The Proper Bostonian Quilt Guild’s 2020-21 Quilt-in-a-Box was so successful, that we have voted to do it again this year. For this project, we each commit to sewing the block of our choice using the fabrics chosen by 8 other guild members. The fabric collections are kept in plastic craft boxes which we exchange at our bi-weekly meetings. Click the link above to go to see all the quilts our guild members made in our first Quilt-in-a-Box.

This time I have picked a block that isn’t technically difficult but does take a couple hours to make. It’s the Hexagon Star block.

The fabrics in this block are an Australian Aboriginal print (the dark floral called “Flowers in the Desert” by Lauren Coolan for M&S Textiles Australia), and Tula Pink’s “Mineral” from True Colors (orange) and Dragon’s Breath solid (purple).

My box of fabrics 8 Aboriginal print fabrics, more Tula Pink fabrics, Blank Quilting Corp. “Lower the Volume” and a few odds and ends I’ve pulled out of my stash. I’ve written a note asking my fellow quilters to try to avoid using the “Lower the Volume” Topography design, a soft grey print on white fabric which actually beautifully complements the box fabrics, and to strive to use the brights in the box as the background in their blocks. It’s a tall order. It’ll be interesting to see what they do!

I learned in our last Quilt-in-a-Box project that it was wise to make a test block before committing to making a block 9 times! My first choice last year just refused to consistently size up to 12 1/2 inches unfinished. So I switched to a similar block which did behave itself!

Here’s this year’s test block…a lot of the fabrics are actually left over from my last box! I added some Christmas fabric and turned it into a little 12 inch Christmas pillow, which kept it from ending up as an orphan block.

I’m looking forward to getting the first box in the project at our meeting next week!