May 2018 Block of the Month

Hi Fellow Quilters,

Welcome to our 2018 Block of the Month!  We’d love to have you join our Facebook group,  2018 BOM  (if you haven’t already joined us!) to share comments, ask questions, and share photos of the projects that you’re making with our blocks.  It is so much fun to see the variety of projects that are produced by other creative quilters.  If you’ve just found us, you can catch up on previous block of the month posts on our BOM page .

When I was a kid in Montana, summer was a great time to gather with our extended family at a local park for a Sunday picnic.  Everyone brought their special dishes, and we’d share a delicious meal.  Aunt Betty brought her yummy fried chicken, Grandma made fresh fruit salad, Aunt Ruth would bring her famous carrot cake, and Mom made potato salad (my favorite!).  Grandpa would choose a watermelon, and it would be cut into generous slices so we could enjoy the juicy goodness.  (And now my mouth is watering, isn’t yours!)  After lunch, the cousins would play together while the adults had a nice visit.  This month’s block is called “Summer Picnic”, and I hope that you’ll find it simply delicious!

The “Summer Picnic” block is foundation paper pieced, with appliqued seeds and a few embroidered ants to dress it up.  (You can’t really have a picnic without some ants showing up to share the bounty, can you?)  I chose a printed blue and white sky fabric for the block background.  The watermelon is a delicious red, with light and dark green fabrics for its rind.  The tablecloth is a sweet small-scale print with little stars.  This pattern is fairly easy, so it would be appropriate for most quilters who have some experience with paper piecing.

The pattern is available to purchase in Ms P’s Pattern Shop!

Here’s the fun summer quilt that I made with the watermelon block:

I chose a simple pieced frame for the Summer Picnic miniature quilt.  My first step was to add a narrow border, matching the inner rind fabric.  The outer border is made from red and white flying geese block units, with a red square at each corner.  The quilt’s binding is the same dark green as the outer rind.

The pattern is available for purchase from Ms P’s Pattern Shop!

Thank you for stopping by for a  visit today!  I hope that you’ll enjoy making your Summer Picnic paper pieced block.  If you’d like to share a picture or see projects from other quilters, please join our Facebook group,  2018 BOM  and post your quilt photo.We love to read your comments, so let us know what you think!

Until next month- Happy quilting,

Sharon