Modern Block Monday - Kickoff

As I mentioned yesterday in my goal-setting post, I want to try doing a block a week from Modern Blocks, compiled by Susanne Woods. I've been lusting after the book every since I saw Angela Pingel's It's a Stretch block.

Now, I'm not a block person. The second quilt I ever tried was a sampler block quilt for my husband for our wedding. It was a disaster! I could not do a 1/4" seam if my life depended on it so just imagine what a Tree of Life block looks like without consistent 1/4" seams. Can't picture it? Well, here it is.

Since that debacle, I've largely done strip quilts or other quilts where it didn't matter if it was 1/4", just that it was consistent. I seem to have no problem getting a consistent 5/8" seam so I usually do that. But when I became a better quilter, I thought that I really should be able to do a 1/4" seam. Right? So I dutifully bought a 1/4" foot a few years ago and tried again.  Still not consistent -- it's always either too scant or too full. Grrr!

So one of my other goals this year is to practice getting a proper 1/4" seam this year. This is the year I will master a 1/4" seam! Sure enough, put a goal out there and someone will help you achieve it. I got a great suggestion from Kit and Shanna about using a 1/4" foot with an outer bar. Say what? Such magical things exist? I'll be looking for that foot this week.

Back to Modern Block Monday. I was going to start it next week, but I couldn't wait.

All the blocks in the book finish at 12". As I'd like this modern sampler quilt to be bed-sized, I think I'm going to do it quilt-as-you-go so I'll make the background and sashing black and used these solids from my stash in the blocks. I think most of them are Heritage solids from my local Fabricland.

While I really wanted to start with Angela's paper-pieced It's a Stretch block, I haven't had a chance to get the foundation photocopied and enlarged yet. I went with another block that I just love, which is just pieced. 

This is Jessica Brown's Pinball Machine. In the book, she did this block in green and blue. I tried adding a third colour and am very pleased with the effect. Of course, it's not pieced correctly. The black centre square is not in the same place as Jessica's, but I still think it works. And my 1/4" seams aren't too far off either. Yay!

The block next week will be It's A Stretch. Very keen to do that one! If anyone is interested in doing this challenge with me, let me know. I think it would be really cool to see these blocks in different fabrics and colours and I don't mind setting up a linky party on these posts.

Happy Monday!