Block #8 - Rail Fence

I have one more block, the 8th one, named Paint the Fence, completed for Modern Quilts Unlimited Everything Old is New Again block and quilt challenge.

Paint the Fence block by Paige Alexander

This month's traditional block to interpret in a modern way was Rail Fence.

The block is made up of 4 squares containing 4 rails.  The traditional layout has every other square rotated 90 degrees.  Since only one block was created for the challenge, I rotated each square withing the block 90 degrees.

I decided to add some curve to the rails since we had a Gentle Curve Piecing workshop with member, Lynne Harrill at the Greenville MQG in February.

My plan was to try to create the same, or close to the same, curve for each of the rails within the squares.  And then, join them together imitating the same curve.  I cut the outer rails a little larger, allowing for joining the squares together and trimming.  Here is the block before trimming to 12 1/2". I could have cut the rails a tad smaller because I lost more of the green then I really wanted.

Paint the Fence untrimmed

I was nervous about repeating the same curve and joining all the blocks together.  But I was pleased with the result and was even able to twirl the centers to reduce the bulk.  I found a great post which explains twirling seam allowances here.

Center twirled for Paint the Fence

After finishing the this month's block, I realized this is my only block that does not contain any of the background fabric.

Here are all 8 blocks together.

• Flying Geese - Flying into the Sun
• Snail's Trail - Trail Blazers
• Ohio Star - Ohio on Point
• Card Trick - Simple Transparency Trick
• Bow Tie - Bow Tie Bold
• Double Pinwheel - Curvy Pinwheel
• Square in a Square - Minimal Square
• Rail Fence - Paint the Fence using Michael Miller's Cotton Couture in Apple, Magenta, Azure and Lava

MQU Everything Old is New Again Challenge blocks

When linking to the Cotton Couture page, I saw where if you sign up for their newsletter, you can receive free shipping when ordering the Cotton Couture Color Card.  I find it so helpful to have on hand when matching colors and with the challenge, we had to correctly identify the colors used in each block.  When I made the Card Trick block, I used charm squares from a Spring Couture charm pack and was able to name each color used.  This is a picture I posted on Instagram at the time.

Identifying colors using the Cotton Couture color card

With 8 blocks completed, there are only 4 more left and then the challenge continues to incorporate all 12 blocks into a quilt.  You can read more about the challenge in a previous post here.

Since I completed this month's challenge block, I am linking up to Finish Up Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Izzy at Dizzy Quilts hosting Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday this week, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Whoop, There It Is! and Show Off Saturday.