2020 Monthly Color Challenge - progress so far

I have been stitching a block each month of 2020 for the Monthly Color Challenge, a free BOM generously run by Jen of Patterns by Jen.  As we head toward the final quarter of the year, it's time to look back at what I have accomplished so far.

This year's color story is themed around the world of birds.  I had a fabulous flamingo print that I wanted to showcase, so I pulled that out first.  And then delved into my phenomenal stash.  I recently determined that my fat quarters were overflowing their designated storage area, so I "shopped" heartily from those bins.  

(Confession: I have had the habit of collecting fat quarters and then never cutting into them. Finally realized that they are not precious, and should be used.  Because that way I can buy more!)

January: yellow (finch)

Fussy cut the yellowest parts of a yellow/gold tonal chevron print for the focus fabric here (this fussy-cutting will be a repeating theme)

 

February: aqua (indigo bunting)

Prime example of a hoarded, uncut fat quarter: hand-dyed batik dark teal bought at a maker's fair over 10 years ago(!)  Wanted to use the aqua peacock fabric seen in my original fabric pull photo, but I have another plan that will bring the peacocks into the final quilt.

 

March: orange (oriole)

Surprised that I had so many mottled fabrics!  They look really good in these blocks.

 

April: purple (honey creeper)

I went rogue: main block is made from a metallic dark purple print and a lavender solid.  But the outer corners are a mottle batik--which will also be used in a frame around the block.  Because by this point in the year, I had come up with a plan for how I wanted to put these blocks together.  Stay tuned...

May: green (budgerigar)

Another example of fussy-cutting: the green here came from a green-brown floral.  It was a good thing the focus green bits were so small in size for this block--I would have had to choose a different fabric otherwise.

June: blue (blue bird)

 Another metallic (I think that might be a mini-theme here) and a mottle cloud print.  Blue is a hard color to find in my stash...

July: rust (American robin)

This ended up as a really busy block.  Focus fabric is another metallic.  Background fabric is leftover from a quilt made near the beginning of my quilting journey (Y2K?) And I tried the same outer-corner trick as with April's purple block.  Not sure it was entirely successful here.

Sampler quilt wisdom: I have never made a Block of the Month/sampler quilt where I loved every single block.  Only once have I chosen to leave out the hated block.  In the scope of a final, completed quilt, even the "failure" blocks have had a welcome home and contributed to the whole.  So I will embrace this ugly duckling block and press on...

 

August: pink (flamingo)

After being super excited to use the flamingo print shown at the top of this post, I chose a different flamingo print for August's block.  Metallic fuchsia Fairy Frost is the focus fabric, with 2 different flamingo prints and a mottled polka dot playing in the background.  (Flamingo prints here are from my job as a sales rep for a Japanese fabric importer. So many cute animal prints slide through my fingertips; sometimes I succumb and keep a few swatches after a line has sold out.)

September: cinnamon (cinnamon teal)

 Another color of metallic Fairy Frost, and another mottle.  Realized after I saw other people's blocks posted that I had assembled mine in a different way... oh, well.  Done is better than perfect.

 

Here we are: 9 months done out of 12.  I have started assembling blocks and I am in love with this setting!!!

"In a Box" quilt setting

Quickly realized that I need to wait until I have all the blocks--this particular setting technique doesn't allow for rearranging along the way.  Fine, I have a few other things to keep me busy until December...

Don't you?