Blogger Girls BOM

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe it is already the 21st of May.  At the beginning of the month I was busy, so I put off making this month's blocks for the BOM, so I tackled them yesterday.  There is only one more month left!  It will be fun to have the quilt all together, but it will be sort of sad to be finished.  I'm having lots of fun making these blocks.

In case you aren't familiar with the program, it is free and by Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts.  You can find the details here.  The idea is that you can make two of the same blocks, but alter color placement in order to get two very different blocks from the same pattern.

Here are this month's blocks.  I found them more difficult to "change" than some of the others.

In the first block, I always use my focus fabric, usually "fussy cutting" it.  The focus is the stencil-like fabric with the motifs.  Don't worry, this is an example of poor photography (for some reason) and not poor quilting.  I cut the tips of those points off while taking the picture and I didn't notice it until I put everything away!

Here is my second block.

I must add here that once I got the components (flying geese, square in a square, etc.) completed, these took a little altering.  In the top one, I initially had a red square in the center (Instead of the roosters) and it was way too much red.  On this second block, I had the centers all green for a while, but then decided that a variety of colors might be better, and I do like the look. 

I also have the center of my Bee Sampler quilt done.  All it needs are the borders. 
I had begun this project with Thimbleberries fabrics, but fell out of love.  The problem I had in selecting fabric was that in the original pattern, there was a butterfly block on the left side, and a tulip block on the top left.  Our bee leader decided to substitute the Buggy Barn's buggy wheel pattern for the tulips, and then suggested a substitute for the area where I put the flag.  Well, once I realized we could switch things out a bit, and I knew one area was long and skinny--I knew I would put a flag in there.  It was easy to take out the butterfly block and make the whole thing patriotic!  It came together really quick after that.

 

 

My next challenge is the outer border.  The design features some little pieced flowers, but thanks to my lessons in the Blogger Girls BOM, I'm thinking I can alter placements so it doesn't look flowery.

 

 

I hope all of you are safe from the horrible weather!  My prayers are going to those in Oklahoma.

 

JoAnne