This post is part of the 2019 Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along! See all posts.

Hello fellow Gypsies (and everyone following along)! It’s time to finish up our sampler quilt journey. I’ve really enjoyed cohosting the 2019 Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along with @ScrappyViolet. It’s a quilt I’ve wanted to make for a long time. Spreading it out over several months is making it so manageable. This April our quilt-along goals are to create all the littler “filler blocks” in the Gypsy Wife quilt and assemble the blocks together in the striped background. It’s a tall order indeed!

April Blocks

There are 3 categories of filler blocks for your Gypsy Wife quilt on our April schedule. These can be a little hard to sort out based on the pattern. I’ve done my best here! Wondering where they fall on the quilt? Here’s a map to help you see:

1. Courthouse Steps filler blocks make our first week’s assignment. You’ll find these on page 20 of the pattern booklet. There are 5 courthouse steps blocks in all, coded orange in the quilt map above.

2. Hourglass filler blocks are assigned to week two. There’s only 3 of these, coded in purple.

3. Square in Square filler blocks. There are a LOT of these lovelies, found in the pattern booklet pages 22-24. I’ve coded them dusty blue in the quilt map above. I count 42 square-in-square blocks as per this diagram. Making 42 will qualify you for our April prize. Please set me straight if I’ve color-coded them wrong!

My Courthouse Steps

Making this small batch of filler blocks is a nice break from sewing points. The Gypsy Wife quilt has a lot of points to manage, but with courthouse steps it’s all easy-going rectangles.

Making the filler blocks is confusing! Let’s just say it. There are so many of them and with such a variety of construction and sizes. Case in point, when I pulled my courthouse steps blocks off of my design wall for a photograph, I actually included one that doesn’t belong. Yep, that orange block is a square-in-square block with courthouse framing. It’s not one of the pure courthouse steps blocks assigned to this week. Gah! Sorry folks!

Our March Blocks

Congratulations to everyone who has competed their March blocks! Sometimes having a deadline is just the thing to help you make time for your favorite hobby. I enjoyed browsing all your lovely blocks at #Mar2019Gypsies, the hashtag for March’s goal.

Today I randomly selected our lucky winner - Jodie @PersimmonAndPear. I’ll be in touch, Jodie, to arrange for your prize delivery.

Prizes

To qualify for the April prize you need to complete your quilt top by May 5th. That’s right! It’s top time.

HOW TO ENTER

1. Post pictures of your quilt-along progress to Instagram. You can post filler blocks in big or small groups. Each time you post Gypsy Wife blocks, please use #2019GypsyWifeQAL so that we can enjoy seeing your progress and cheer you on.

2. Tag your final April block photo with #Apr2019Gypsies. That hashtag enters you into the pool of possible winners. Make sure this goes live by midnight in your time zone, on May 5th.

3. Follow @StitchedinColor, @ScrappyViolet and our month’s giveaway sponsor. In April that’s @TalesofCloth.

4. Cross your fingers! Winner will be randomly chosen and announced early in May.

April PRIZE

Thanks to Tales of Cloth for providing our final prize, the April prize! I’m super excited to announce that Aprils’ lucky winner will receive an Ice Cream Soda quilt kit!

Have you seen the Ice Cream Soda quilt? It’s a fabulous English paper pieced quilt created by Jodi at Tales of Cloth. Like Gypsy Wife, this quilt has been on my bucket list for awhile and maybe on yours too! What more fitting prize for our final flourish? This quilt is to be savored stitch by stitch. Each star block is a finish all of its own!

Tales of Cloth offers the Ice Cream Soda quilt as a pdf or printed pattern and as English paper piecing paper kit. She also makes custom acrylic templates for fussy cutting the quilt’s shapes. Our lucky winner will receive a complete kit: pattern, papers and templates too! Anyone can win, anywhere in the world.

Good luck, friends!