Lucy Boston Challenge "The Third Block"

Get ready for lots and lots of pretty pictures!

Not long ago, I noticed that Alewives Fabrics was going to have a Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses challenge.

Their Instagram feed caught my attention because each Sunday they sell kits of four fat quarters and show two examples of blocks you can make with them.

They ran the same challenge last year and I checked out the entries. The blocks looked great, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.


Here are the two sample blocks they teased us with for this challenge:

When the challenge started, they revealed the four fat quarters that made up the kit:

I ordered it as soon as it was for sale! For the challenge, you had to use only these fabrics in your block. (You didn't have to use all four, but you couldn't add additional fabric.) You could make as many as you wanted (or could) with that fabric.

Once I got the fabrics, I didn't want to cut into them before planning a way to maximize my fabrics so I scanned the fabrics with a honeycomb paper for size and scale.

I just scanned the portion of the fat quarters that fit on my printer/scanner, not the whole fat quarter, but it was enough to work with.

Here are some of the blocks that I designed with these scans in Photoshop:

Virtual Block 1

Virtual Block 2

Virtual Block 3

Virtual Block 4

Virtual Block 5

Virtual Block 6

Not surprisingly, I was completely obsessed with trying out the different options and variations. (Some of the examples above have versions A, B, and C!) Once I had the shape isolated from a fabric, I could rotate, mirror image and move it wherever and however I wanted.

When it got down to cutting actual fabric, these are the blocks that I managed to get out of the fat quarters:

"Real" block 1

"Real" block 2

"Real" block 3

"Real" block 4

Fortunately sewing the blocks together wasn't required to enter them in the challenge and that helped getting them all done before the deadline. :)

I loved following the hashtag #TheThirdBlock for the challenge and seeing everyone else's entries. I may have missed a couple, but I believe I captured a picture of all of them and here they are. As you look at them, see if you can pick out what fabric the various pieces come from.

(Note: If I posted your blocks and you would like to have them removed, please just email me at the address on the above right and I will do so right away.)

Two from @armdilly_o:

From @caffeinatedcotton:

Three from @colmurph2000:

Four blocks from @cottagethreads:

One from @ctmainiac22:

Here are five blocks from @e.e.botke:

And a whooping six blocks from @greta_evans4119:

*

*

From @katspawsvt:

Two from @mgstanton:

*

*

And two from @promqun75:

Three from @ritasiav:

And, finally, four from @stitchified:

*

*

Did you pick out a favourite? The people at Alewives Fabrics had a hard time too, because the day they were supposed to announce the winners, we saw this:

!! What?!!

Of course we could wait, since we had to....

Finally, the winners were announced:

Yay! They couldn't pick one winner so they decided to award two people the grand prize. I was so excited.

There were also three runner up winners. They're the blocks between the * marks above.

Can you believe all the different looks you can get from the same choice of fabrics? Since they're not sewn, I may not sew the blocks exactly as they're pictured above. (I'll try something from my stash in some of my blocks.) But you can be sure that these blocks will be added to my other blocks -- I almost have enough for my quilt top now!