One of the reasons I signed up for Around The Block was to have the opportunity to learn about patchwork and quilting from women who were way more experienced than me.  I haven’t had the opportunity to do any quilting courses, so am relying on books and the internet.   Before I make blocks using anyone else’s fabric, I intend to practice them first using some of my own.  Then I’ll end up with a sampler quilt of everyone’s chosen blocks in addition to the blocks that everyone in the quilting bee will make for me.

  Considering how little patchwork I’ve done, I thought I’d better practice with my scraps even before practicing on my own “good” fabric.  I started off by giving paper foundation piecing a go, and ended up with this block.

It’s actually a combination of four foundation pieced blocks (following the instructions here) and then I just added strips in a courthouse steps pattern to get it up to size (I’m making all these 12.5 inches just in case I want to join them together for a scrappy sample quilt eventually).  Then I gave birdhouses a try.

I really like paper foundation piecing!  Can’t wait to try some more.  But it was time to move off paper and on to log cabin blocks, since our first Around The Block participant has chosen log cabin blocks for her quilt.

I followed some instructions I found here for this one, with a 3.5 inch centre block and 2 inch strips.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do the maths myself – this gives a 12 inch finished block rather than 12.5 inches – no seam allowances to join it to the other blocks.  So I made another, this time with a 4 inch centre block.

12.5 inches square, yay!  I am really enjoying cutting bits of fabric out to join them back together again.  Next blocks on my practice list – some Wonky Houses and then maybe some Wonky Log Cabins.