Another New Project....Sister's Ten Block of the Month

Because I don't have enough projects going on right now (cough, cough), I decided to follow along with an on-line Block of the Month program.  The great thing about this BOM is that it's free. And it only requires a few fat quarters (aka, small cuts of fabric) for the quilt, other than a bit of background fabric.  Since most of the background fabric is not needed until the finishing part of the quilt, which won't be until November & December, I was able to shop my stash and start this project. yay!

The blog that's sponsoring this, Gen X Quilters, describes this quilt as a way to honor the special women in our lives; all the blocks from now until October (that's where the 10 comes from....) are blocks named after special women -- grandmother, sister, mother, etc. -- and right then & there I was hooked; what a perfect quilt to make for two of the special women in my life, my mom & my sister.

With only nine fat quarters (wide quarter-yard cuts of fabric) needed to make the lap-sized variation, where each block finishes as a 9" square, it was easy to find fabrics in my stash and thus still hold true to my "no new fabric until some of these projects are finished."  Luckily I was smart enough not to commit to not adding new projects, just to not buying new fabric. Whew!

Gen X Quilters has all the details on her blog, on the Sister's Ten posts; if you're interested in the nitty-gritty, head over there and read all about it.  There is still time to join in, too, since she'll be leaving this up on-line for a while.

I chose to do a purple themed quilt for my sister, as that color is the awareness color for Chiari Malformation, which she has. A splash of a nice peachy-orange for contrast and color, and I think it will be a beautiful quilt. Since I am shopping only my stash, I also had to coordinate with something that I had enough of to serve as the background fabric; luckily I way overbought when I made the argyle baby quilt, so I have tons of the sweet lavender polka dot that works beautifully in this.

blocks for my sister

For my mom, I'm using the way honkin' extra that I bought when I did my red white & blue quilt; I bought that extra on purpose, because I so loved the fabric. Even after using it for this quilt, I should, hopefully, have enough to make placemats or something for myself still. My mom loves patriotic things; I can remember in all my earliest memories, once I learned to read, a Red Skelton Pledge of Allegiance on the wall in our home; love of country is a big deal to both of my parents, and I know my mom will love having a quilt that represents that (and shares a fabric with my quilt; she'll get a huge kick out of that part!). 

patriotic fabrics for Mom

The first Friday of every month, Gen X Quilters is posting the tutorial for that month's block; I'll post my photos on the last Friday of each month, which will give me time to get them done and keep me accountable to actually doing them. I am so excited to be doing this; to know that in December, I'll have two amazing Christmas gifts for two very special people in my life, and it will have cost me nothing but the batting and backing fabrics (I don't think I have near enough fabric in the background color of either to also be backing fabric, so I'll have to buy that; by then, though, I'll have enough of my other projects done that I can do so without breaking my "no new fabric" rule).  And since it's a Block of the Month, I only have to find time to make 2 blocks per quilt per month; I can fit this project in around all my other projects. Perfect!

all four finished blocks
two for my sister, two for my mom
January is done! Yay!

Have you ever done a Block of the Month quilt? Which one, and did you like it? I'd love to hear about it!