Bee Blocks

Yesterday I showed you several projects that I've been working on this week. Here's a couple more...

String block for Vicky using Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane.

String Me Along bee

This was my first string block. I've seen them before, but had never really been interested in making one. Now that I've had the opportunity to, I love them! It was so easy & seems to display a collection very nicely. :)

Confetti block for Sara

Fat Stash bee

She sent Denyse Schmidt's Fairgrounds Modern Texture in yellow for the frame & a bit of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi Summer Totem for some of the confetti. It was a fun block to make as well.

Blocks received so far from 3x6 & 4x5 bee. I requested coral & olive. Aren't they gorgeous?!

A few weeks ago I won a couple giveaways. And all the lovelies showed up on the same day last week. It was a great day to open the mailbox!

These cute charms came over from Australia. The lovely Kat sent them.

I love the turtle!

I also won some Tula Pink patterns from Jeanne's Charity Challenge. Be sure to stop by and enter her Aurifil thread giveaway which is going on now.

Also in the mailbox were these beautiful Veranda fat quarters by Amanda Murphy. I won them in a quiz show that Ryan Walsh was hosting on twitter earlier this summer.

I thought it was fate that the everything showed up on the same day. The fat quarters are going to be made into Tula Pink's Kiss Kiss pattern. I was lucky enough to find a coordinating teal blue at work for the background color. I still haven't decided what to do with the charms, but I'm considering modifying the Pancakes pattern for charm squares & making it a fun I Spy quilt. We'll see!

Thanks again for all the fabulous goodies!

String Me Along Bee Block

It's September?!? Are you sure? Ack!

Well, it's my month for the String Me Along Bee. It took me ages to decide what block to make & which fabric to use, but I finally decided.

As many of you know, Sew Mama Sew hosts Giveaway Days twice a year. In May I won some fat eighths of Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms from Don't Call Me Betsy (who happens to be in the String Me Along Bee too). I thought these fabrics would be perfect to send out to my fellow hive members.

The next decision was what type of block to do. Since Bree just had her baby a few weeks ago I wanted to choose a block that would be easy to make, but still utilize the creativity of the group. That's when I decided on HST's (half square triangle). The basic pieces are simple, but you can create all sorts of fun patterns with them.

Here's a quick little tutorial for my block:

Gather your fabric. For this tute I'm using a 2.5" collection for Aneela Hoey's Little Apples & some solid white for the coordinating fabric. My fellow hive members will be receiving 4.25" blocks.

Cut your coordinating fabric to the same size as the other squares. Draw a diagonal line (corner to corner) along the wrong side of your patterned fabric.

Match up 1 patterned square & 1 coordinating square, right sides together. Stitch 2 - 1/4" seams parallel to the line.

Cut along the drawn line.

Press your seams open. You can cut the tails if you like. I don't because I'm lazy. :P

Play with the pattern of your 16 blocks until you find a design that you like.

Once you've chosen the layout you'd like to use sew your pieces into rows & sew the rows together. That's it! :)

{Sew} Modern Monday

Last weekend I got a couple bee blocks finished and I finally got around to photographing them yesterday.

Follow the Leader block by Ryan Walsh Quilts

This block was for the June block of the String Me Along bee. I know, it's July 31st, but as I mentioned before this fabric got hidden underneath my tabletop ironing board. She sent us some Hope Valley and asked for flying geese. I have been wanting to make this block for a while now so this was the perfect opportunity. I did (accidentally) place the geese in the wrong order, but I liked it this way, so I kept it. :)

Avignon Picnic block by Andrea Harris

Lee sent us some pieces of Central Park and asked us to make the above block for the July String Me Along bee. The pieces were already cut up, but it went together so quickly! I love this pattern & I've decided this is the one I will be using to make my sister's wedding quilt. I have a couple jelly rolls of Sunkissed and will be using navy as the solid. Can't wait to start working on it, but there are several projects that need to be done first. Luckily the wedding is still over a year away, so I have time! :)

I'm linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations. If you haven't been there already be sure to stop by for a visit & say Hi!

Bee Blocks & Other Business

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. It took me a little while to recuperate from all the family time in May & then my grandfather ended up in the hospital on Memorial Day, after having a stroke. He did make it to his 94th birthday (June 7th), but they took his breathing tube out 2 days later and he passed away in the night.

I didn't get much done while he was in the hospital & since his passing I have been a sewing maniac trying to catch up on a few things!

Here's what I've been working on...

A picnic-y block for mommymae (Fat Stash Bee)

A Drunk Love/Square in Square Block for Elizabeth (String Me Along Bee)

My design wall the other day.

Cathedral Window block for Sara (MSQB)

Any block in pink, orange, & yellow for Johanna (MSQB)

For this block and my 3x6 blocks (below) I decided to use Amy Ellis' Blogger's Block-a-palooza block. Initially it looked like a difficult block, but I loved it so much that I thought I'd give it a shot. Well, I ended up making 8 total with this tutorial. Once all the cutting was done the block came together in no time. If you haven't tried this block yet I highly recommend it.

3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee - Beehive 28

Blocks for Misfit Quilters DQS.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Bee Blocks and Other Swaps

Here's what I've been working on this week...

MSQB April block

Lindseykron asked for a wonky star in rust, teal, and white. Although this block was quick & fun to make I never would have tried it on mine own. After making it, I'm looking forward to making many more of these block. :)

Fat Stash Bee April block

Jodi (jkae1989) asked for a modified bento box for a quilt for her teenage son. She sent that awesome grey & black vine-y fabric and asked for her block to be black, grey, white, and red.

String Me Along Bee April block

Franswimmer also asked for modified bento box using some lovely batiks.

I can also finally share a couple swaps that I sent off a couple weeks ago. Remember those gorgeous mermaid/octopus hoops I showed the other day? Well, the hoops below are my end of that swap.

This was for the Diptych Hoopla Swap on Craftster. Sadly, my end of the swap was sent out pretty late because my first plan failed and everything I tried to do to fix it just made it worse. I finally decided to take a new approach and stitch over some fun fantasy fabrics.

The large piece took a lot longer than expected, but I finally got it done.

The complimentary piece was a lot of fun because I got to get creative with the big white open space of the swan. I had a different pattern on its tail at first, but when I started to feather the neck I realized the feathering the whole body was the way to go. The 3 flowers were a lot of fun to make too. I learned a lot of new techniques making these pieces and I hope that my partner enjoys them.

I also recently participated in a mug rug swap. This is what showed up in my mailbox from Jessica, all the way from Australia. Aren't the cowboy silhouette and dresden plate sunrise amazing?

This is what Jessica received in return. She said her favorite fabric designers is Sweetwater so I decided to use the lovely Sunkissed fabrics.

I'm linking up to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday. Please head over there to see what everyone else is working on. Also please check out my Quilts for Smithville call for donations for tornado victims and see what we're giving away!

Bee Blocks

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here, if you haven't already.

This week I finally feel like I've got my sewing mojo back. I have found most of my fabric that I had stashed "in a safe place" for the move. I still have 2 more blocks to make for March, but I feel like I accomplished a lot over the weekend.

Patchwork Square in Square for Casey (Modern Stash Quilting Bee)

I don't really care for pink, purple, or yellow, but those were the colors that were requested. By the time I finished this block I've started loving these colors. It was a fun and easy block to put together.

Liberated Churn Dash block in reds and pinks for Toni (MSQB)

This was my first piecing experience. It was a lot easier than I expected. I don't know why I get so nervous about learning new sewing skills because they always more fun than I make them out to be.

Pinwheel block for Theresa (MSQB)

Theresa's only request was a pinwheel made in spring colors. There are some great pinwheel tutorials out there, but I decided to go with Cherry House Quilts pinwheel designed for the Block-a-palooza.

Improv Log Cabin block for Beth (String Me Along bee)

Beth used this photo as an example and sent us some Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner and solids to play with. I've decided I love improv blocks. It was so much fun to just slice off some fabric and sew it together, then slice off some more, square off one side, and attach the new piece. It went together quickly and I really like the look of it.

And for your entertainment...

Jake got to take Fancy to work on Saturday. They pushed the heifers into a smaller pasture in preparation for calving. I was working around the house when all of a sudden a hear a knock at the door. This is what I found when I opened the door. She easily walked up the 3 porch steps and I think she would have come inside if he had asked. She still only has a handful of rides on her, but she is one good horse! :)

Virtual Quilting Bees

When I began sewing last summer I started looking for inspiration online. This search opened up a whole new world that I had no idea even existed. I had heard/read about blogs and forums and such, but had no idea what they were really all about. After following link after link after link I discovered that people were meeting on various online forums and swapping things in the mail. I joined SwapBot which is a fun way to meet people from all over the world and learn new crafts. I've learned how to do redwork embroidery, how to make fabric yo-yos, learned what mug rugs are, and braved new to me quilting techniques. For those who don't know what mug rugs are, they are miniature quilts, approximately 6" X 8", large enough to hold your mug and a small snack.

I've also discovered that there is so much more to Flickr than just posting pictures. (I sort of knew that before, but I had a difficult time navigating the site until recently.) With this discovery I found even more swaps and was introduced to the world of Virtual Quilting Bees. The specifics of each bee vary, but basically there are a set number of members for each bee and they commit to making a quilt block for each of the other members throughout the bee's life. Each member hosts a different month and they decide what sort of block they would like the other members to make for them. Sometimes the host sends out fabric to the others and sometimes we use fabric from our own stash, it just depends on the bee.

I am in 2 bees right now. The first one I signed up for is called String Me Along. It is a 16 month bee with 1 host each month. The host sends out fabric to the rest of us with a pattern and instructions. We have close to a month to complete the block and send it back. I just received the fabric today, so I'll be working on it later this week.

The other bee is the Modern Stash Quilting Bee (MSQB). MSQB is a 6 month bee with 12 participants, so we have 2 hosts each month. In this one we use fabric from our own stash to create the blocks. The host posts their request with a picture of an example block and we make our blocks from this information.

So, enough talk...Here are pictures of the first two blocks for the MSQB.

Framed fussy cut improv block in yellow and gray.

Bento Box.

This will be cut into four pieces and sewn together with pieces from the other blocks to make a unique and colorful quilt.