NQM - BOM the first 4 blocks

The National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky put out a call to quilters to join their Block of the Month challenge to start with the April 2018 block.  It is a free challenge which will teach quilters a new technique every month for a year.  By April 2019, the final block will be revealed and quilters will finish their quilts to see if they qualify for the first 1,000 finished to receive a special label to place on their quilt.

I am trying for this accomplishment and following the instructions as closely as I can.

For the April block, Mr. Domestic, aka Mathew Boudreaux, gave us directions for "Bow Ties" using either English Paper Piecing technique or an easy Machine technique.  I chose to do EPP by hand.

I love the way this block turned out, it looks like bathroom tile to me.  The center squares on point are hand dyed fabric and the others are commercially dyed batiks.  

For the May block, Regina V. Benson, was the chosen artist to make a block using hand dyed fabrics we created.  The block should contain an organic element like earth, fire, sound, or water motifs using abstract composition, curved shapes, and asymmetrical layering in improvised piecing.  Her work is astounding and can be found here.  

I chose to ice dye my fabrics and scissor cut them into strips and chunks sewing them together to look like water and reeds.  

In June, the block to create was inspired by the Japanese Quilt Artists exhibit at the Museum.  We were to create a block from a sample block they provided including a pieced background, an applique Mt. Fuji and some embroidery embellishments.  I loved this block's elements.

For the July block, the exhibit "Fly Me To the Moon" is on display, so we were to create a block from the sample block provided with a moon motif that is pieced by machine using Annabel Wrigley's technique.  Adding a 3.5" atmosphere motif that is ruler-free rotary cut into strips and sewn into a stripe set at the bottom.

All the blocks are trimmed to 10.5".  You can find out more about the BOM club challenge here.

So far I am enjoying this challenge.  But,when I finished the moon block, I was not completely happy with it.  The moon was a little wonky and the stripes were not quite like I wanted them to look, so I created a second attempt.

I like the stripe set better on this second one, but the moon is the wrong size, so I cannot use it.  In my attempt to make a perfect circle, I didn't measure my circle right at the onset.  UGH.  I may chop off the bottom atmosphere and replace it with the first moon block's atmosphere set.

After writing this, I went to work chopping off both strip sets and switched them.  I am happy with the results and will go with the embroidered moon block even if it is a little wonky.  The second block will go in my orphan block bin.

Here it is and  now, I'm happy with it.  I'm anticipating the next month's challenge and hope it will be just as interesting as these first 4.