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In this month, we will be working with half square triangle (HST) blocks. When I was designing this row, crazily I paper pieced the half-square triangles (I know, I know) because the size of the block was sort of odd to make the row end up exactly 72 inches. I'd like to say I quickly came to my senses, but that was after I'd pieced the whole row!  It just seemed so unnecessary to paper piece an HST! So I reworked the size to have the row finish the correct size and not have the HSTs finish at a measurement...

  In this month, we continue working with my favorite tear-less method of foundation paper piecing. When I was originally designing the block, I started with much smaller hexagons that were traditionally pieced. I quickly realized it was much harder to make a traditionally pieced hexagon accurately and that most normal people wouldn't want to make so many tiny ones!  I hope you enjoy the version that made it into the final quilt. I'm so in love with the colorway for this row from the mutli colorway. Give me hot pink and ochre any day! Have fun this month!   ...

When I was developing this block for the Traverse BOM, I originally wanted to paper piece it with the traditional, sew through the paper type foundation paper piecing, but I didn't want folks to have to print a lot of copies and I didn't want to give you a 100 page pattern! I had always used freezer paper piecing in the past. If you took any of my earlier in-person classes for foundation paper piecing, you will remember that I made everybody draft their own freezer paper patterns with a ruler and a pencil. And while it totally works, it...

I am so excited for this month because this is the first month in the BOM where we use my favorite technique for foundation paper piecing!  When I was designing the quilt, I tried to construct the O Blocks with just traditional piecing and they just weren't fun or accurate (for me at least!).  In the past, I had always used freezer paper piecing, but the manufacturing of freezer paper has changed over the years, making it more resistant to sticking to some fabrics when ironed. My new method is a marriage between freezer paper piecing & traditional foundation paper...

This is one of my favorite blocks in the whole quilt. Do I say that every month? It feels true every month! I came up with this block quite a few years ago when I was making a quilt for Color Collective and I couldn't quite figure out how to piece it without it being overly complicated. Finally, I realized that if I trimmed an hourglass block, it would give me exactly the look I wanted!  I spent a fair amount of time messing around with the design on the computer and getting really excited about how if you offset...

Happy New Year! This month in the Traverse BOM Sew Along, we are creating several rows of little square dots.  When I was designing the quilt, I wanted to add rows that would sparkle and compliment the overall design, rather than be the star players. We already made the flying geese in Month 1 and now we are adding the square dots to the mix. These rows are also the only ones where there are multiple rows in different colors, again to add sparkle, but also to act as a unifying element throughout the quilt. You can see from the progress pictures...