So much for "Finish" - I'm starting another new thing!

I really should finish some more of my UFOs, but something came up on my facebook feed late last week and I just have to join in.

It's the National Quilters Circle (NQC) Quilt Block Challenge *.

So instead of finishing more stuff, I'm starting on another new thing. Even more exciting than starting a new project is that I've also talked my sister into doing this with me (not that it took much convincing 😉).

The challenge involves making 9 traditional-style quilt blocks over 9 weeks using the "Snow Day Quilt Sampler" pattern by Andrea Smith of @HappyCloudCreations. One block per week is released and we should end up with a 56 inch square quilt  that looks something like the finished quilt below.

Snowy Day Quilt Sampler by Andrea Smith of @HappyCloudCreations

As you can probably tell from my more recent blogging history traditional quilts have not really been my thing. In all honesty, Half Square Triangles (HSTs), matching points, nesting seams etc scare me. But this challenge looks like just the thing to help me overcome my fears.

I joined the NQC Quilt Block Challenge facebook group and WOW!! With over 9,000 members its a super active group. I found my newsfeed being totally overrun with quilt pictures and talk of quilting. It made a nice change from the mostly political themed and junk posts that usually fill my feed, but I ended up having to unfollow the group just so the other things I follow didn't get lost in amongst it all.

The first block pattern was actually released last Thursday (23 Feb) so there have been lots of people posting their finished blocks on the facebook group and there are so many different colour variations that my mind boggled - there are just so many examples of combinations that I would never have thought of trying but surprisingly work really, really well.

I don't have a recipient for this quilt in mind yet to guide my fabric selection so I've ended up going for a combination of fabrics that I think is reasonably neutral/inoffensive.

My fabric choices for the NQC Quilt Block Challenge
Grey, yellow and navy blenders, with 'silver' Prima Homespun as background.

Looking forward to getting into this one and conquering that fear of HSTs. Let's see how it goes.

K

* I am not in any way associated with  NQC, which appears to actually be a US based brand rather than a traditional quilting guild, but the challenge looks like fun. There is an option to join as a paid 'premium' member of the site but that is not essential to take part in the challenge.