Down By the Boardwalk Quilt Blocks

You read it correctly – Down by the Boardwalk Quilt Blocks.  I had to make two of the Down by the Boardwalk Blocks for Pat Sloan’s Free Mystery 2015 Quilt Along.  I had to make two blocks not because I couldn’t follow the instructions and I constructed it wrong … it was because I went a bit too far out there.

I really do love using large scale printed fabric in my quilts  But it has to be done carefully.  The above block is a prefect example of it being done improperly.  Had I paid more attention when sewing the corners on my flying geese I could have made this work … by matching the colors to the middle square … but I did not pay attention.  Now when you look at this from a distance … it’s very difficult to see a star and if you do see it … it’s pretty discombobulated.   

I was going to just go with it and use it anyway – but it was bugging me.  So – I made a second one.  Since my non-grey fabrics are all scraps I had to find different ones.  These have smaller prints and I am very happy with how they look in the Down by the Boardwalk block. So – what do I do with the ‘bad’ block?  Should I throw it away?  NO!  I’ll either use it as part of the back of the quilt … I think it’s great to save some of those “oops” moments when you tell the story of the quilt.  OR I will save it and use it for a future ‘orphan block’ project – maybe a charity quit, or some fun pillows, or cut it up and use it more in a different project.  I will definitely NOT throw this away! I can’t wait to see what Pat Sloan has in store for us in February!