Hi there! Have you seen the Bella Skill Builder of at Fat Quarter Shop yet? There’s a fun sampler pattern that we are going to be sewing month by month, by my friend Sherri McConnell, and today is the first installment! The quilt has a little bit of everything in it – so it will definitely be a skill builder.

As I was selecting Bella fabrics with my Moda Matchmaker, I started with a similar palette to the sample quilt. The more I looked at it though, I really wanted to do something different. I think it’s a first born thing – I can’t ever seem to just follow along!

These are the colors I ended up with. I had to assign each fabric to a counterpart with in the sample quilt, and then make sure I ordered the right yardage.

Top to bottom:

Saffron, Avocado, Pesto, Spice, Sea, Graphite, Charcoal, and Off White for the background.

Here’s my first three blocks! I had fun making them, and they went together quickly. I’m really happy with how the grey and blue look together, and I can’t wait to get started on the next blocks and get more fabrics involved. If you’ve been wanting to try kalidescope blocks here’s your chance!

Cutting the paper templates accurately can be a little tricky – I used the edge of my ruler to make a clean cut, you can also use paper cement on the ruler and place the template on the edge for a bigger cutting job. For this instance, I took a few extra seconds to make sure things were all lined up before cutting.

I hope you will join the quilt-along! I can’t wait to see which Bella’s you decide to use in your Bella Skill Builder quilt.

Happy Quilting –

Amy