Before the current issue of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine is on the Newsstands, there are many, many hands involved in the process.

There is, of course, the Designers.  Without the Designers there would be no 100 Blocks.  They are creative, talented and willing to share their love of quilting.

The staff of Quiltmaker is very much involved with the many steps from Designer to Publishing.  It’s kind of like preparing Thanksgiving Dinner and trying to get all the food on the table nice and hot!  Some things have to happen early and some things can wait until the last minute.

One step of this process includes a group of quilters that have the opportunity to test the block patterns.  Sometimes it is a technique that stretches their abilities.  For me appliqué is a challenge, but I’m learning to do better.  As I’ve been sharing this week, I am one of the 32 quilters that test the blocks.

There are two ladies on staff that work closely with the volunteer Block Testers.  The first is Paula Stoddard, QM’s Creative Editor.

Paula is the one that contacts the Testers and provides each group of 4 Quilters with a pattern to test.  Usually we have one block to test at a time, sometimes we’ll have two which need to be completed within 2 weeks.

The other lady is Quiltmaker’s Contributing Editor, Amy Rulkoetter, who actually writes the instructions and draws the diagrams.  When the Block Testers complete a block, we provide Amy with a picture of our block and an evaluation with any problems or questions.

Block Testers:

On a blog post today, Quiltmaker recognizes those of us who are the Block Testers as a part of the team that helps Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks become a reality.  Check out their Blog post.  Yes, they share some pictures of the Block Testers.

I want to thank the staff at Quiltmaker for all their hard work in putting together the two issues per year of the 100 Blocks.  I’ve enjoyed working with them this past several years and look forward to testing more blocks.

[Teaser:  I just got another block to test today!  HEHEHE!  I can’t show it to you until Volume #11’s Blog Tour, but I like it!  Now I’m heading to my fabric to pick out the colors to use.]

Tomorrow I’ll share some more of the blocks I’ve tested for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 10.

Happy Stitching!

Quilt Mouse