Snail Trail

I finally mailed off all those old bee blocks!  Not old, really, just late.  Super, super, super late.  Some were late by several months.  I don't think I should ever participate in another bee, since I'm so bad at getting to the post office on time.

These are a couple pictures of Lesly's block for September.  She sent the cutest red and aqua prints and asked us to make a Snail Trail block.  Looks kind of complicated, right?

It was surprisingly easy to make, with the cutest four patch in the middle.  Basically, this block is made with the square in a square method-- you sew quarter-square and half-square triangles to the four patch in the middle, building the block out.  The alternation of solid and prints create the swirling effect.

I would have made Lesly an additional block with my extra triangles and fabric, but I realized that the second block would look exactly the same as the first.  In the interest of visual variety and scrappiness, I chose to save the squares for Lesly and allow her to make the remaining blocks.

Can't wait to see this quilt!

Prairie Chic

I've done it.  I've finally finished Alison's bee blocks.  In case you were wondering, her month was May.  I feel awful.

Alison sent us all several prints from Denyse Schmidt's recent fabric line, Hope Valley.

The fabrics themselves are so soft and thick, and they cut like butter!  The request was to make a block made of 36 2" finished patches.  She sent plenty of fabric; I was going to sew three blocks to make up for being late, but I figured I'd better just send back the scraps instead of holding this fabric hostage.

After I finished putting this task off-- you know, for months-- these blocks came together very quickly.  Much more quickly than I originally expected.  Alison asked that we press the seams open; this was the most time consuming part.

My blocks followed two color schemes-- pink and blue, and yellow, green, and blue.  That's how the fabrics grouped themselves in my eyes, and so that's how I sewed them.  It seems that everyone else is pretty much thinking the same way!

I hope Alison likes these blocks; I've made her wait long enough.   At least I got them finished before she had her baby.  If you can grow a baby faster than I can make two quilt blocks... well, that's saying something.

Gnome Homes

I finally sat down to sew Sharon's block for the Shrinking Quilters' Bee.

Sharon's month was April (oops!) and she asked for pink, wonky gnome homes.  She sent a bunch of cute pink fabrics, in addition to a lot of white fabric, and a little bit of Heather Ross's pink gnomes print.  I added in my favorite pink polka dot ever, and also a bit of green for the grass.  

I've never done wonky before; I'm not sure if I like what I came up with.  I tried to recreate my neighborhood here in Richmond.  The final product is quite different than my idea drawing, but that's because there were certain elements that I just couldn't bring myself to attempt to create (like stairs, porches, and columns).

Compared to others, my block seems like a failure!

Shrinking Quilters - March

I'm a bit behind, but today I made my bee block for The Incredible Shrinking Quilter's Bee.  March was Suzanna's month.

We made an off-kilter Shoo-Fly block inspired by a project in Liberated Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston.  Suzanna sent jewel-toned fabrics and requested that we use a black background. My final block has a pretty Amish look, which I'm digging.  I couldn't resist the light blue blender fabric that she sent and so I decided to use that as my focus fabric along with some funky purple print for the border.  I love my block!  I have plenty of scraps left over and so I think I may make some extra blocks for Suzanna to make up for being late.  I'd also like to make some of these for myself! If you'd like to know how to make this block, surf over to Modify Tradition to learn how to view the Shoo Fly block tutorial.  Then, add some borders and trim at an angle.  You're done!