Tetris Block 1

This is a post about firsts. It's about the first block in the Tetris Quilt Along that's being hosted by Melissa over at Happy Quilting. If you don't know about it, hop over to her site and join in the fun. And don't worry if you don't know what Tetris is or have never played. Melissa gives a great tutorial on how to play to get everyone started. I must admit I'm a Tetris newbie. Another first. I just played my first game. I don't know about you but I'm much better at Tetris quilting than Tetris the game.


This is also my first ever quilt-along. Can you believe it? I've never done a quilt-along. I get so caught up working on new designs for my quilts and patterns that I don't make time to participate in much of the online fun. I'm working on finding the right balance between design/quilting and online blogging fun. How do you all do it?

This quilt along just spoke to me though.  The unplanned, randomness of the blocks is just what I need to break the planning and control I usually bring to my own quilts. Now I'm not going to promise I won't tweak something here or there. It's my nature. But I will try to stick to the Tetris game rules as I understand them.

That said, I've already broken the first "rule" by wanting more control over the color palette. I love love color but just wasn't feeling the whole primary color thing. So I'm going with Kona solids in a blue-green palette. Oh, and did I mention I changed the size too? I'm using a smaller 2 1/2" finished square which will give me a nice sized 30 x 45 baby quilt. But that's the nice thing about this QAL. Mellissa is so ok with everyone doing what they want . . . so I am.

Here's my first block. I reassigned the colors to the shapes Melissa gave us and "played" the game.

And I'm also trying something new to me by using starch. I know I know . . . how can I have quilted for all these years and never used starch? Well, I just haven't. But I'm tired of all those loose threads and limp fabric so I'm giving starch a try. Do you use starch? If so, at what point in the process? Before you cut or after? I'd love to hear your methods and which kind of starch you prefer. So far I love the nice crisp feel of all my little Tetris squares. I just might be a convert if the process isn't too time-consuming.

So far so good. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with and next week's block. I think this is going to be fun.