It Has Begun!

I was SOO thrilled to see this post on Instagram earlier this week. Patty is the first person to participate and share her blocks. It was so great to see someone as excited as I am!

This weekend was a great time for me to start my personal quilt to donate. I'm not very patient when it comes to waiting on others, so I figured I'd work on my own quilt while I wait for blocks to start arriving :) I decided on red, white, and blue because when I found this fabric bundle, I fell in love!! It was so busy and patriotic, I couldn't turn it down! I thought it would be perfect for this project, AND for the November challenge "Design Your Own Quilt" at the Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild. 

So yesterday I cut out forty 8in blocks, 8 of each of the 5 fabrics. I had tons of scraps and wasn't sure what to do with them so I started sewing them onto the squares. No two blocks ended up the same. Some had diagonal designs, like above, others had straight strips added on. Each block stayed at 8in though. I did half with scrap "designs" and half stayed as plain blocks. 

Next, I laid all the blocks on the floor and played with the final layout. I didn't want two of the same fabrics side by side, it took a little while, but eventually I got it figured it. With no help from this guy, of course! Luckily, all the rows were already sewn together!

This is the finished quilt top! I must say, I LOVE IT! I felt like I got it done so quickly too. 

Today, with quilt top done and backing in hand, I decided I needed to add some pzazz to the back of the quilt. I took the scraps I had left, and made a scrap block for the back. I'm keeping the outcome a secret until the very end!

Quilting on this beauty started, but I'm not expecting to finish it quickly. I'm new to machine quilting (I was taught hand quilting on the block corners with embroidery thread) so I plan on taking my time. Not to mention, I want this quilt to be as perfect as it can be!