2015 BOM - Bordered Rows

I began the 2015 Block of the Month program in January at my local quilt shop. The quilt top for 2015 is called Bordered Rows, and it comes from Marti Michell.  If I had known the  pattern in advance, I might not have signed up to participate in the program this year. But the way BOM works is you don't know what you are going to get. All I knew was the blocks would be set on point and what color runs we could choose from. You only get a block pattern once a month and you don't get the finishing instructions until you are about halfway through the year.

This year's design uses special fabric sold by Marti Michell. It has a complicated striped print as part of the finishing. If you don't use a stripe, you are going to have to think very carefully about what to use to have the quilt come out looking nice.

I think the quilt, as made by Marti Michell, is very UGLY - both the fabrics and the pattern.

Marti Michell's Bordered Rows Quilt

I especially don't like the asymmetrical placement of three rows of chevrons at the bottom vs. two rows at the top. The three rows look awful and detract from the blocks themselves.

To be honest, I didn't really like any of the color runs offered by my quilt shop, either. I ended up choosing a run consisting of watercolor batiks in primary colors. 

There was one multi-color print in the color run - a batik with a black background. I decided to substitute a grassy print with a green background because I was tired of black.

The fabric I didn't use