This Week's Projects... Catching Up on SkillBuilder BOM and Improv Wall Hanging

This week will be a rather busy week, and I am not sure how much quilting/sewing I will actually accomplish.
Instead of a regular Summer Vacation Bible School our church is hosting Back Yard Bible Clubs in various neighborhoods in our community, these clubs will take place 4 different Saturdays throughout the year... The first one is this coming Saturday and we are hosting one in our backyard! Yikes, we haven't had enough "Spring" to really get our yard in order! Hopefully this week will be beautiful and I will get a lot accomplished in the yard and the house... And of course we are all praying for dry weather Friday/Saturday... We shall see.

As for quilting projects...

Last Thursday the April Skill Builders BOM from Alyssa @ Pile of Fabric was released, I hadn't finished March's (actually I hadn't started on them ;) last Thursday. I was really excited about the April blocks, but I absolutely wasn't going to start on April without doing March, so Friday I got to work on those blocks.

Block #5 wasn't bad at all, I whipped that one out in no time and I actually liked it. I have had some motivation issues with the Skill Builders BOM because I don't really like the fabric I am using for it. I am determined to use scraps, and most of these scraps are from a bunch of baby quilts I made when I first started quilting and while I love the fabrics in and of themselves, I just don't like them for this project.

Block #6 wasn't difficult in and of itself, but it was very time consuming for me. Just cutting out all of the HSTs and QSTs took me quite sometime. With this Skill Builders BOM I am not accepting "just okay." I am using this BOM to learn some foundational skills that I never learned when teaching myself to quilt, so I am determine to do things "right." 

I like the way block #6 turned out as well. I used coordinating scraps, from Clementine by My Three Sisters (I believe). 

So here is a picture of all 6 of my completed Skill Builder BOMs... I plan to "Quilt As You Go," but haven't gotten to that point yet. 

Like I said I was very excited about the April BOMs so as soon as I finished Block #6 I got right to work on Block #7. If I thought Block #6 was time consuming, well I hadn't met Block #7 yet :) 

It is a beautiful block using Traditional Paper Piecing Hexagons. Yes, I am hand stitching all 56 of them, and I love it. I did go with Alyssa's recommendation and ordered the pre-cut foundations. These pre-cut hexagons were definitely worth $5 I spent on them! I had to cut out 56 3 inch squares of fabric, and then glue all of them to the foundations, then trim the edges, then glue and fold the edges over each of the foundations before I could begin stitching them. 

Once I started getting all of those little hexies laid out, I really wanted to throw Block #7 to the wind, and start making flowers. Oh they make the most adorable little flowers, and I have wanted to work with hexies for so long, and just haven't had the time... But I didn't. 

There are all my little hexagons laid out, my block isn't as dramatic as Alyssa's because of the color combinations/prints I chose, but it is still cute. 

My hand stitching was not great at first, but after about 3 hexies, I started getting the hang of it, and I am really loving it. For those of you who are doing the Skill Builders BOM, yes I started piecing my rows/columns in a different order than the tutorial instructs. I am assuming it is going to be fine in the end. I just started piecing my color specific rows/chains, instead of in columns. 

Yesterday afternoon I put the hexies aside for a bit, since I had time to be in my sewing nook, and started working on my Improv Philippians 4:8 Wall Hanging. It was hard to get back into it at first, but after a bit I really started enjoying it and I love the way the second block is coming along!

I only finished two sides, but coming up with an idea I like is sometimes the hardest part. 

Side by side with the first finished block.

Obviously some spacing issues, but these are the other burlap "centers" that I will be using as part of this wall hanging. 

My big design/color dilemma is that I chose the fabric - Urban Mod by AGF because of the yellow, and wanting to bring more yellow into our living room... And well I keep using Kona Olive instead of instead of the Kona Canary because it is just so bright, and I am scared of that bright yellow. I am going to have to figure out a way to bring some of that yellow into this, while not allowing it to overpower the whole quilt. 

Any thoughts?

Linking up with Lets Get Acquainted by Plum and June, hosted this week by Kristy @ Quiet Play. 

If you love paper piecing (or are interested in it) you have to take a look at Kristy's blog, Quiet Play.