Good morning!  Not only is supposed to be a 10 on the weather meter according to our local meteorologist (keep in mind it’s January), but I am also excited about posting my first challenge of the year!

I randomly chose this as my first challenge.  I remember pinning it about a week or two ago, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.  I took an hour and a half yesterday while Aaron was napping to put together the block from this tutorial, and it was so liberating!  I felt kind of naughty, doing something frivolous while there were so many other things to be done.

That means this challenge is already working : )  After I finished, I felt a little uplifted and recharged, which allowed me to accomplish more in an afternoon and evening than I normally would.

This weeks pin comes from Holly DeGrout’s blog, Bijou Lovely.  Clicking to the link of this tutorial was the first time I’d stumbled upon her blog, and I’m so glad I did.  She is indeed very lovely, and I love her crafty style!

This is called the Herringbone Block, and the full tutorial is available on her website.  It’s fairly easy – it only took me so long because of the fabric I was working with.  I love her tutorial style – plenty of pictures to demonstrate how to do each step.  Here’s a picture of her completed Herringbone Block (click to enlarge photos):

I had the perfect fabric in mind when thinking about this block.  It uses 2.5″ strips, so it’s perfect for leftover Jelly Roll strips or long scrappy strips.

Back about two years ago, when I first learned what a “stash” is and that I needed to have one, I was still buying fabric from JoAnn’s in limited quantities, inexpensive stuff I liked that I could use for practice or classes or whatever.  They used to sell their equivalent to jelly rolls, called jellies, but they were smaller than a Moda Jelly Roll.  I believe the fabric line or band is called Fabric Central, and it contains 22 strips, each 22″ by 2.5″.

This particular Jellies that I bought, well, in spite of it being a low-grade quality of fabric, I LOVE the prints.  Seeing this block immediately made me think of this little roll of strips and how it would pair perfectly with some Coal Kona.

The block calls for 14 strips, each 11″ long.  I tried to randomize the strips as much as possible.  Let me tell you, after having worked with Moda Jelly Rolls for quite some time now, it’s really hard to go back to poorly cut fabric.  This fabric is a pain to work with.  Most of the strips were very wavy, not cut straight at all.  But because I love the print so much, I’m willing to do the extra work.  Here’s how I laid them out:

Basically, you sew the first three strips together, then the last three strips together, and stagger them.  Then you turn your staggered block on point, and cut to create the diagonal.  I didn’t have a 6.5″ x 24″ template handy, so I improvised by doing it the old-school, ghetto method of laying out what you do have and making it work : )  Template patchwork, so-to-speak.  However, I enjoyed this block so much, I ran out this morning to buy the template so I can make more.

Here’s how the two sides of the block turned out:

And finally, my finished block:

I don’t know what it is about the print that speaks to me – it’s a little bit tame for my taste, but I find it very soothing.  And I love it with the Coal.  I already cut the rest of my strips into 11″ pieces so that I could make more of these on my “free time” at sew-ins and what not.

Please go over to the Bijou Lovely blog and check out Holly’s beautiful work.

Have you jumped into your creative challenges for 2012 yet?