Bernina Block Party Quilt Finish

I sewed along with a block of the month over on Bernina's We All Sew blog two years or so ago. The quilt design was amazing (and was sewn up in Alison Glass fabric, which definitely made it so pretty!) and I loved that it was made of traditional blocks but that it was laid out in a different way. I decided to sew along and picked out fabrics from my stash.

I kept up with the blocks really well, but I became more and more disillusioned with the instructions. They were, frankly, poorly written. There often weren't concise cutting instructions in list form, and she never, never used shortcut piecing (such as sewing squares together for half-square-triangles and then cutting them apart). I couldn't be bothered to cut triangles, let alone sew them, so I had to re-figure all the blocks to piece them more efficiently.

I persevered because the finished quilt is just so pretty!

And then the last month's block came up. This block was difficult to see in the main quilt pictures because it was down in the bottom corner. It looked like it might have been embroidered, so I expected some options, and I figured it would be treated more like a spacer block. But when the instructions came up, the instructions were only for a machine embroidered block. This infuriated me: the very first post about the quilt along said it was beginner-friendly (which I seriously question given the sewing instructions...). And even if it wasn't meant to be beginner friendly, how many people, really, own embroidery machines? I actually just bought one, but I didn’t have one at the time, and it seems incongruent that a beginner friendly design would require such a pricey machine. The designer suggested sewing another one of the other 12" blocks, but I wasn't convinced that would look good, and those blocks weren't any where near my favorite anyway.

So, I started brainstorming. I considered doing a different 12 inch block. I had a whole summer sampler of them. And I considered doing some hand-embroidery. I looked around for patterns and ideas I liked and finally settled on a bicycle. I bought a pattern on Etsy for a few dollars and got to work.

I finished the last block a week late, after the finishing instructions were released, but I had other more pressing projects. And I was still a tad put out. I mean really. Who includes a machine embroidery pattern in a monthly block of the month? *eye roll* There were so many other techniques that weren't included, it's not like she ran of out options.

For all my whining, though, I like how my block turned out and I was pleased with the excuse to do some hand embroidery. I do enjoy it and it was nice to remember that.

So, here's my finished quilt. Finally! I chose a different color scheme than the original and I love how it turned out. The original is beautiful to be sure, but I do like mine, too. After I finished the top, it sat in my closet for a while before I got it quilted. And now that it's all bound, I'm so happy to enjoy it, despite the pain it was to sew.