Back Porch under construction

by Linda Theil

I have been following the Fat Quarter Shop's "Sewcialites 3" free, sew-along currently running on their social media and website. It's a really good program with a new designer block every week demonstrated by shop owner Kimberly Jolly on the Fat Quarter Shop's YouTube channel.

I became intrigued by a really intricate block debuted on week #13 titled "Back Porch" by designer Joanna Figueroaof Fig Tree & Co. I came up with my own coloring ideas, and went to my scrap bin to find some options for making the block.

Since my scraps were small, I settled on making the six-inch block, although I usually don't sew such small blocks. All I needed to get started was a 2.5-inch feature square for the middle and I was off to the races.

My design board in the photo is a stretched canvas replica of my grandson's artwork presented to me for my birthday in 2021. I filled in the back of the board with batting and held the batting in place with some piping tucked along the edge of the stretcher. Now my design board is always handy, right off the wall!

I got as far as choosing my feature fabric, the corner squares, and colors for strip-piecing the sides, and decided I didn't need the sixteen tiny half-square trianges that would give the block its zing!

Yes, my reach exceeded my grasp, but I had fun stretching so far!

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Appleton Dance

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