Sew Hometown: July

Last week I spent some time in Montana doing some camping with my husband and our four boys, my husband's parents and some family friends.  Now that we are back, and the laundry is finished and the trailer cleaned and ready for the next trip it is time to get back to quilting. 

Last night I made my July blocks for the Sew Hometown Quilt. These Improv Star Blocks were fun to make and introduce a new technique that we haven't done yet in this quilt along, Improvisational  Piecing.

Prior to this block I had done very little Improv Piecing, and it took a few pieces to get accustomed to the fact that the strips don't need to fit together, but once I started playing I really enjoyed it.  The great part is that you can use up some of those odd scraps that you have laying around. I first pulled out all the scraps that I had from this quilt already, than I chose one of my larger triangles to start with and added strips and triangles on to it, trimming sections off and adding more as needed to get to the required size. 

For the star points I decided to go scrappy as well and cut one square from all my fabrics. I used the Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper to trim before sewing to avoid drawing the lines on the back of each square. 

The general guidelines for the improv piecing are at the beginning of the calendar and if you click here you can see a quick video on the construction start to finish. 

If you don't want to do the Improv center, you can always substitute a solid piece of fabric into the center. 

I am thrilled with how this quilt is coming along, and I am in love with the dark background, the colors really pop off of it. 

Now I need to go catch up on my Moda Bakeshop Summer Camp quilt, I fell behind while on holidays. What are your sewing plans for the week?

 Kayla