Technicolor Madness?!

If I've said it once (every year), I've said it 100 times:  I want to push myself, learn more techniques, try new things this year.  Last year I did my first Block of the Month, so this year I wanted to do another one. When I saw Pile O' Fabric Skill Builder BOM ~ Technicolor Galaxy I thought perfect!  It's my BOM, new techniques, pushing myself all rolled in to one!  

Alyssa out did herself on this design!  It's packed full of techniques I have never tried. When My first thought 'perfect' quickly turned into 'Oh Crap' what have I gotten myself into?

I enrolled in the class and soon decided I should order the front fabric kit. I didn't want to become stressed out thinking about fabric choices.  

Then I realized I needed the templates.  And some of the skill builder supplies.  Another order was placed.  Oh Poop...I should have ordered the preprinted templates of freezer paper and stabilizer...too late for that as there were none available at that time.  Since I ordered packages of the papers to print myself, I did just that.  But I soon realized I didn't order enough stabilizer.  Another order.  Darn it...I ordered the wrong stuff...another order...

SO you can see how this went down!  So much for trying to keep the stress level at a minimum!

I pieced together the templates and was ready to roll!

After piecing the templates, I cut and placed them in their own little bags! I love to be organized and this made me happy!

Supplies!!  Isn't it fun to get new sewing toys?!  I have never used design sheets, Elmer's glue or fusible bias tape web.  This is going to be interesting! 

The front fabric kit.  A beautiful rainbow of colors and fabulous neutrals.  I have a lot to pick from for the color wheel and the rest of the front.  That layer cake of Kona solids made my heart beat a little faster...heaven!

Block #1 ~ The Color Wheel

Wanna talk about intimidation?  Oh, my!  I stared, hemmed and hawed, took a lot of deep breaths and decided to just suck it up and deal!  Pick some fabrics, starch, cut and do it. After all this is about skill building and if it looks like a pile of 'yuck'...so be it!

Good start.  I think.  Do not over think, do not over think, do not over think!

Much better.  It feels pretty good.

I decided on these prints for the next round, but I must have tried 50 different combinations before I settled on this.

Last round...

Okay, I'm satisfied for the most part.  Time to glue and iron the pieces to fabric!

I had so much fun with this part!  A great big puzzle!

And then I got to this part.  The fun abruptly stopped.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures for the bias tape process.  I will say it was a royal pain in the ass.  Sorry, but it was.  Basically you use the design sheets and with an iron press the tape on the lines of the sheet.  It shapes the tape and in the end it becomes this big piece of circles.  After gently removing it from the design sheet you get to slide it onto the fabric.  

At that point, I was trying to be super, super careful to make sure all the seams were covered.  Move a little here, tug there, repositioning over and over.  And I thought I did just that.  I ironed the bias tape on and began to sew it down. Being careful.  Stay close to the edge.  There were a couple seams that didn't make it, so I ripped and fixed!

Free Motion quilting was next.  Knowing that this is also a Quilt-As-You-Go block, I had to think hard on thread colors and design.  It was going to be seen on the back after all.  

Going for it!  I said 'whatever' I'm using a rainbow of colored thread!  Why not?!  I decided on some basic designs for each round and went to town! 

And, I was okay with it.  My FMQ is getting better, but it isn't perfected.  I kind of dig the rainbow of thread colors.  So I reminded myself that this was a skill builder once again!

Block #1 is done for this month.  Whew ~ yeah, I'm relieved.  I have to think this is the most difficult block of the project.  

After I finished the quilting, I noticed that there were several spots where the fabric seams came up.  The glue didn't hold them down and the bias tape didn't cover/catch them.  And then after burying the threads, even more showed.  Ticked is an understatement. Again...skill builder reminder!

A couple things I would do differently.  Maybe use more glue on the edges of the fabric. Maybe use steam-a-seam.  Most importantly, I think I would iron the bias tape directly on to the fabric instead of shaping it ahead of time.  It would have been easier to make sure the edges of the fabric were covered.     

I am so happy to have started this Skill Builder BOM.  I think it will broaden my knowledge (maybe just enough to get me in trouble), take me out of my comfort zone (and we all need that once in a while) and I get to gain more experience!  YAY to that!

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