St. Jacobs Block Challenge

Have you ever tried to make a block for a challenge and found yourself with a bigger challenge than you bargained for?!? I wanted to make a block for the St. Jacobs Block Challenge- click here and scroll down. You pick up a paint chip and make a 9" block in the colours of your paint chip. I picked pink, since I had a lot of pink in my stash. But can you believe, not one single piece was the right colour?!?!? So I went shopping and bought 3 fat quarters and started sewing. My first block attempt was Washington Star. Even after fiddling around with the printer settings, I couldn't get this pattern to print out properly.

Can you see that the 3 sections were different lengths!  I did my best to sew the block but it was still too small...and one section was even upside down according to the pattern!
So I abandoned the paper piecing idea, and went for something a little easier...






I tried to piece a block called Another 9 Patch Star. 
What happened this time?
Well, it was a 12" block that I had to resize to 9".
First, I sewed the wrong layout (on the left). That took a while to fix!
Once I had the correct layout, I  discovered that my resizing attempts resulted in the wrong sized block!  
So now I had made 2 blocks that were the wrong size!




 I added a couple of borders and also made a quick (easy) 2nd block (called Alabama) to boost my sagging sewing self esteem!

My paint chip is in the middle of my 2 blocks which finally measured 9". The colours vary in these photographs because it has been so dark here, with rain and snow every day, which makes it difficult to take photos. 
The block challenge is viewer's choice, so if you live near St. Jacobs and want to go see the wonderful blocks they received and vote for your favorite,  the blocks will be on display at The Mill from March 12th - 26th. I'll post a photo of all the blocks as soon as I can get over there.
To see a photo of the blocks from the challenge 2 years ago, click here.