May's quilt block - mountains

I'm very excited to host this month! I've tried to come up with a unique quilt that will be fun and rewarding for others to work on. I hope I have succeeded!

Hopefully you have all received the fabric by now. I have included three fabric prints, as well as white to be used as a background.

This quilt is inspired by a few quilts I have happened upon online. This is a good representation of the general idea I have in mind:

image source

There is a unifying theme, but each bee member designs their own interpretation of the theme. The above theme is, of course, trees.

My theme is Mountains. Here are the guidelines I have for the quilt blocks you will make:

1. the finished squares should be 14 1/2" by 14 1/2"
2. Each bee member will need to make two blocks
3. The block should be completely quilted - no appliques should be used (instructions follow)
4. there should be at least some background of the white material
5. At least one of the non-white fabrics I sent you should be fairly prominent in the quilt block
6. You can (and I would encourage you to!) use fabrics from your own stash in putting together your quilt blocks. Please, of course, try to use fabrics that complement those that I have sent you.
7. You can make your mountains as big or as small as you'd like; as detailed or simple as you'd like. Feel free to include other things that you feel go along with mountains as long as there is a mountain somewhere in the quilt block.
8. Please send back any scraps of the fabric that you end up having. I will use these to create the last couple of quilt blocks.

The blocks I did for Cheryse's quilt created a picture, but I didn't applique anything on: it was sewn into the quilt block.

 

It may seem complicated, but this was my first attempt at that and it came off surprisingly well.

Method:

Draw a 14" by 14" square. Decide what you want your block to look like and draw a picture of it, to scale, on the square.

Extend the lines of the picture so that you will be able to create it by sewing different pieces of fabric together. Make the shapes as blocky and simple as possible. Label what fabric you will use for each shape.

Use letters or numbers to indicate which blocks are adjacent to each other.

Cut apart the shapes.

You will then pin each shape to the corresponding fabric and cut it out, adding an additional 1/4" to all sides of the shape.

Sew the shapes together by matching the corresponding numbers or letters. Press seams toward the darker fabric. And, voila! you have a beautiful quilt block.

Although straight lines are obviously the easiest, don't be afraid to use slight curves to create the picture you want. More intense curves can be managed by clipping the curved part of the seam in order to make it lay flat.

I hope you have fun with this one! Please feel free to let me know if I need to explain or clarify anything.

Thank you!!

-Jennie