Adding another project to 2018

On our way home from Mountain Quiltfest '18,  my friend Judy Stokes brought my attention to a new quilting challenge online. 

 The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY is offering a free BoM (Block of the Month).  Each month features a different artist who will draw inspiration from the museum's current exhibit.
I am following along in The National Quilt Museum's BOM Facebook group.  The excitement from members in this group is contagious!

There will be 12 blocks with April being the first.  The featured artist is Mathew Boudreaux Mister Domestic. This is my first time to his website.  When I have time, I'll have to do more browsing there.

Mister Domestic chose EPP (English Paper Piecing) for his block construction. The current exhibit at The National Quilt Museum is New Quilts from an Old Favorite: Bowtie.
Judy Stokes has a quilt in the exhibit, it would be awesome to visit the museum while this exhibit is still up! I borrowed this image from the Possum Town Guild blog:. Well, darn it. I was wrong about Judy's quilt. It's not in the exhibit. But it's a Bonnie Hunter Leaders and Enders Spool Quilt. It has been entered in The Mountain Quiltfest '15 and received 3rd place.  And in the Quiltart Calendar in 2016.

Ok! I'm just going to jump right into my block.  We had a choice of two versions.  Version 1 is 5" bowties arranged in a 4-patch. It contains about 20 pieces. The second version is more complicated with a 5" bowtie in the middle of a dozen 2.5" bowties.  This version contains 65 pieces.
Yes, I chose version 2 😆.
First step was to make sure my printer was giving me the correct size.  Using my phone didn't do the trick. The 1" test square was almost 1/8th inch too small!

Then, printed it straight from the computer and it was nearly perfect 😄.

Next step for me was cutting out all 65 paper pieces.

I cut them so that I could see part of the black line:

But found out that was slightly too big. The block measures just over the 2.5" it's supposed to be:

So I'll trim the black line off the rest of the paper pieces as I go. The next block measured perfect. Now 10 more to go plus a bigger one for the center.

Front

Back with basting stitches

I use the basting method to secure the fabric rather than stitching through the paper or gluing the edges.  That way, when it's time to remove the paper, I simply pop the paper out and leave the basting stitches in!  There's no real reason to remove the basting stitches!! Plus, I believe those stitches keep the seam allowances flat.

Oh yes. One more thing. I'm going with Scrappy on this project.  Almost the "whatever I pull out of the bag" method.  The National Quilter's Museum BOM is basically a mystery quilt.  I have no idea what the next block will be or the technique that will be used.  This pushes me out of my comfort zone but I've committed to using each artists chosen method.  The April block would have been easier as hand piecing instead of EPP, and when it's all done and quilted, no one will be able to tell which method was used.  The whole point of the project is to use/try different methods, so I'll stick with the artists' choices 😄 as best as I can 😉.  Twelve months, twelve blocks, twelve different methods!! 

K, but first gotta get block #1 completed. I'll be back with progress pics!