As I pull out my old quilting projects and get back to work I worry a bit about my rusty skills. Never fear a new Modern Quilt-A-Long is here!

Starting just this month the And Sew We Craft Blog will be posting a block a month from the book Modern Blocks by Susanne Woods.

So I begin by trying to decide what fabric I will use. I decide that I really should be using my old stash so I pull out the tubs. Now I know that this is supposed to be a modern quilt a long but what is my eye drawn toward?

yeah….about as far from modern as you can get. By the way this is by a company called Hollytex that’s all it says on the selvage.

Sooo I decide to use this as an inspiration for color…still not modern but I have a whole lot of different fabric with that indigo blue color and I’d like to use it. So I pull, blue not a problem. The yellow/orange is virtually non-existent save for one fat eighth of hand dye and I decide to add a grey for moderns sake. After a few purchases I have basically ended up with this (there are actually a few more fabrics that didn’t make the picture, no other colors though, that may have to change but what to add?)

Let’s just say the picture does not do the colors justice. I worry a bit about not having enough colors but I soldier on and pull up the post about the first block. It is called Follow the Leader and as I suspect I learn things. For example, I need a new rotary cutter because mine has disappeared. No matter, it allowed me to buy an Olfa which is cool because in my day we were all using Fiskar’s and they don’t seem as popular anymore. I also forgot how much rulers can slip on fabric when trying to rotary cut them.

 I also decide to try chain piecing for the first time

It went rather well. The cutting was like riding a bike.

(Note my iPad in the corner carefully guiding me with the instructions from the website) Of course my husband who has never seen the act of quilting decided to try his hand at creating my block and came up with this

hmmm, perhaps not what we were going for but I’ll keep him around for future projects 😉

In the end I did this (note the fabric in the top right with the year 2000 on it, that would be some millennial fabric)

No, it is not really the same as it was shown in the instructions as far as color placement, use of color and amount of colors but, well, I guess this is how I follow the leader.