#100days100blocks2018

I’ve mentioned my #100days100blocks project a few times here on the blog now, but since we just hit day 40 — nearly halfway done! — I figured it’s time for a more thorough update on how it’s going.

This isn’t the first time Angie from GnomeAngel has run this Instagram sew-along, but it’s certainly the first time I’ve decided to join in! In the past, the daily aspect of it has felt too overwhelming, so I chose to join her Long Time Gone and Gypsy Wife sew-alongs instead, with their more relaxed pace of a block or two each week.

But after having so much fun making a daily 5″ block for my 100 Day Project this year, I finally decided to take the plunge. Another factor that pushed me to join was that I finally had a good concept for what I wanted to do with these 100 blocks. A lot of people go scrappy or rainbow, but I decided to go full-on monochromatic. Blue and white and that’s it! Mostly blue for the blocks, and white when I eventually get to sashing. 

I chose 7 shades of Kona cotton plus white, ordered 1.5 yards of each fabric (I’ll have to order more white when sashing time arrives), and got to work.

These blocks are a different beast than my 100 day project blocks, as you may have figured out already. My 100 day project was improv piecing from my stash, so I could literally make a 5″ block in 5 minutes just by picking a few different fabrics and sewing them together almost at random. Not a lot of cutting involved, and no measuring at all except for trimming to 5″ square at the end.

But these blocks are more complicated. I have to pick shades of blue for each block that I think will provide the right amount of contrast. I have to measure and cut small pieces very precisely. And then I have to sew very precisely as well. That means a 6″ block could take me anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on the number of pieces and fabrics involved.

Because the blocks are different, I’ve chosen to approach the whole #100days100blocks project differently as well. Instead of holding myself to actually making the block each day, I’ve been sewing them in groups of anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8 blocks at a time. It’s more efficient this way because I can cut several blocks at once, and it also relieves the daily time pressure aspect. And fortunately, this kind of batch processing doesn’t break any of Angie’s sew-along rules!

So far I’ve been able to stay anywhere from 1 day to 1 week ahead of schedule, and always have my block ready to go on the day it’s “due.” And I’ve been having a lot of fun with these blocks and this color palette! (It’s not the first time I’ve used all blues.) We’ve made it through the cross and rectangle sections of the book and are now solidly into the triangles. After that it’ll be stripes, squares, and “haiku” blocks.

Only 60 blocks to go!