Better late than never.....

I have a quilting project to share with you today.  I enrolled on the Sugar Block BOM Club (Block of the Month) for 2013 and managed to get my January block completed within a couple of days of receiving the pattern/instructions (check here if you missed the post showing my first block). 

February's block, however, has taken me way outside my comfort zone and despite receiving the pattern/instructions on 1 February, I spent the whole month just thinking about it !  I am very new to quilting and self-taught, learning all I know from books, magazines, YouTube videos and other internet sources.  I've mastered simple piecing/patchwork techniques and created a number of finished quilts and other projects, but very few more intricately pieced patterns.   February's block was created using English Paper Piecing which I hadn't tried before. 

Here's my finished block

 

I was determined to try and master this technique, but I did find it really 'fiddly' and I'm not too happy with the finished block.  I did struggle quite a bit and in fact had to redo the centre square as my first attempt was just a mess !  You will notice from the pic that I didn't manage to get all the sections aligned exactly, despite stitching and unpicking a couple of times.  I guess I need to practice this method of block construction a lot more if I wish to create quilts with more intricate designs !  Well, it was my first time though. 

My two pals Linda and Karen and myself agreed we would all share each block on our blogs on the last friday each month.  Sadly, I didn't manage to get my February block completed in time - sorry girls.   I've been suffering from some sort of nasty virus over the past 2/3 weeks and am only just feeling a little better and able to get back to my crafting, so only finished my block yesterday.

Probably not worth waiting for, but a valuable lesson learned - it's always good to step outside one's comfort zone and try new things I think, but I can't help but hope that the blocks for the rest of the year don't have too much English Paper Piecing in their construction !

In complete contrast to February's block, I have already completed the March block - in fact I just carried straight on after finishing the February block and did the March one, which I felt was so much easier to do !  I'll be sharing that block with you on the last friday of March when both Linda and Karen will hopefully have finished theirs too and we will all be sharing our blocks on the same day.

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project.  I have a number of  'Thank You' cards to make and send out, so will be sharing those on here in the next couple of days.