Destination: Quilt Along - Block 1

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

The "Destination: Quilt Along" starts today! Take a trip with us as we travel around the world from our sewing rooms! There will be one new FREE quilt block released each week during the quilt along for a total of 12 blocks!

Canyon quilt block for the Destination Quilt Along

The pattern and tutorial for Block 1 is on Sandy's blog HERE. It's a canyon!

Destination Quilt Along

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Sandy's Canyon block reminds me of when my husband and I visited the Grand Canyon back in the BC times! (BC = Before Children) We rode the train from Williams, Arizona to the canyon. If you have never been, I highly recommend taking the train

Grand Canyon quilt inspiration photo
Grand Canyon photo taken by my friend, Laura Hromsco

I'm really undecided on a color palette for this quilt. My previous quilts for the Partners in Design quilt alongs have had limited color palettes, but this one keeps telling me not to limit the colors. So, I'm going with it for now. (See my previous quilts HERE and HERE!)

Solid fabrics and Aurifil thread

I'm going to try to stick with solid colors only from my stash. That was already put to the test on this very first block because I wanted to use shades of brown for the canyon walls. Brown is likely the color I have the least of in my stash, so I had to cheat a bit and use a solid brown flannel for one of the fabrics! (It's the second darkest one in the photo above.)

Quilt block pieces

This block also allowed me to use two of my favorite quilty gadgets to make it! First, my sewing machine laser! No drawing lines for any of the half-square triangles! (I have the green Velcro one, but the red Velcro one is just as good!)

Sewing machine laser for sewing half square triangles

My Oliso mini iron and wool pressing mat made quick work of the pressing too!

Pressing half-square triangles

I loved watching how this quilt block came together! I used a white foam core board to lay out all my pieces before sewing.

Canyon quilt block pieces

The foam core board made it easy to keep everything in its proper place until it was time to sew!

Canyon quilt block construction

The second quilty gadget that I got to use was my Olfa Circle Rotary Cutter! I use this every time I need to cut a perfect circle. It makes it so quick and easy! I pressed Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 on the back of the fabric first.

Applique circle for quilt block

I used a straight stitch and Aurifil 50wt #2105 Champagne to applique the circle onto the block.

Raw edge applique circle on quilt block

I used Aurifil 50wt #2326 Sand for all the piecing on this block. You can see some of the thread when you peek behind the seams!

Behind the seams of the canyon quilt block

This was a fun block to make, and such fun remembering the trip my husband and I took to the Grand Canyon!

Aurifil thread and canyon quilt block

The QAL is divided into three segments. Complete all four blocks from Segment 1 by 7:59am ET on August 10 to be entered to win prizes! Be sure to share a picture of your finished blocks in the Facebook group! If you're posting on Instagram or Facebook, you can use #destinationQAL when you post a photo!

Segment 1
July 6 - Block 1 - Sandy at Sandy Star Designs
July 13 - Block 2 - April at JANDA Bend Quilts
July 20 - Block 3 - Abbie at Sparkle On!
July 27 - Block 4 - Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter

Segment 1 prizes for the Destination QAL

The Segment 1 prize is a six-month subscription to Make Modern Magazine and a free PDF pattern from the Inquiring Quilter!

Canyon quilt block in solid fabrics for the Destination Quilt Along

Be sure to check out all the different versions of Block 1 made by the QAL hosts!


Join the fun! Let's quilt along!

4 comments:

  1. Your block looks amazing! I love useful gadgets and now I am going to have to check out the laser and the circle cutter.

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  2. Your block looks so peaceful in solids! I've enjoyed your limited palettes in earlier QALs, but I'm glad you're leaning away from that with this one. It's going to be spectacular.

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  3. I loved your last QAL in the solids, and it inspired me to do the next one in solids. Now that I've seen yours, I really want to do that! It looks great

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  4. Love your block and the solids will be perfect. Its going to be fun to see these blocks in so many versions!

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