Aurifil Designer of the Month Blocks – 2017

When Pat Sloan reached out to me last year to be one of Aurifil‘s Designers of the Month for 2017, I think I died. Like I’m just this goober making stuff, so to think of myself as any kind of designer I was so humbled and flattered and like whaaaaat?!? So of course I jumped at the chance and my Month is May for Helena and my birthday. So in addition to designing a block for May, I have committed to myself to make my version of each block because all of these designers are boss.

JANUARY

So January’s block is from Janet E Clare and, as a proud cat owner, I was super stoked to jump right in. And I wasn’t originally planning to be a total goofball but when I saw this Pug Ville Verte print from Bari J’s Joie de Vivre Fabrics, I just had to go there because it so made me lmao.

FEBRUARY

Snow February’s Dutch Treat block was from Maureen Cracknell who is as sweet and awesome as she is talented. I basically just did a darker version of what she did because we both are #AGFforlife and I had the same fabrics basically and it was bomb already so tadaaaa….

MARCH

What a fun block this Scraptastic Star Block from Melissa Corry was to make. I went with a denim version, using all ten of Art Gallery Fabrics non-flower printed Denims and ooh la la am I in love. I’m foreseeing a pillow in my future.

APRIL

This A New Direction Block by Whistlepig Creek Productions was super duper fun to make. I decided to play with Amy Sinibaldi’s Charleston and Le Petites fabrics combined with denim which was way different for me and uber satisfying.

MAY

This is my month! OMG! Whaaaaat? So head over to my blog post to because this needed more than a paragraph. Hehe.

JUNE

With June being LGBTQ Pride Month, I had to spread the rainbow love in my version of Sarah Maxwell‘s Star Shine block using eight Pure Elements solids. I assigned the right colors at random with the pattern and then just followed the instructions and not oh boy was I blown away at the final result.

JULY

I am sooooo grateful for the experience of making this block by Shruti Dandekar. The pattern is written as a reverse appliqué block, but I wanted to practice my appliqué stitch on Felicia, so I threw out the reverse and went to town. The aesthetic is so fresh…. something I hadn’t seen before. Immediately my brain exploded with ideas so I foresee this technique popping up again in the future.

AUGUST

Brenda Ratliff‘s Bright Sun Star pattern was the perfect pre-eclipse quilt block for me! I knew I had to be all-out summer for this one, so I used prints from the Reverie & Spices Fusions from AGF. And oh em gee did simplicity of choices and this uber quick block become a party in a block!

SEPTEMBER
With summer finally winding down, this Sunflower Power Block from Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique was just what the doctor ordered. I totally had a blast making this with these sunny colors and even threw in Helena’s initials!

OCTOBER

For this month’s Aurifil Designer Block of the Month, I didn’t have the supplies to hand embroider the design from Helen Stubbings’ free pattern, so I entered a fitting saying message into Felicia and let her embroider it using the Iris 40wt from the Mister Domestic’s Tool Box in the middle of the EPP rainbow Dresden. Seriously what a fun pattern. Love is love y’all. ??

NOVEMBER

This month’s super fun Tall Trees Block was designed by Heather Givans of Crimson Tate. And since you can’t go wrong with a rainbow, I reworked her take on flying geese to include a gradient ? for the background and black geese. Definitely some chic whimsy going on!

DECEMBER

The final block this year is the Tightrope Block and comes from Amanda Murphy of Amanda Murphy Design. I used fabrics from Pat Bravo’s Indie Folk Collection, which was a perfect way to end my exploration of quilt blocks with this year’s Aurifil Designer of the Month Blocks.