Foothills Quilt A Long--Last Chance

I learned about the Foothills Quilt A Long, by Mary Elizabeth Kinch about two months ago. Yesterday I decided to get started as I knew the information was not going to be online for much longer.  This information will only remain online until May 10, 2018--so you only have a few days left.

Based on an antique quilt with "Chain and Bars" blocks, this is a great project to play with your favorite fabrics.

First, go to the Blog and read all about it, Foothills Quilt QAL. Mary Elizabeth asks you to register,   then go to the information page with her very detailed photos and instructions.

Yesterday I took the time to read through all her posts on the Quilt A Long--before I did my "fabric pull". Her information is excellent--I was particularly taken with her proposal that you use this quilt to learn about your fabric choices and make this a "creative" process, not just a "production" process, like "how fast can I get this made?".  Even if you don't want to make this quilt, her description of how she did her fabric pull for her quilt is very informative--I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

I thought I would dig in my closet and spend lots of time pulling fabrics. First, I started with a shoebox under my cutting table that had lots of great reproduction fabrics. In less than 5 minutes I had pulled these and was done, happy with this eclectic group:

While Mary Elizabeth makes her units one piece at a time, I prefer to paper piece the flying geese units. I printed the patterns in Electric Quilt 8, a wonderful software program I've used from the beginning to create patterns and handouts:

Before trimming, front and back

Trimmed to sizr

Mary Elizabeth encourages you to make your blocks with your favorite method.

Here is my first block:

What I learned from this one: it's not my favorite and I'll make different fabric choices for the next block. But what I know for sure, in a quilt with many of the same blocks, not every one can be the "star", some have to be "supporting characters". This is one of those, it's not bad, but it doesn't make my heart sing either.

I'm off to teach the Sunday Sew and Sews now but I wanted to get this information out there right now in case you missed this opportunity and would like to try your hand at these blocks. There are terrific photos on Facebook and Instagram--the fabric choices are fun to see, some are very bright and contemporary, nothing like mine or the original antique quilt at all.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara