Wyoming Breezes

Seasonal Neighborhood Quilt of Valor 71 x 80 The Quilter's Neighborhood blocks have been finished over four years and have been moved from place to place in my sewing room for far too long. I wanted to finish the quilt, but I just couldn't find the right setting for the blocks. I searched everywhere for setting ideas (Pinterest, blogs, books) and even found some ideas that I thought would work; however, a lot of them were designed for much smaller blocks and would require major changes to accommodate these 12 inch sampler blocks. The setting that I finally chose from the book Sensational Settings by Joan Hanson also needed some alternations, but the top came together fairly quickly once I did a bit of math. In retrospect, I probably should have placed the trees in the center and the houses in the four corners, but it is what it is. Seasonal Neighborhood is Quilt of Valor #71 - links to all the quilts can be found here .

Carol's Fall Flower December Block The Quilter's Neighborhood I took some artistic license with the December block because I did not want to fuss with convex and concave pieces. If I had cut the pieces, I knew that none of them would have turned out the correct size, so I grabbed a pencil and created an adaptation. The directions called for lovely curved petals to form a chrysanthemum. My adaptation (see my pencil lines on the diagram) looks more like a star; thus, I am calling it a "Star Aster" rather than a chrysanthemum. All the blocks for the 2011 Block of the Month are finished. Now, I need to decide what to do with them. The complete set of Quilter's Neighborhood blocks. 

Susie's Summer Flower November Block The Quilter's Neighborhood This block was easy to make, but it contains a LOT of pieces, most are 2-inch squares with a few rectangles. This is by far my favorite block of the series. One more block and the Quilter's Neighborhood will be finished. The shop owner doesn't have any settings in mind for the blocks - she suggested seasonal table runners, but I won't be using them for that. Any ideas on how to set these blocks into an actual quilt?

Anna's Spring Flowers October block The Quilter's Neighborhood September's block challenged me with parallelograms, and this month the challenge was set-in triangles and squares for the  tulip. All of the Winter and Spring blocks are finished for this Block of the Month project. 

Mary's Winter Flower September block The Quilter's Neighborhood With this ninth block, I am working on the last set of blocks in the Blocks of the Month - seasonal flowers. September's block is an amaryllis. Cutting parallelograms was a little challenging, but I must have done it correctly because everything fit together easily. The Winter blocks of the Quilter's Neighborhood are complete, and only the flower blocks for Spring, Summer and Fall remain.

Carol's Fall Tree August block The Quilter's Neighborhood This is the eighth monthly block as well as the fourth and final tree block for the Quilter's Neighborhood. The next four blocks are supposed to be flowers of the season. I'll get the first one in a few days. I am disappointed with the sky and how the clouds on the right side are not going the same direction as those on the left, but the block kit did not include enough sky fabric. I can't complain too much: the block was free.

Susie's Summer Tree July block The Quilter's Neighborhood The third seasonal tree is Susie's Summer Tree. The sky fabric for this block is much darker than that on the Summer house block. Susie's Summer House and Summer Tree Only one more tree block in this series. I am not sure what the final four seasonal blocks will be, so I'll patiently wait until September when they will be revealed.

Anna's Spring Tree June block The Quilter's Neighborhood The Quilter's Neighborhood is focusing on seasonal trees to accompany the house blocks. The second tree is Anna's Spring Tree. The kit bag did not have enough of the sky fabric. Luckily, I had a small piece left over from the house block. It is the pieced area under the tree in the bottom left sky section. This time, it paid to save scraps.  Anna's Spring House and Spring Tree. Mary's Winter House and Winter Tree can be seen on this post .

Mary's Winter Tree May block The Quilter's Neighborhood The Block of the Month is now focusing on seasonal trees of which the first is Mary's Winter Tree.  Mary's Winter House and Winter Tree

Carol's Fall House April Block The Quilter's Neighborhood Carol's Fall House gave me fits on Thursday and Friday. The kit did not have enough fabric for the house and part of the quilt block. I was able to obtain some additional fabric for the house from the quilt shop, but I improvised the missing quilt block pieces from my scraps. I love the sky fabric in this block, as it looks just like an Autumn sunset. Quilter's Neighborhood Houses January - Mary's Winter House February - Anna's Spring House March - Susie's Summer House April - Carol's Fall House  Next month's kit will begin the trees of the four seasons.

Susie's Summer House March block The Quilter's Neighborhood House by house the neighborhood is growing. April's block will feature Fall and complete the neighborhood houses. I was told the following four blocks will be trees of the four seasons. The previous houses can be found here: February block - Anna's Spring House January block - Mary's Winter House

Anna's Spring House February block The Quilter's Neighborhood In March and April, two more house blocks will join Mary's Winter House and Anna's Spring House to complete the Quilter's Neighborhood. The Original version of Anna's Spring House on display in the shop used brighter fabrics. My BOM kits will all feature Thimbleberries fabric.

Mary's Winter House January block  The Quilter's Neighborhood The Quilter's Neighborhood is the Free Block of the Month program at Sheep Camp Quilt Supply. The first four months will focus on houses: one house is decorated for a each season with a quilt block. The following four months will feature trees dressed for the season, and then another set of four designs to finish the row quilt. The blocks can also be used for table runners or pillows. The program was supposed to begin in January, but the kits were not ready. On Saturday, I picked up both January and February's kits. The first kit (the pattern and enough fabric to make the block) was $10, and if the finished block is shown the following month, the next one free. If I do not finish the block in time, to stay in the program, I must purchase the next kit. By completing the blocks in the allotted time, I will have 12 blocks for the original cost of $10. The shop offered a choice between the Original version ...