It’s our third installment of the 2021 Monthly Color Challenge that we’re doing with designer Jen Shaffer, and this month we are focusing on fabrics in the red-orange family and enjoying yams for our featured vegetable.

We chose this quilt-along to compliment our 2021 Theme of the Year: Beauty in Color.

It is our way of celebrating how color – in all it’s many hues and many shades – makes our world a better, more interesting, exquisitely beautiful place.

And our study of color is proving to be very fun!

The Past…

January was all about purple.

February was a gorgeous splash of yellow.

The Present…

The block pattern that Jen created for March is deceivingly easy to sew together, and it is very cute!

For my layout, I needed two of these to go with June’s upcoming pumpkin orange block:

Each block requires a light red-orange and a dark red-orange. I wanted one set to be a bit darker than the other so that my row will fade from darkest to lightest when I add the final orange block in a few months.

At first glance, I worried that the “floating” triangles would be difficult to set, but with a combination of half-square triangles and a square-in-square for the center, this 9-patch is easier than I imagined.

I also made sure to press after each time I stitched pieces together, so the entire block is nice and flat.

The Finished Blocks & This Month’s Recipe

The more I look at them, the more I love how they turned out.

To go along with these adorable yam-inspired blocks, I am happy to share one of my very favorite recipes and a holiday tradition around our house:

Candied Sweet Potatoes

These do not require exact science…if you feel the need to add more sugar or more butter or more marshmallows, go for it – you can’t go wrong with this scrumptious side dish!

Starting the 2nd Quarter

I can’t believe we have now worked through the first fourth of the quilt-along. Of course, that means that 2021 is moving right along as well.

Here at Q2EA, it’s been a wonderful start to the new year!

I’ve had the opportunity to speak to quilt guilds both via Zoom and in person, and I’m excited about the presentations already on the calendar for the rest of 2021 and on into 2022.

Today we are launching our 2nd Marquee Designer Series Quilt: Forget Me Not designed by Teresa Marler. It is such a clever and fun pattern, and the fabric kit we used for the tester is a fantastic mix of prints and colors that create quite a WOW factor!

And last but not least, we are making plans for a virtual sew-in to celebrate The Longest Day in June.

If you are not already receiving my weekly emails, please subscribe to stay in touch, and please invite your quilting family and friends to join us in this journey to connect quilters with the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease.

The Future…

April is just around the corner, and our color for next month is Cherry Red.

For my layout, I will be making 1 of Jen’s blocks plus 4 bonus blocks to finish out the red row.

I can’t wait to share those with you!

In the meantime, please take one last opportunity to check out our generous 1st Quarter Sponsors as well as my fellow March bloggers:

• Appliques, Quilts and More
• Bea Quilter
• Benartex
• Cherrywood Fabrics
• Daybrook Designs
• Designs by Sarah J
• Dragonfly’s Quilting Design Studio
• Love to Color My World
• Patterns by Jen
• Quilters Dream Batting
• The Warm Company

• Raylee Bielenberg
• Fawn Benzing
• Crystal Drummond
• Joanne Hubbard
• Kathryn LeBlanc
• Claudia Porter
• Lisa Ruble
• Jen Shaffer
• Andi Stanfield

Have a marvelous March –

With love and hugs,

Ashli