Blocks from the Past

I am coming off of a very fun, but very busy month of July. I had visitors from France and spent three weeks showing them Arizona, Las Vegas and San Diego. It was a great time, but I sure am ready to get back to some serious creativity!

Enter the “Blocks from the Past” challenge some of my friends and I are doing. Seven of us bought the book “Teach Yourself Blocks from the Past” by Marie Henry and we’re going to attempt to make all 72 blocks in the book in 72 weeks. This is no small feat as many of these blocks are quite intricate.

On August 1st, we got an email, announcing our first four blocks which were selected at random from the book. I jumped right on it and completed all four in the first week. For once, I’m ahead of the game! It will never last. I give myself a couple of months until I’m behind! This was the first block I completed, it’s called “Cucumber.”

I decided to dive into my stash of 1930s reproductions for this challenge. The reason? Because I have over million different 1930s fabrics. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but I easily have close to a hundred 1930s fabrics which means I wouldn’t have to buy anything until it came time to set the blocks. Besides, I love 30s repros. The second block I finished is called “Aunt Sukey’s Choice.”

So, what’s the point of this challenge? It’s simply to help keep each other on track and inspired when making this quilt. We’ve set up a closed Yahoo group so we can share photos of our finished blocks and message each other with any comments, tips, frustrations, etc. Here’s the third block I created, “Flying Geese.”

I’m excited to see the other participants’ blocks. I know a couple of the women are doing theirs in batiks. Others will have a scrappy look. They will all be beautiful, I’m sure of it. This is my final block for August which is a paper pieced “Mariner’s Compass.”

I’ll be sure to keep you updated with my progress as I finish more blocks!