TO SEE ALL BOM POSTS AND PDF's VISIT THE BOM PAGE HERE

Have you started planning your projects for 2013? During Reader Appreciation Week here at Pile O' Fabric, one of the giveaway questions I had asked was what some of your 2013 goals are. Here are some of the goals I heard from you all…

• learn different piecing methods like paper piecing, curves, etc.
• learn how to Free Motion Quilt, and practice it often
• conquer a larger quilt
• finish at least one entire quilt in the year

Those are much of my similar goals, so I took that feedback and decided that I will be hosting a FREE Skill Builder Block of the Month (BOM) here at Pile O' Fabric.

BOM Goals

My ultimate goal with this BOM is that you and I walk away in December 2013 with new skills or refreshed and sharpened. This BOM is definitely challenging myself in many areas so we will be learning together. If you are a beginner quilter, I encourage you to jump in with no reservations and just have fun with it, there may be some real easy blocks, and then some real hard ones, but just give them a try! If you are an advanced quilter, I encourage you to take a little refresher on these techniques and sharpen your skills. As a newer quilter myself, I also hope that you will share your opinion and expertise with me and the others. For example you may think, "Wow there is a way easier way to do this" if so let me know so we can all learn together. I want us to walk away with confidence in Free Motion Quilting, experience with quilting as you go method, and experience with multiple piecing techniques.

BOM Details (updated)

This BOM will have a total of 20 blocks, 2 blocks per month. On Thursday, January 17th, 2013 I will post the first lesson. On the 3rd Thursday of the month I will post the Block Lesson, which will include photo step by step instructions of the 2 blocks for that month (with occasional video tutorials). You will also be given a PDF of the lesson so you can print it off your computer. Then 2 weeks later I will post the FMQ Lesson, in this lesson I will go over how to plan the ideas for these blocks, and the actual quilting. That way you have about 2 weeks time to make the blocks before I start talking about actually quilting. Ultimately you have 4 weeks time between each set of 2 blocks.

Lesson Techniques

Here are the techniques we will be working through.

• Basic Patchwork Piecing
• Improv Piecing
• Strip Piecing
• Foundation Paper Piecing
• English Paper Piecing
• Curves Piecing
• Applique
• Pixel Piecing
• Log Cabin Piecing

January through October we will be piecing and quilting our blocks. In November we will add our borders and in December we will piece our blocks and borders together! To see the exact schedule visit this page.

Quilting and Piecing the Quilt

Something that makes this BOM a bit unique is that we will be quilting all the blocks as we go. Now this may be a new method to you all, do not fear it is actually very easy and fun! The QAYG method I will be teaching was inspired by Leah Day's method which uses binding strips to piece your blocks. I decided to do QAYG because I really want you all to get quality Free Motion Quilting experience without stressing out about the bulk of the quilt. In each FMQ lesson I will be sharing with you all the details of my machine quilting. For example how I decided what to quilt on each block, any challenges I experienced while quilting, and advice and tips. My hope is that you will approach free motion quilting on each block with no fears ready to play and just go for it. My experience with Free Motion Quilting thus far has been highly inspired by Angela Walters, Leah Day, and Sharon Schamber. I will be teaching many of their methods and directing you to their tutorials as well.

The Blocks and Quilt

I spent a few weeks designing these blocks. Some of them are based on classic designs you have seen before, and some I designed from scratch. Since I have not made the blocks yet, there may be slight changes or adjustments as we go, but here is what the quilt should look like when we are done.