Our project for the 2018 Maine Sew-in will be Happy Blocks.

Happy Blocks for kids should have a novelty fabric in the center and framed with brights that have good contrast – you can use solids, mottled, or tone on tone prints for the frames.

Happy Blocks for Veterans can be all shades of Red/White/Blue

We’ll bring the blocks to Maine, combine the blocks, and assemble tops

Kids Quilts – 45×54
Veteran Quilts – 54×72

To make the blocks

The center is cut 6 inches
The side frames are cut 2.5 inches x 6 inches
The top and bottom frames are cut 2.5 inches x 10 inches.
Blocks will be squared to 9.5 inches

Sew the sides first and press toward the frame, then sew top and bottom frames, also pressing to the frame.

Your block will be oversized at 10 inches. Center the block and trim to 9.5 inches. You’ll be trimming just small amounts from each side.

I’ve made three using this center and 3 different framing fabrics but you can make duplicates since we’re going to combine all the blocks together and make multiple quilts.

PLEASE Note: If most of your novelty fabrics are directional and can’t be turned on their sides, you’ll want to alternate sewing some of your short pieces to the sides and some to the top and bottom since we’re going to turn half of these blocks on their side so there aren’t seams to line up when we assemble the top.

If you want to send blocks in, make sure they arrive in time. The sew-in is held the 3rd week of September. You can request the mailing address by emailing me at mmcjohnson@gmail.com

If you want to play along and finish and donate your quilt locally you can use any measurements you want for your blocks but for those that are being sent to Maine please use the guidelines posted above.

I couldn’t resist assembling a top from some my blocks.