Blogger Girls Block of the Month for January

Happy New Year!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate a New Year than with a new project, and do I have a great one for you.

Monique Dillard, at Open Gate Quilts, has designed a new version of her Blogger Girls BOM and she asked me to help.  I'm completely excited about this, as you can tell from several past posts. Last year, Monique designed the entire quilt.  This year, she asked us to choose a block and she designed the setting.  If you followed along with last year, you will remember that those block were 12."  This year they are only 6" so it is an absolutely "doable" project.  You can get the list of materials and patterns over at the Blogger Girls Block of the Month II page.

Thanks to the generosity of Moda fabrics, I am using Grant Park for my version.  Remember, though, that last year I made it nearly completely from my stash.  I only bought background, as I didn't have enough of anything in my stash.
The other participating bloggers are:

Sherri from A Quilting Life
Lissa from Moda Lissa
Denise from Quilter's Window
Jodi from Pleasant Home
Monique from Open Gate

You will want to visit them to see what they are up to.

Once you have all of your instructions, you can get started.  Remember that the fun of this BOM is that you are going to make two versions of the same pattern and manipulate the values and fabric to get a totally different looking block!  The first block that I made is this one:

I love that it is a churn dash superimposed on a four patch!

The next version I did was this:

I had a problem though:  I fussy-cut a 2.5" square for the center unit, instead of using a 4-patch as the churn dash version had.  Hmm.  In this case, the blocks are not exactly the same.  Was this going to bother me?  I love the first block, and you know me, I love fussy-cutting.  

So I decided to make a different version of the second block, this time using a 4-patch just to see what I thought.

This was the result, and I have to say that I really like it, too.  So, since this is exactly like the churn dash block, I'm going to use it.

These 6" blocks are quick!  I had them done in no time.  The next step is to add the sashing.  If you add the sashing to each block now, it will be that much easier to put this quilt together.

The churn dash version all sashed.  Are you panicking?  Do you think it looks hard to do?  Don't forget, this is Monique who is designing the quilt--it is really easy.

And here is the second version.

I hope that many of you will play along, as it is really fun and free!  If you do, feel free to share you photos over at the flickr group that you can find here or you can share on Instagram.  Just hashtag your photos #bloggergirlsbom

Have a great day!

JoAnne