When I first saw this pattern, way back last January, I fell in love with it, thinking it would be lots of work, but lots of fun as well. I was half right. With more than 200 blocks, precision would be vital. To get all those pieces to fit, these 5 ½” blocks had to be pretty close to the mark. That means the cutting, sewing, and pressing had to be exact, or at least as close as I could make it.
This was the 2025 Block of the Month (BOM) project hosted by The Quilt Show (TQS). The quilt is called “Laurel Ridge” and was designed by Lynn Wilder. The finished quilt is about 90” square. It is much larger than my design wall, so forgive the display as it flows out onto the floor and looks a little droopy.
BOM quilt patterns are free to members of the Quilt Show, of which I have been for many years. The BOM which comes out on the first day of the year every year is a major perk to joining The Quilt Show, what could loosely be described as an online quilt magazine/television show; but, there is so many more. Everything there is to learn about quilting can be gleaned from this valuable resource.
With a BOM, a how-to video from the designer is posted each month with directions for the work to be undertaken that month. Some months, there were 20 identical blocks to make. Other months, there were different ‘assignments.’ It all wraps up at the end of the year, as this one has.
My first challenge with this quilt, as with all others, is to pick out the fabric. It comes as a kit, complete with fabric included, but I wanted to use my own fabric, that which I have been collecting over the years. The only fabric I needed to buy was the border print, which is also used throughout the quilt’s design.To give me some clarity on just what I wanted, I spent an afternoon coloring the blank pattern with some of my favorite colors. Then, I simply picked out the fabrics that would match those colors. That made it easy to substitute the colors. I made a grid and added my own swatches to the color code in the quilt pattern.
My biggest challenge
was that the year was mapped out differently than I would have done it. I would
have started in the middle and worked my way out. And, it was only after I was
finished with all the blocks that I understood how Lynn Wilder decided on each month’s
assignments based on nine sections that would make up the actual layout.
For example, when I finished all the blocks and was attempting to assemble it, I put one section, shown at right, onto my design wall. This was one of nine sections that had to be sewn together to complete the quilt.
Notice that the block in the lower left corner, the lavender and yellow block is positioned wrong. Further examination indicates that there is another block, the just two blocks above it, is also wrong.
That was one of my biggest problems. You really had to study the pattern to see if all the blocks were positioned correctly. So many mistakes hid in plain sight. This was actually quite maddening. It required honing my seam-ripping skills, of which I am becoming quite proficient.
When I was all done, having completed all nine sections and two borders, I went to bed feeling pretty proud of myself.
But when I woke up I looked at it one more time before taking it off the design wall and putting it into the “to be quilted” pile.
That was when I saw it. The entire section was turned wrong. The pattern was correct, but the entire section was inverted. The diagonals were all going the right way, but the uppermost and lowermost blocks were reversed. It was then that I began to appreciate the pattern, the symmetry, and the care that it took to make it all work. Lynn Wilder became my latest quilting hero. She really was amazing, and made it all look so easy. I realized that the design made such perfect sense.
I decided that I had no choice but to grab my seam ripper once more and take apart the two borders, and that entire section, turn it around and sew it back together again. I am not sure how many of those mistakes I made and fixed, but I think I found all of them.
I was finally satisfied as I looked at this quilt from every angle. Only when I didn't see any more mistakes, could I call it done.
Once this is quilted, I am going to love it like all the others. But there were lots of teaching moments in this one.
