 I thought it would be incredibly fun to participate in the 365 Challenge. In this challenge, you receive a new quilt block pattern via email every day for a year. All the blocks together form a beautiful quilt measuring about 2.40 by 2.40 meters (including a border).The templates, rotary cutting, and foundation patterns for the challenge can be downloaded here. The patterns are conveniently grouped into one file. You can easily view the file on your tablet, saving paper. If you want to use the paper piecing patterns, you only need to print those pages. You can also download an Excel file with the placement of the blocks. For EQ7 users, there is a project file with the released blocks, which is regularly updated. If you find the original design too labor-intensive, the smaller design with many of the original blocks might be for you. you can find it on the website. |
 The colors of the quilt are beautiful but don't match my bedroom very well. The quilt will be placed on a double bed. I am choosing red/old rose/ochre tones instead of blue. |
 Every day I receive a new block via email. The blocks are not next to each other in the quilt. To keep track of where each block is located, I have made an overview. I mark the location of the blocks and only need to stick a small sticker with the date on the back of each completed block.Each month has a different background color to make searching easier. I can't find a few blocks in the design. Sometimes I make an extra block so I don't fall too far behind during the holidays. |
 I traced the quilt pattern in EQ7. This way, I can precisely calculate how much fabric I need. I also pre-make some blocks. The chosen fabrics are scanned and used to color the blocks. I am quite satisfied with the result. You can download the EQ7 project with the released blocks under downloads. You can add your own fabrics to that project. This way, you can get an impression of what your own quilt will look like. |
  Before I can start making the blocks, the fabrics need to be washed. Many of the fabrics are red-tinted and can bleed a lot. The fabrics are first sorted by color and then hand-washed. I use a detergent for delicate fabrics and lukewarm water. The fabrics soak for about fifteen minutes and are occasionally stirred. After the soaking, I rinse the fabrics well. The fabrics are spun in the washing machine at 600 RPM. |
  Afterwards, they are hung to dry. There are quite a few of them... Once the fabrics are dry, they are nicely ironed, and then the fun work can begin. |
 All fabrics are neatly ironed. Now I can finally start with the blocks. I am about 21 blocks behind, so it's time.Besides the emailed blocks, I will also start with the center piece and the four outer large corners. I want to make all of them from the same fabric, and there are fairly large areas in them. If I make them first, I avoid running out of the right fabric later on. |
 There are various techniques to cut and sew the fabrics in a block to the correct size. For this quilt, two techniques could be applicable:
I choose to use the second technique, with the rotary cutter. This technique is also known as rotary cutting. We need a large cutting mat, transparent plastic rulers, and a rotary cutter. A small sharp-pointed pair of scissors is also handy. Sometimes not all threads are cut, and you need to carefully cut the last threads with these scissors. By the way, this often means you need to replace your rotary cutter blade because it has become dull. |
 Working with the rotary cutter goes (for right-handers) as follows:
If you need a strip of, for example, 1.5 inches, then the ruler is placed 1.5 inches over the fabric. The fabric to the right of the ruler is the piece that remains. |
 It's time, I can begin. It is very important to cut the blocks precisely and sew them neatly. I use a quilting foot on the sewing machine. That foot is exactly 1/4 inch wide, the same width as the seam allowances. If you let the edge of the fabrics run along with the quilting foot, you always have the correct seam allowance. |
 The seams are not finished or zigzagged. That would create too thick lumps. After the pieces are sewn together, the seam is pressed first, and then the pieces are pressed open. If possible, the seam is pressed towards the darker side. |
  The first block is done. This block is somewhere in the inner dark-tinted ring. The quilt is very large. The smallest blocks are 3 inches square, which is about 7.5 by 7.5 cm. If all blocks deviate from the size, you will have problems sewing them together. All blocks are therefore measured. |
 After a few hours of sewing, I have completed the first blocks. Keep working, and then I will be back on schedule. |
 When many small pieces need to be sewn, a lot of thread is wasted at the beginning and end of each block. You can save thread by using chain piecing. With chain piecing, you start sewing the next seam immediately after you have sewn two pieces together. |
 This creates a whole chain of sewn-together pieces with very little thread between them. Besides being economical, it also sews much faster. It's definitely worth it. |
 Another way to save thread is to start and end on a scrap piece of fabric. This scrap only needs to be slightly larger than your foot. The method is very simple. When you start sewing, you begin with a scrap piece. You leave this under your sewing machine foot. Then you sew your pieces together using the chain technique. When you can no longer continue chain piecing, you take a second scrap piece and end with it. You leave this scrap under your sewing machine foot again. It's ready for the next piece you will sew. |
 With the more difficult blocks, you can lose track. It's helpful to lay out all the pieces first before you start sewing. You immediately see if you have all the pieces and if they are the right size. Unpicking very small pieces is not fun. |
 If you have cut the pieces for a new block and you can't or don't want to start with them right away, you can store them in various ways. You can, for example, put all the pieces of one block in a sleeve. You can also pin them to a piece of cardboard with some needles. I personally lay them on a cheap plastic household cloth. These cloths can be bought in many places and are not expensive. I bought the largest one I could find. It is 50 by 60 centimeters. The cloth is made of polyester (70%) and polyamide (30%). The fabric feels rough, and the pieces just seem to stick to it. |
 You can pick up the cloth and move it without the pieces falling off. If you don't have much space, you can attach such a cloth to the wall.By laying the pieces in the right place on the cloth, you can easily see if you have cut all the parts. If you always put the pieces back in the right place between the various steps of assembling, the chance of making mistakes is much smaller. |
 After three weeks, quite a few pieces are done. A beautiful sight. Only 345 pieces to go... |
 With stars, like the last three pieces in the photo above, there can be quite a lump in the middle. That won't look nice later, and if your stitching pattern happens to go over such a piece, it will be difficult to sew it neatly.To make these center pieces a bit less thick, you can carefully unpick the seam in the middle and then press it slightly differently. You don't need a seam ripper for this, it's just a tiny piece, and if you pull the fabric carefully, it often comes loose on its own. Press the horizontal and vertical seams all in the same direction, like a circle. It doesn't matter whether you press clockwise or counterclockwise. |
 A lot of fabric goes into the quilt. It’s difficult to estimate exactly how much of each color I’ll need. Even now that I’ve entered the entire quilt into EQ7, I’m still unsure if I have enough of each color. Because I want to make the medallion and the corners with a specific fabric, I’ll start with those earlier. The blocks are already worked out in EQ7, so that should work. First, I’ll make the medallion. |
 Of course, I also try to keep up with the daily blocks as much as possible. There are already 25 of them. The challenge lasts a year, and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to leave all the blocks lying around for a year. That’s why I fold a piece of paper with the week number around the blocks of that week. Together with the extra blocks I make, I store them in a plastic sleeve. I then place a clean cloth on top to protect against dust. You can see the collection here. At the bottom left of the sleeve is a second block I made in advance—a corner from the border around the medallion. |
 Today, as an extra block, I’m going to make one of the corners of the border around the medallion. It seems like a fairly simple pattern, but it’s quite challenging. Upon studying the pattern, I see that it’s best to make four identical quarters of the entire block. Each part consists of two mirrored large triangles, which in turn consist of several pieces. Cutting the many small triangles isn’t a big problem. The red and brown parallelograms, a kind of diamond shape, are more challenging. |
  I use the rotary cutting examples generated by EQ7. The width of the strip is conveniently indicated as 1 3/16 inches. However, I find the way the corners should be cut less practical. If the pieces aren’t cut properly, it becomes very difficult to assemble your block correctly. So, I do it a bit differently. |
 I start with the 1 3/16 inch wide strip. I cut a corner off at 45 degrees using my ruler. Most square rulers have a line for this, which you can use. Then, you can see in the pattern that the distance I’ve marked in yellow is 1 inch. The entire block is 6 inches wide. |
 I can’t measure the 2 1/8 inch on my ruler, at least not if it has to lie diagonally. But I can measure the 1 inch + 2 times 1/4 inch for the seams, totaling 1.5 inches. That’s the diagonal line where the diagonal side of my strip lies. If the top of my strip now lies tightly against the diagonal on my ruler, I can cut my block perfectly. |
 When I’ve cut all the pieces, I lay them out in the correct pattern so I don’t make mistakes. I’ll start with the upper right quarter, and from that, the bottom right half. First, I’ll sew together the narrow strip of the brown diamond, red triangle, brown triangle, and another red triangle. I’ve already placed the red and brown triangles together correctly. There’s another tricky part here. How should I place the triangles so that all the seams have the correct width? |
  Fortunately, there’s a trick for this. The tip of the bottom triangle that protrudes under the top triangle should be exactly 3/8 inch wide. |
 The block is finished. Only two more corners of the border around the medallion to go... |
 Calculating the amount of fabric needed for a quilt like this is not easy. To illustrate, I have a picture of the cut pieces for one of the corners of the border around the medallion. The bottom right quarter is already assembled, and the other three corners are not. It seems like a very large block, but once assembled, it looks quite different. |
 It’s very important to work very precisely. A small deviation and your block won’t come together neatly. The quilt is designed in inches, and to avoid mistakes when converting, it’s best to keep working in inches. An inch is about 2.5 cm, with an emphasis on “about.” As you can see in the accompanying photo, there’s still some difference. For clarity, the top ruler is in centimeters, the bottom in inches. With most techniques, all deviations add up, so each time 1 or 2 off quickly adds up to almost a centimeter in a block made up of many small pieces. |
 This can be very frustrating, especially with the 3-inch blocks. If you use the foundation patterns or paper piecing technique, you have a bit less chance of deviations. With this method, you use a (usually paper) base on which the pattern is indicated. You assemble your block on this base. I used this technique for the block of January 30. |
 The foundation pattern for this block is made up of three separate parts. The pieces are cut a bit larger than usual. This gives a bit more leeway. Since the individual parts are trimmed to size after assembly, the outer dimensions of these parts are always correct. |
 I’ve written an article about the method, paper piecing or foundation patterns The technique is definitely worth trying out. |
 There are a few tricks to get nice blocks. When stitching the pieces together, it’s common to press the seam allowance to the darker piece. This way, the seam allowance shows through the least. However, there are two exceptions. If this results in two seams falling together, a very thick seam would be created. Not nice to sew through neatly. It’s better to press one of the seams towards the lighter side. Another reason to press a seam to the other side is so that you can “butt” them. In the two parts next to each other, the colors are chosen so that the seams can indeed be pressed towards the light side, and yet these of both parts point in opposite directions. |
 When you lay the parts right sides together, you can let the two seams butt against each other at the red arrows. You can feel through the fabric that they are correctly aligned if you gently push and try to slide them. The seams kind of hold each other because they butt against each other. The same applies to the seams at the blue arrows. You can see in the photo next to the red arrows how the seams are positioned relative to each other when both parts are laid together. |
 After sewing them together, your seams are neatly butted against each other. If you haven’t sewn the parts together very neatly yourself, the seams won’t butt neatly against each other due to the size difference between the parts. So, it’s not a guarantee for perfect seams. |
 Some blocks have many small pieces made up of two triangles. You can cut all those triangles one by one, but there are also methods to do this quickly with the sewing machine. I explain exactly how that works in the article quick triangles on the sewing machine. |
 The pile of pieces is slowly getting bigger. All the blocks from the center are finished, and I’m starting with the four corners of 12" by 12". The corners are beautiful but quite complicated. I use the rotary cutting instructions from EQ7 and no templates. Then you sometimes have to sew different-sized triangles together, or triangles to squares. You always have to be careful how you place the pieces together. |
 Actually, it’s not that difficult. If you look carefully. When you have exactly the same shaped pieces, you usually place the pieces right sides together. The corner points then match. In the case next to it, I’m going to sew a small triangle of, for example, a flying geese to the large one. I then sew two triangles of different sizes together. Because they are oriented differently, the sides that come together aren’t the same length. The red piece comes with its longest side to one of the shorter sides of the light piece. If you look closely, you can actually see the white piece as two triangles sewn together. The left blue line indicates the sewing line. The right blue line is the seam allowance. The piece would miss a bit of seam allowance, but at the bottom left, the white piece is equal to the red one. So, you place those corners together.Another trick is to lay matching corners together. The small triangle has two 45-degree corners on the side to be sewn. The large triangle has one right angle and a 45-degree angle on the side to be sewn. The matching angles are the 45-degree angles. So, you place those neatly together. |
 I’ve turned the pieces 45 degrees here so you can see the tip of the red fabric sticking out. That tip is 3/8 inch long. That 3/8 inch comes from the seam allowance that isn’t there because we don’t have two separate triangles but actually two triangles sewn together. |
 When you sew a triangle and a square together, you have a similar problem. The sides that have to be sewn together aren’t the same length. Now you have to pay attention to the type of corners. The square, of course, has four right angles. The triangle has one right angle and two 45-degree angles. The triangle and the square must be placed with the right angles together |
 Again, there are points left over, as you can see. These points are also 3/8 inch long. |
 After struggling for a while and frequently using the seam ripper, I finally finished the first corner. It's not perfect, but I find it good enough. |
 The second corner is also finished. The large flowers stand out beautifully against the light background.. |
 For the third corner, I use a combination of rotary cutting and paper piecing. Especially for the middle part, paper piecing is very handy. |
 The last corner block contains several long, thin strips. It consists of quite a few components, making it a difficult block. I will assemble this block using paper piecing. Fortunately, EQ7 can easily create a paper piecing pattern. |
 I won't trace the pattern onto tea bag paper or similar, but will sew directly on the printer paper. That works fine. First, I cut out the components and lay them out in the pattern. This way, I can better see where each piece should go. By the way, the pattern is printed in reverse, but that doesn't matter in this case. |
 Cutting the pieces takes some work. When you see them laid out like this, it seems like the block will never come together. I'll just start somewhere. |
 It takes a day of puzzling, frequent use of the seam ripper, and some grumbling. But then it's done—the last and most difficult corner. All the special blocks are now finished, and I'm completely caught up with the small blocks. I've also made a birthday block (twice), the January 1 bonus block, the January 2 alternative, and the Valentine's block. In total, 73 out of the 365 blocks are now done. It's starting to come together. The outer dark border contains 12 six-inch blocks. These are the blocks I will make now. It’s possible that other patterns will be chosen than those currently in the design, but that doesn’t bother me too much. |
 When making complex blocks, it’s useful to have an example on hand. I use EQ7, and instead of printing the cutting instructions and such, I make a PDF. I can then open the PDF on a tablet. The tablet is nice and small, and I can quickly grab it or set it aside. This way, I avoid many paper examples that I only use once. It's cheaper and also better for the environment. All the published blocks of the 365 Challenge can be found here as PDFs. |
 I started with the 12 dark six-inch blocks. These are a bit less finicky and fun to do. I encountered something I hadn't seen with the small dark three-inch blocks—a set-in corner. It seems difficult but is probably manageable. |
 Often, you can divide blocks into small parts. This block is one of them. It immediately looks less complex. If you still find a set-in corner difficult or have never done one, you can read in the article inset corner quilt block about it. Maybe it will help you. |
 The dark six-inch blocks are done. There are some tricky pieces here and there, but generally, they are manageable. The blocks are coming along nicely. All the separate blocks are done. The only blocks left to make are the three-inch dark blocks and six-inch light blocks. It looks nice with all the blocks together. |
 I now have 103 blocks done. I'm curious how it will look when assembled. With EQ7, I can create an image of the quilt. You can see it's starting to come together. |
 Some of the blocks are not in the original design. I still don't know how exactly I will arrange the blocks, so I just placed them somewhere. It's more about the idea. |
 By now, 96 small dark three-inch blocks are finished. That's enough for the inner dark border. Some blocks stand out a bit in terms of color, like the diagonal beige stripe. I might remake this one in different colors. Overall, it’s already a beautiful whole. |
 It's now November 16, and the stack of blocks is steadily growing. I have chosen an alternative design that means fewer small dark blocks, fewer large light blocks, and more large dark blocks. I have sorted the blocks by type and stored them under a cloth to keep them neat. |
 In the download link at the top of this article, you can find all the blocks from the beginning of the challenge, including the bonus blocks. With the blocks available now, the quilt is already quite far along. In the overview here, you can find all the blocks. The placement in the overview matches the placement in the image below. The color of the blocks indicates the month. |
 You can now easily find blocks you’re missing in the downloads. The bonus blocks are not shown in the image below. If you have made those, you can use them as reserves. Maybe a block didn’t turn out so well, or you don’t like a chosen color combination. Then you can use one of your reserve blocks. |
| Once all the blocks are finished, you can finally start assembling. Start in the center and add border after border. The final quilt is quite large. Not everyone can quilt it with a sewing machine because it simply doesn’t fit. Then you can either quilt it by hand or choose to have it quilted by machine. Once the quilting layers are done, you can add a nice binding. How to do that is explained in the article a beautiful border for a quilt. A quilt is, of course, only truly finished when it has a nice label. I embroidered the label with the embroidery machine and attached it to the back with very small stitches by hand. Good Luck! |