Block of the Month

A lot of quilters like to do Block of the Month programs.  Why?  Well, there’s a lot of reasons and they vary from person to person.  The two reasons that rise to the top for me personally are:  Social opportunity and personal challenge. 

Social

I’m socially clueless.  The Asperger’s is what makes me a good quilter; I’m methodical, can focus greatly on things that interest me, etc., but it’s also what prevents me from reading social clues and being able to make friendships the “normal” way.  So, I circumvent that by going to classes and clubs.  There, I automatically have a subject to talk about and can jump start some of that initial awkwardness.  I really like sharing and giving.  When I’m in a quilting group, there’s always an opportunity to share fabric, thread and patterns without putting a burden upon the other person.

The social awkwardness also prevents a lot of standard girl outings.  I really don’t know how to enjoy happy hours and sitting with a group of woman, talking at dinner daunts me.  However, when I go to a quilt retreat, I find it very easy to chit chat and have silent moments, with a group of women.  We are all there for the same thing, and enjoy working away on our own projects.  Quilting events are a place to be very individual, yet be in a group.  Yes, group sports in school were awful for me…..

Personal Challenge

Aka – thinking outside the box.  When left to my own devices, I would make everything in purple and probably use the same sort of pattern every time.  When I do a block of the month program, I can’t do that.  I’m forced into a pattern not of my own choosing, and even made to use colors and patterns I wouldn’t normally pick in fabric!

One block of the month that stands out in my mind was the first Scrap Tamers program that I joined.  The project was a mystery.  Since I had no idea what the finished product would look like, I threw all caution to the wind and went with a color palate that I normally didn’t touch – fall colors.  I actually really liked it when it was done! 

Current

I’m currently doing three block of the month programs.  One is a mystery and two were shown before starting the program.  The mystery is also the only one of the three in which I get to chose my own fabrics.  The overall result is that I’m doing a lot of things – color use, fabric pattern use, design – that I wouldn’t normally do.

Mystery:  This is another scrap tamers and I decided to black and dark reds.  My choice was based solely on looking at my shelves of smaller pieces of fabric and deciding that I had a lot of smaller pieces of various black background pieces.  I then sort of did a mental “enie, menie, miney” and settled on red for a complement. 

Paper Piecing:  I love paper piecing and I saw that a local quilt shop had a block of the month that was all about paper piecing.  The group is using a Carol Doak paper piecing book which was another big plus.  The book is called “300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks”. 

I was initially chagrined at having to purchase a $30 book for a group I joined for social outings.  However, I now cannot speak highly enough about the book.  It comes with a CD of the blocks… but not just a CD of patterns to print out – there’s a small program that’s really quite helpful.  It allows you to select a block and print it in ANY size that you want.  No more standing at the copier trying to get the size just right or redrawing it in Visio (graphing program) to get it perfect. 

Of course, that also means that I’ve now selected about a dozen other blocks and projects I want to do……

Pieced Blocks:  Last and not least at all, I’m well past the midpoint with a block of the month at Twin City Quilting.  This is my favorite for many reasons.  There were two choices for the fabrics for the quilt – Batiks or the Troy line (I keep hearing the name said, but have never seen it in writing, so I hope that’s right).  A pack of fabric is handed out each month.  Each person gets the same fabric (in the choice they’ve chosen), but they can chose to buy more, make the blocks in different schemes, etc.  I do like it when some of the choice it taken away, yet room is left for independence outside of that basic choice.  I also like having the fabric picked for me – I am forced to think outside my box, but still have a chance to make something different that the rest.

The best part about the whole program is how the shop owner has organized it.  It cost one fee to join initially. I can’t remember, but I think it was $25.  Each month, we meet, have a mini class, see what’s new in the shop, show and tell, etc., all the standard stuff. 

But, here’s where it’s different.  Unlike the other programs I’ve done, she actually holds us up to our commitment to “block of the month” and checks up!  We have to show our completed block before we can get the fabric pack for the next month.  If we don’t do the block in time for the class, we then have to pay $5 for that pack – a penalty! 

Conclusion

So, at this time, I have three blocks of the month to do each month – two are the first week of the month, and one is the second.  I am currently planning vacations around being in town for those important commitments.  I am up to date on all my “homework”.