Wrapping up the 100 Days 100 Blocks 2021 project

The 100 Days 100 Blocks Kinship sampler sew-along is approaching the finish line—next Friday, October 8. Over the last three months, I've been piecing the sampler blocks in batches, using fabrics from several of the fabric companies I rep. Here's a look at the journey...

Blocks from the 2021 100 Days 100 Blocks sew-along.
Fabrics from Dashwood Studio and Simply Primitive batiks from Batik Textiles.

Australian Aboriginal designs

In July, I started the 100 Days 100 Blocks program with Australian aboriginal prints from M&S Textiles Australia. The bold colors and aboriginal designs offer a lot of interest and movement. These prints definitely keep the eyes moving across the fabric. Several of the blocks have made it into the center section of a new quilt top.

Progress on the center section of a quilt top.

Felicity Fabrics bridges traditional and modern styles

The next batch of blocks features prints from the Nightfall Floral collection and basics from Felicity Fabrics. The prints from Felicity are ideal for patchwork—smaller scale prints in contemporary color schemes that maintain their presence even when cut into smaller units. The Felicity basics are familiar, tried-and-true designs that support and coordinate with a range of focal prints.

Fabrics from Felicity Fabrics.

A contemporary European flair from Dashwood Studio 

Next up is a batch of blocks made with fabrics from the UK company, Dashwood Studio. These fabrics are relatively new to US quilt shops. The prints have a continental, contemporary feel and the Twist basic line has a random seed pattern that offers subtle movement with an easy flow.

Blocks made with fabric collections by Dashwood Studio.

Aviary, Hedgerow, Habitat and Twist fabric lines from Dashwood Studio.

Mixing in primitive style batiks from Batik Textiles

The last batch of blocks incorporates prints from Dashwood Studio with the Simply Primitive batik collection from Batik Textiles. These unique batiks have a minimalist design style and a dusty, darker color palette—quite unlike what usually comes to mind when people mention "batik." The sparse designs of the batiks provide a contrast with the more detailed cotton print deisgns from Dashwood Studio. The darker colors shift the focus to the brighter prints and offer a richness and sophistication to the patchwork blocks. 

Simply Primitive batiks mixed with prints from Dashwood Studio.

I'm having a particularly good time choosing and coordinating the colors and textures of the batiks with the Dashwood Studio Habitat collection. 

The Habitat collection features animals from all parts of the world.

This is my fourth year participating in the 100 Days 100 Blocks project. It's always a fun project and it keeps one's patchwork skills finely tuned!

Ask your local quilt shop [YLQS] for these fabric lines and start your own sampler block project.

September Textile Love... and other sew-alongs

The 2021 September Textile Love Challenge [#septtextilelove], hosted by Seam Collective has started! This is my third year participating.

Day Four prompt: Method/technique—bobbin work.

Responding to daily prompts

2021 September Textile Love daily prompts.

The daily prompts for September Textile Love are thoughtful... and the interpretations by the participating fiber artists are even better! I've been introduced to textile artists from all over the world and their work through this challenge.

As I search for appropriate photos to post, it's making me analyze my pieces in more depth. I have to formulate descriptions and express—in words—my thoughts about the work and/or the process. This is not that easy, but I know it's a good practice. 

I hope to learn a lot from reading the posts by the other participants. 

100 Days 100 Blocks Challenge

I've also kept up with the 100 Days 100 Blocks Challenge. Today's block is number 67 and I'm on my third fabric line. Here are blocks using M&S Textiles Australia.

100 Days 100 Blocks with Australian aboriginal fabrics from M&S Textiles.

... and the center section of a quilt top is pieced.

Center section using nine blocks from the Kinship Sampler pattern.

Below is a potential layout for the Felicity Fabrics blocks.

Auditioning a layout for my Felicity Fabrics blocks.

The Dashwood Studio blocks are the latest addition to the program.

Blocks from 100 Days 100 Blocks made with Dashwood Studio fabrics.

Other Challenges I'm involved in

I continue to work on my Make Nine projects for 2021 and practice daily stitching using my Stitching Success Tracker. 

There's lots of stitching and talking about stitching going down this month. What's your plate overflowing with?

I've joined the 100 Days 100 Blocks 2021 quilt-along with M&S Textiles Australia

It snuck up on me this year, but I decided to again participate in the “100 Days 100 Blocks” quilt-along. This is my 4th year. 

It’s gonna be a riot of color and pattern... 
     'cause for 2021, I’m using Australian aboriginal fabrics from M&S Textiles Australia. 

Blocks from the 100 Days 100 Blocks Quilt-along 2021.

My Fabric Pull

Classified as a “Go bold or go home!” color story, these are several of my fabric picks.

Fabric Pull for 100 Days 100 Blocks 2021. Fabrics from M&S Textiles Australia.

The Kinship Fusion Sampler

This year, the quilt-along coordinator, Angie at @gnomeangel, has offered a few layouts that use subsets of the 100 blocks to make smaller quilts... or possibly multiple quilts. I have a *tentative* goal to make a quilt top with a subset of my 100—even before I've finished piecing all 100 blocks. (Let's see if this works out...). I saw one layout that uses about 20 blocks that I'm considering. 

I'm having fun doing selective cuts [fussy cuts] from the Aborigianl fabric designs this year. I'm also learning a lot by auditioning my fabric pull... considering which fabric will be a background and which will be the focus. Below is a selection of blocks from the first 25.

Block 1 with a focus cut in the center.

Block 15 with a focus cut center.

Block 17 with focus cut wheels in the center 4-patch.

The blocks in this sampler quilt are alternately 8.5" x 8.5" and 8.5" x 4.5" (unfinished sizes).

Block 24 is 4.5" x 8.5" (unfinished).

With this quilt-along, quilters gain proficiency with sewing a 1/4" seam and learn the value of "spinning the seams" to minimize bulk at intersections. My stitch length is set at 2.2.

Spinning the seams in Block 7 (back view).

100 Blocks Quilt-along time table

The 100 Blocks 100 Days quilt-along goes from July 1 through October 8, 2021. Gnome Angel provides a downloadable Event Tracker to keep participants organized. With 25% completion (today, July 25), it's going by fast and looking' good so far. Perhaps with this being my 4th year, I know what to expect and how to manage the process.

If you haven't tried an online quilt-along, consider this one. You can join in any time.