section C and remind everyone that you still have until 18 January to get your Section C photos linked up in my original post for this section.

Section C had only nine blocks.  Below are the block numbers, sizes, and photos of my blocks.

Block 3 - 30"

Block 11 - 12"

Block 13 - 12"

Block 15 - 12"

Block 16 - 12"

Blocks 48, 23, 24, 29 (from top to bottom) - 6"

Below is my completed Section C.  Please link up your Section C photos here to be entered for a great prize of fabric and Aurifil thread and floss.  And also remember you can print out your Gooba Designs MMBB block checklist here.  Hope to see your blocks soon!

Moda's Piece and Comfort Challange 2015 Starts Today!

Our shop is participating in Moda's Piece and Comfort Challenge starting today and I hope that you will join in!  This particular challenge serves to recognize and honor the sacrifices that are made by our country's military families.  As an Army family, we know the challenges facing military families first hand and we are so excited to be a part of this fun challenge.  Being an online only shop we will obviously not be able to display entry quilts in our shop, however we will have all of our shop entries displayed in an upcoming blog post on April 6th for everyone to vote on a shop winner.  We will also  show off our entries on our Instagram account as well!  Each shop's Viewer's Choice winner will receive a prize and be entered into Moda's Piece and Comfort national online quilt show.  The winners for the Moda's national online quilt show will be announced May 8th.

Now here is how to enter.  You can view all the information that you need for the challenge here or I can email you the information as well.  If you are interested in potentially participating email me at goobadesigns@gmail.com and I can send you an entry form and all other information.  You can either fill out the entry and email it back to me or send it to our address that will be included in the email sent. 

The challenge begins today, January 1st and runs through March 31st.  The two featured fabrics are Red, White & Free by Sandy Gervais and Because of the Brave by Moda.  We have a few Red, White & Free by Sandy Gervais pre-cuts and some yardage available in our Etsy shop, however you do not need to purchase fabric from our shop to enter your quilt with our shop.  If you are interested in purchasing from our shop, use the coupon code PIECE2015 for 15% off of any purchase with Red, White & Free fabric now through the end of the month or while supplies last!  (coupon code not valid for preorder items)

Hope to see your quilts soon!

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 3 - Section C

I know I am so late again this month getting the quilt along post finished, but we have had so many hurdles come up with our family and it has just been a bit difficult to keep up. That said, I am not finished with my blocks for this month, however I finished the 30" block, #3, that you can see below and I plan on getting the other eight finished and posted as soon as possible.  You can always reprint or check out our nifty printable pdf checklist for the blocks and sections in our original "Plan of Attack" post.

Because I am having trouble keeping up myself, I have decided to extend the date for linking up your Section C to 18 January 2015.  This way we can get the holidays out of the way and have a bit of time to catch up.  Plus, Section D/January only has five blocks so it should all balance out.  Hopefully you guys don't mind and I apologize again for having to change things around a bit and for not being terribly punctual.  

As I am finishing up the Section C blocks, I will post a couple more updates to show my Section C blocks as examples.  I will keep the photo link up on this post, so when you finish your Section C please come back to this post to link up.  You will have until 18 January.

Now for the fun parts!  First up is our winner for Section B, which is Peggy Aront. Congrats Peggy!  You should check out Peggy's gorgeous blocks.  She is using Denise Schmidt prints and her quilt is looking beautiful.  I cannot wait to see it finished.  Also, since I made you guys wait so darn long for this post, I would like to also send a little something to Stacey and Susan as well.  If you guys contact me via email, I will get your prizes out as soon as possible.  Thank you so much for participating and sharing!

And lastly, for our Section C prize, we have an Aurifil small spool sampler with six spools of different thread types in red (including Aurifloss) as well as six red and white fat quarters (all are 18" x 21" except for the white with red dots which is a 20" square).  The red is perfect for any holiday projects including Valentine's Day which is coming up in only a couple of months.  Any suggestions for future prizes are always welcome, just comment below.

Link up photos of your Section C blocks below to be entered for this months prizes. Remember link ups will be open until 18 Jan 2015 at 11:55pm EST, so don't forget to come back and show us your work!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks so much for quilting along or just checking out everyone's progress.  Happy sewing!

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 2 - Section B

First off, many apologies for the delay in this blog post!  I feel terrible that I have been so behind these past couple of weeks, however, hopefully this will not be an issue again in the future, fingers crossed.  And I am sure you guys who entered last month (you are awesome by the way) are wondering about the prize, so I won't keep you waiting any longer on that front.  If you haven't already done so, please check out everyone's entries for Section A.  They are wonderful and I am hoping to get more people to join in with us as we move along.

Our winner for Section A entries is #4 Stacey!!!  Thanks so much for linking up and I will contact you via Instagram or feel free to email me so I can get your prize to you as soon as possible.

Now on to the new stuff....Section B!  This section is nice because there are only three block, but as you know the one is monstrous.  Since there were only three, I will go through mention a few things about each of them along the way.

Block #1, 36"

So, I made this block first because I have to admit I have been itching to make this giant block ever since I first saw this pattern.  And it is definitely awesome, however I had a bit of trouble with mine.  Not so much with the construction, but with it not being the correct size.  Mine turned out about 1.5" too small...pretty hard to fix that much of a difference.  When I was piecing the center pieces (the red and white)  they went together fine, things lined up and all seemed well, however when I went to add the blue triangles around it they seemed really large.  So, I trimmed then down to have a quarter inch seem allowance on all side, which then of course made the next pieces too large.  After all the trimming I realized that wasn't very smart since now my block would not fit in its place!  After staring at my block for a very long time, I decided to remake the block.  I was not really loving how the block looked with the rest of my blocks either, so this just solidifies my decision to remake the block and change the colors as well.  Please let me know if any of you run in to any similar problems.  It is however very possible that I cut the center pieces incorrectly, especially since I was doing some middle of the night sewing.  Here is what I was thinking for the new colors.  A perfect blend of Sweetwater and Bonnie & Camille!

Block #5, 18"

This block was pretty straightforward and appears to have turned out fine.  I like this one!


Block #6, 18"

This block was super fast to piece since there were no half square triangles!

And here are the blocks all together (but not sewn yet since I have yet to make my Block1 replacement).

I certainly cannot wait to see everyone's Section B, but let's move on to the fun stuff shall we...this month's prizes!  This month the prize will be a Botanics by Carolyn Friedlander Aurifil 10 Small Spool Collection.  It includes 10 beautiful colors of 50wt 100% cotton thread for a total of 2,220 yards!  Please link up your Section B photos below by 11:55pm on November 30th for a chance at this awesome prize.

  

 
Also, please feel free to leave comments on this post for suggestions on futures prizes or any other question or concern you might have.  If you are on Instagram, please tag your quilt along photos with #modernbuildingblocksqal and tag me as well please @goobadesigns!  Thank so much again and hopefully you will join in on month two of our quilt along.

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: Month 1 - Section A

UPDATE:  If you are using a Moda Modern Building Blocks kit, you will want to follow the instructions to cut the pieces for the larger blocks first (and set aside) to make best use of the fabric provided in the kit. This was not mentioned previously and I just wanted to state that as soon as possible.  Thanks so much Lisa for bringing that to my attention and thanks to all of you for joining in! 10/4
 
Hi everyone!  Are you ready to kick off this Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along?  Well, I sure hope so, because I managed to finish the first set of blocks for Section A, so I know that you guys can too!  Check out my previous post for the quilt along to get an awesome printable checklist and see a few more details on how the quilt along will be broken down.  

This first month (October) we are completing the blocks in Section A, which includes numbers 8, 10, 12, 17, 19, 20, 39, 41, 42, and 44.  Cutting instructions for each block are located on the bottom of each block's card. If you are using the Moda kit then it is even color coded and has the Bella solid item number next to it for ordering purposes. 
I am not using the Moda kit or Bella solids, but actually a variety of prints.  All of my pieces so far have been cut from fat quarters except for one of the prints (Centerpieces in Vanilla from Wishes by Sweetwater) that I have used in several of the blocks of which I have used a half yard cut so far.  I am not totally sold yet on the approach I decided to take on this one.  I do hope that it turns out the way I am imagining it in my head, but only time will tell I suppose.  I am hoping after adding Section B my plan will be a little more apparent and that I will be a little happier with how it looks.  Can you see where I am going with it?

Here are the individual blocks from Section A in ascending order:

Block 8 - 18"

Block 10 - 12"

Block 12 - 12"

Block 17- 12"

Block 19 - 6"

Block 20 - 6"

Block 39 - 6"

Block 41 - 6"

Block 42 - 6"

Block 44 - 6'

And here they are all put together in Section A.

The link up below will be open until October 31, so you will have the whole month to get your first set of blocks finished.  You can definitely work ahead but please only link up one photo of your entire Section A blocks and this will enter you for this month's prizes, which includes a gorgeous Somerset Honey Bun and the Navajo Stars Pattern both by Fig Tree & Co. from my Etsy shop.

You can link up your photo at anytime during October and if you are an Instagram user please tag any of your photos for the quilt along with #modernbuildingblocksqal and you can tag me as well @goobadesigns.  I would love to see any of your progress!

An InLinkz Link-up

I sure hope you can join in on this quilt along with the Moda Modern Building Blocks quilt pattern at any point along the way.  I cannot wait to see everyone's blocks!  And, of course, any feedback is welcome and please feel free to contact me at any time. 

This post is also linked up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Modern Building Blocks Quilt Along: The Plan of Attack

Do you love the new Moda Modern Building Blocks Quilt Pattern?  Sampler quilts are so fun and this one definitely does not disappoint!  I would love some company while piecing it all together, which is why I want to host a Quilt Along; it would be the perfect opportunity to make this beautiful quilt and see others' versions along the way!  Did I mention prizes for participating?

Below, I have included a rough outline of my thoughts on how to organize the quilt along and based on your feedback I can perhaps determine if anyone is even interested in playing along.

The Breakdown

There are 48 total blocks that make up the quilt.  The sizes of the blocks vary from 6" up to 36".

In the "Block Placement Diagram" of the pattern, the quilt is already divided into seven sections, A through G.  I figured we could use that as a monthly guide.  For example, for the first month we would need to complete the blocks in Section A, then the second month complete the blocks in Section B and so on.  Some months will have more blocks than others, but perhaps it will allow time to play catch up if needed.

Section A:  Blocks 8, 10, 12, 17, 19, 20, 39, 41, 42, 44 (October)

Section B:  Blocks 1, 5, 6  (November)

Section C:  Blocks 3, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 29, 48  (December)

Section D:  Blocks 4, 7, 9, 14, 18  (January)

Section E:  Blocks 26, 27, 30, 32, 40, 47  (February)

Section F:  Blocks 21, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 46  (March)

Section G:  Blocks 2, 22, 25, 36, 38, 43, 45  (April) 

If you click on the chart below, you can get a pdf file of a checklist for the quilt along courtesy of my amazing sister (and graphic designer), Stefanie.

For each section, there will be a post at the beginning of the month talking about the blocks within the section and it will include an area to link up photos and/or blog post of your completed blocks/section for the month.  You will have until the end of the month to link up your photos and posts.  We will have a prize each month for a randomly chosen winner from the linked up entries!  At the end, we will have one grand prize winner chosen at random from all of our quilt top entries some time in May.  Prizes are still to be determined, but will be included in the monthly post for each section.

I still have a one Modern Building Blocks kits and a few patterns available in the Etsy shop if you need it or are interested.  I am also hoping to get some monthly kits put together as well, however that will depend on interest.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, so that we can streamline this event as much as possible.  I am super excited and I hope you will come and join the fun!  Oh, and did I mention PRIZES?!