350 Blocks Project: April Report

I finally started my Helicopter quilt this month! I designed it a couple of years ago, and I've been collecting fabrics for about a year and a half. My goal was to have enough fabrics for every helicopter seed to be unique. Once I achieved that, I had to wait to be able to get all of my background fabric from a single dye lot. The fabric I chose for the background is Hemp from Hoffman Fabric's collection of hand dyed watercolor batiks

Cutting for this quilt requires a fair bit of organization. I was able to set up an extra folding table to keep everything in order. The only place for the table was in front of the bathroom door, so I got to crawl under it whenever I needed inside. Quilting is always an adventure! At this point, about 1/3 of the quilt has been cut, and the table is back in the closet.

I had a lovely four-day retreat with friends at Windy Stitches this month, and I spent most of it working on the blocks for this quilt. I'm paper piecing them, and I'm loving how accurately they come out. The points are beautiful!

I was able to finish 25 blocks in April. I made one sample while I was cutting, and I sewed the remaining 24 at retreat. It feels amazing to see this coming together in fabric after so much time spent planning.

After I got home, I spent a little bit of time working on my Roller Rink quilt. I've chosen to go scrappy instead of strip piecing. So far, all of my squares have been sewn into pairs. Next, I'll be sewing 2/3 of the pairs into fours, and the other 1/3 will get one more square to make sets of three. This project has been on the back burner since October, and I'm excited to be working on it again.

Block Totals

April Total: 25
Year to Date Total: 123
Year to Date Goal: 103

So far, I'm staying on track. But the goal for May is 46 blocks! I don't have high hopes, but we'll see what happens. If I'm able to get enough sewing time, I may be able to finish my Roller Rink blocks. I'm planning on making 42 of those.

If you're interested in the 350 Blocks Project, you can get all the information on how it works here. You can see the monthly goals and everyone's progress here.