Y do the seams hate me

The Nuture circle of do.good.sitches this month was a supersize castle block. The original post was from Amy from the Badskirt blog for Sew Mama Sew. The link can be found here. It is my first adventure into Y seams. I have avoided many quilt blocks with Y seams. It seems like it was a wise choice on my part. 

I have been working on this block for about a week. It has been a long process to get the one block finished. There was alot of seam ripping and cursing. I had some trouble getting the block to lie flat. In the end it got as good as it was getting with much starch and alot of cursing.

The request for colors in this block are below

Here are the color/design guidelines:

1. Outside corners should be solid, true, white

2. Inner square ring should be a gray / neutral 

3. Fussy cut center octagon if it makes sense with the fabric you're using (see hints and tips below on how to do this)

4. High contrast between diamonds and outer ring of trapezoids. (My sample block is good, but I'd like even higher contrast). 

5. Trapezoids and center octagon should be in the same color family

6. If the outer ring is directional fabric you will need additional fabric - otherwise your trapezoids will alternate directionality.

7. I'd like to keep the diamonds cool colored, and the trapezoids and octagon warm colored.

I dug out some very funky print for the center. I think it is Robert Kaufmann. It looks like a crazy Hawaiian shirt. It is one of those prints that is really better suited for large blocks. On  the down side we usually make 2 12" blocks and this month we made 1 jumbo block that was almost 21". It ate up alot more fabric that normal. Here is the finished block, I could have kept fussing with it but it wouldn't have ended well.

I hope the quilt turns out awesome but I can't imagine making a whole quilt of these blocks. If I were to make it again it would be one block for a pillow or a baby quilt. I am glad its done!!!!! Crossing this one off the list!

And just for a dash of cute here is a picture of my doodlebug in her 4th of July finest.

May Quilt Nuture circle of Do.Good.Stitches

Finished up the May quilt for the Nurture circle of Do.Good.Stitches. Technically I am not yet done with the March quilt but I got stuck on this one. You know how it is when you get focused on a project and can't do things in the order you know you should. So here it is!

I used a chunk of fabric for the backing that I have had for 5 or 6 years that reminded me of the pattern on the front. I finished the back with a Kona solid called Lagoon which I have most of a bolt of. I happened upon it at a yard sale. Technically I think it was the estate of a quilter that had gone toward the light. I took it as my mission to use the fabric in her honor. So this is one of the many projects its has made it into. 

For the binding I used a fun mix of bright prints from my scrap bin and a few jelly roll strips. 

I love how it turned out!