January / February Quilting Bee Blocks

Hi everyone! Wow, I haven't been around much lately, huh? I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted. Thanks to everyone who reached out to make sure I was doing OK. Fortunately, my absence had nothing to do with my elbow -- it's almost 100% back to normal now and I officially graduated physical therapy! And with that has come a lot of sewing ... some stuff I can share, and some I can't! (eeeeee! don't you love secret surprises?)

So why haven't I blogged? A couple of reasons, but largely because Mrs. Quilt Dad dropped and broke our camera! Can you imagine what it's like being a blogger without a camera?? It's been rough, I tell ya'!

I've tried my best by taking some pictures on my iPhone but, as you'll see later in this post, it hasn't been the ideal solution. The good news is that I just got a suh-weet deal on a new DSLR camera this week ... so as soon as I figure out how to use it, I'll be back to my old tricks.

In the meantime, I thought it was a good time to catch up on my quilting bee blocks from the past few months.

These first blocks were made for my homegirl Heather in the { Bee } Imaginative group. January was Heather's month and she sent out some bits of solid fabrics and the fabulous Quilter's Tweed by Robert Kaufman. She requested mini blocks made improv-style. Here's what I came up with:

I can't wait to see how she pulls it all together.

January was Andrea's month in the Buzz Cuts bee. She sent us the grey print from Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line that you see below as the background print, and asked us to use our own scraps to complete the following block:

The block was a bit work intensive, but is also a great scrap buster and fun to put together.

Now, I had vowed to go on a quilting bee diet this year -- no new quilting bees! -- but I couldn't resist joining Rachel's do. Good Stitches charity bee. All of the quilts made from this bee are donated to a charitable cause.

The group started in January but generously gave me a pass for the first month to let my elbow heal. February's block assignment was 2 blocks made from Elizabeth's Map of the States block in shades of orange and grey. I had been hesitant to try this block pattern -- freezer paper? who needs it?! -- but I'm hooked. It's become my new favorite block pattern and I've even made a mug rug using the technique.

Cool blocks , huh? Jill has already put the quilt top together. Check it out here!

February brought a really fun design challenge from Nettie in the { Bee } Imaginative group. Take a look at the photo she provided as inspiration for her blocks. She sent some grey fabrics and an assortment of rainbow colored scraps. I made this block featuring a wonky block of color in the middle of sea of grey. I wanted the rainbow bit to stand apart from the neighboring blocks in Nettie's final quilt.

And now ... errrr ... Buzz Cuts' February block. Julie requested paper-pieced Union Jack blocks made from this free tutorial. Let's start off by saying that paper-piecing is SO not my thing. I love the fabrics I selected for this block but was doomed for disaster from the start.

Here's the travesty that I ended up with:

Clearly this isn't acceptable to send to Julie, and I need to start over from scratch. I don't think I have enough of these fabrics to replicate the block, though. And I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to start all over again. Send me strength!

November Quilting Bee Blocks

Thanks for all of the nice comments on my giveaway post! Keep 'em coming -- the giveaway will remain open through the end of the day on Friday.

I've been pretty good lately in keeping up with my quilting bee commitments. It really helps now that I am down to a much more manageable number of bees (2).

November was the supremely talented Rita / redpepperquilts' month in the {Bee} Imaginative bee. She sent an assortment of strips in prints featuring red and white, with some splashes of pink and orange for good measure. She requested large-scale (15") log cabin blocks. The simple yet scrappy design, using a limited color palette but featuring modern prints, is going to be a stunner!

I was able to make 2 blocks for Rita and had a lot of fun pulling a few fabrics from my stash to add in.

Over in the Buzz Cuts group, November was Sara's month. She is making a quilt for her husband and asked for traditional (i.e. non-wonky) blocks using brown, orange, and black fabrics from our stash.

I made this block up on the fly. It's not traditional in the traditional sense -- and by that, I mean that it's not a star, or pinwheel, or another more traditional pattern -- but the construction is based on simple log cabin squares. I think it looks more modern because of the fabrics I chose to use (Joel Dewberry woodgrain, Moda grunge in black, an orange stripe from Moda's Wee Woodland collection, and a featured square in the center from Rosemarie Lavin's Spa line).

December's an off month for {Bee} Imaginative, and it's MY month in Buzz Cuts! I was so excited to send off my precious stash of Tula Pink's Flutterby line, and I asked for spiderweb blocks. (A spiderweb quilt made from bug-themed fabrics? How meta!)

A few have already popped up in the pool, and I can't WAIT to put this quilt together ...

from Arnden's Space

from jgmehlin

October Bee Blocks

After the whirlwind of the past few weeks (quilt market in Houston! more on that soon ...), I spent this past weekend trying to catch up on some bee commitments. It felt good to knock out some small projects and cross a few things off of the ol' to-do list.

First up is a block for Modern Quilt Guild headmistress and sewist extraordinaire, Alissa (from handmadebyalissa), for our {Bee} Imaginative quilting bee.

She was inspired by this photo of a contemporary woven tapestry seen on Cathy of California's blog, and asked us to interpret this design in our own way to create a rectangular quilt block.


Here is the amazing fabric collection that Alissa pulled together for this project:

And here's what I created:

I had a lot of fun going back to something purely improvisational, making it up as I went along. It was a great way to spend my Friday night. Can't wait to see Alissa's quilt come together!

On the complete other end of the spectrum was a much more traditional, paper-pieced block for Mary over in the Buzz Cuts bee. The funny thing is that I enjoyed making this more traditional block, where accuracy and precision was key, just as much as I enjoyed making Alissa's block. Having made them both in one evening, it was a very cool exercise in contrast, and flexing both sides of my brain!

I am still not very comfortable with my paper piecing skills, but I only had to rip out one seam on this block. I also made a corresponding alternate block that Mary is going to use in her quilt layout:

And here they are both together:

There's lots of good chatter going on right now about virtual quilting bees over in the Quilting Bee Blocks group. For me, I am really enjoying being in 2 bees at the moment ... down significantly from the 6 or 7 I was in at some point over the past year!

How about you? How many bees are you in? How many is too many? And if you're not in a bee yet, what are you waiting for?!

September Bee Blocks

Just popping in to share some pictures of my September quilting bee blocks.

This first one was made for Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! fame as part of our {Bee} Imaginative bee. She asked for something in a wonky, improv style that was not a square-in-square block. Can you imagine how intimidating it is to make a block for a quilter as crazy talented as Elizabeth? Well, I tried my best ...

That 9-patch variation on the top left of the block came to me first, and then I decided to embellish it with a graduated border on only two of the sides. I hope Elizabeth likes it!

Over in my other bee, Buzz Cuts, Dorie had a very special request. She decided to request blocks made from children's fabrics from our stash, which she will make into preemie quilts for her local NICU. Doesn't that kind of selflessness and generosity warm your heart?

Here's the block I made -- not exactly children's fabrics, but cute for a baby girl's quilt, no?

Except that Dorie asked for 16.5" blocks, which I totally forgot when I made this 12.5" block. So I'll be making another to send to Dorie shortly.

How have your bees been going?

August Bee Blocks

Until I have some bigger things to show, I thought I'd share some pictures of my recent quilting bee block creations.

In the {Bee} Imaginative group, Kate asked for large square-in-square blocks. She is going to cut all of her blocks into quarters and then rearrange them to make a modern bento box quilt. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

And in my other bee, Buzz Cuts, Kathy asked for blocks to make her 19 year-old son a green, blue and black quilt. I found these fabrics in my stash that fit the bill perfectly.

I'm finding it much easier to keep up with my bees now that I've cut back to just two of them. I even have time to work on fun little projects like this one: an itty-bitty mini quilt for Kim (aka meangirlie), the VP of our Triangle Modern Quilt Guild.

Why? Just because. We worked a booth together at Maker Faire a few months back, and we were both pulling these little scraps out of the giant scrap bin we had in the booth. I stuck them in my bag and decided to surprise her with a little homemade gift.

Have you made anything lately, "just because"?

July Bee Blocks

Yay! It seems that I am all caught up on my quilting bee blocks -- both making the blocks themselves, and blogging about them! It helps that I've pared the number of bees I am in down to 2 ... MUCH more manageable and, as a result, I am able to take a moment and enjoy the experience again. It helps that the two bees I am in are both GREAT.

First up this month is {Bee} Imaginative, where July was fellow manquilter Ryan's month. He sent a selection of red & aqua fabrics and asked for asterisk-inspired blocks in multiples of 3". I was able to make a 9" and a 12" block. I was excited to use some of my Circa 50 by Monaluna for Birch fabric.

Over in Buzz Cuts, swapmistress Kimmie asked for colorful flying geese blocks made from fabrics from our stash. I thought this was a great opportunity to cut up some of my Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I don't use Kaffe's stuff very often, but I think there are some occasions where it really fits the bill. I especially love the flying geese-like print that I used within the flying geese. How meta.

April, May, and June Bee Blocks

It's been kind of quiet on the sewing front. I'm chalking it up to it just being a busy summer with the kids, the new puppy, the on-again / off-again moving saga and, oh yeah, the full-time job. I actually have made something pretty major -- my new pattern for the next issue of Fat Quarterly, coming in just a little over a week.

More on that project soon, but in the meantime I thought it was a great time for a long-overdue recap of quilting bee blocks.

Here's the block I made for Sara / sames05 for the Buzz Cuts bee back in April. Sara asked for monochromatic blocks made up of squares, rectangles, strips or triangles from fabrics from our stash. My color was brown. Here's what I came up with:

April was Ashley's month over in {Bee} Imaginative. She requested square-in-square blocks in the style of Denyse Schmidt's popular Drunk Love pattern. Here are the two blocks I made from her lovely lilac, green and gray fabrics:

April was our final month over in the bee inspired group. I made these two square and rectangle blocks for Lisa / lharsma:

Moving on to May ...

This beast of a block is 16.5" and was made for Adrienne / Arnden's Space for the Buzz Cuts bee. She requested blocks made from this tutorial (scroll down) in shades of blue & green, made entirely with fabrics from our stash:

May was Amanda / sasikirana's month in {Bee} Inspired. She sent a whimsical selection of prints along with a lemon yellow shot cotton and asked for any design that featured flying geese. After deciding to do some fussy cutting, here is what I came up with:

Another bee that's wrapping up is my own SewConnected 2. Our final swapper was Kristen / kirbyloulou . She sent an assortment of "upcycled" blue and white pattern shirts and asked for blocks in the Gee's Bend / strip style. This was a fun challenge, and I loved working with the non-traditional materials! Here's what I came up with:

And now, June ...

Over in {Bee} Imaginative, Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio asked for rectangular blocks in the modern / improv style. She sent two solids -- an aqua and a charcoal gray -- as well as a patterned IKEA print. Here's my interpretation of Jacquie's theme:

And finally, for Jennie / sunflowerquilt's month in Buzz Cuts, she requested a scrappy block made from this tutorial using our own scraps and a black & gray dotted print that she sent. Here's what I made for Jennie:

Another great scrap-busting pattern!

I hope you enjoyed this round-up of bee blocks. Have a wonderful week!

Quilting Bee Blocks | March 2010

Wow, what a difference a weekend makes. I have lots and lots to share with you, dear readers. The best news is we sold our house this morning! Fingers crossed that it all goes through OK, but it looks like we'll start looking for our new home closer to Chapel Hill. We've also got a new member of the family, and those of you who follow me on Twitter already know what I'm talking about ... if you don't, stay tuned for more info. It seems like my blog writing can't keep up with the pace of my life these days!

In the meantime, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on sharing my quilting bee blocks. I really love the batch of blocks I have to share with you today! March was a good month for quilting bee inspiration.

First up, for the SewConnected 2 group, Rita sent out some really gorgeous shot cottons and wanted "love" blocks in the spirit of this amazing quilt. I went around and around on what to make for Rita (so many ideas!) and finally landed on a "Be Still My Heart" block from Jacquie's free block tutorial over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. I added some extra borders and was quite pleased with how it turned out!

In the SewConnected 3 bee, Solidia asked for spiderweb blocks using mostly Denyse Schmidt "Hope Valley" fabrics and a nice charcoal gray for the centers. These blocks were a bit of a challenge because, unlike other spiderweb blocks that I've made, these were not paper or foundation pieced. Solidia asked us to use an online tutorial that uses regular piecing. I had to work over the numbers a few times in my head before starting to cut, but I think they turned out OK!

Also in SewConnected 3, Leah requested the popular "Circle of Geese" block. I love making these blocks. They might look intimidating, but this was the first paper-pieced block pattern that I ever tried. Trust me, it's beginner-friendly!!

Over in Buzz Cuts, Jennie sent out red, white and black fabrics and wanted us to feature the adorable chickens however we saw fit. I made two big 15.5" blocks, and can't wait to see how Jennie's quilt turns out.

SO cute!

March was Julie's turn in the {Bee} Imaginative bee. Julie wanted wonky log cabins / square-in-square blocks, and pointed to this wonderful quilt as her inspiration. I was able to make two for Julie, and really enjoyed working with her fabric selections.

And that's it for March! Another month in the books. I just finished up my April blocks this weekend (nothing like waiting until the last minute), so I hope to have them up to share soon.

Have a great week!

Quilting Bee Blocks | Jan/Feb 2010

Happy day-after-Easter! I hope you all had a nice weekend. The weather was beautiful here in NC -- and it's supposed to reach 90 degrees tomorrow!

I was busy, busy, busy this past weekend (thanks in no small part to my mom being in town, aka built-in babysitter). Three fairly sizable projects are thisclose to being completed, another Hoop Up embroidery piece done, and two quilting bee blocks started last night (and expected to be finished tonight). The mojo definitely feels like it's in high gear -- even if it is still just catching up on past due deadlines!

While I have a quick moment, I thought it was a good day to catch up on blogging about the past few months' worth of quilting bee blocks. But before I do, I wanted to let you know about a new site that Erin recently set up called QuiltingBeeBlocks.com. Ever wonder about the ins & outs of virtual quilting bees? Want to join one, or start your own? Looking for inspiration for the bees that you're already a member of? Well, check out this fun & informative site that's an offshoot of Erin's already-popular Flickr group.

First, some news from my corner of the VQB world. My original quilting bee, SewConnected, has come to an end. December was our last month, and the final few blocks are making their way home to their rightful owners. SewConnected was my first (and, in many ways, my favorite) bee and all of the members were amazing, so it's somewhat sad to see it come to an end. I'm still on the fence about another round for the group -- I know many of the people feel as overcommitted as I do right now, but who knows what the future will hold? I am going to keep the group on hiatus for right now, and revisit it in a few months' time.

Another of the bees I had been participating in, the Cottage Quilting Bee, has also recently wrapped up.

We're also nearing the finish line over in SewConnected 2. January was Beth's month and she managed to send out her fabrics just before giving birth to her new baby daughter, Abbie! I made her this fairly simple block because I really wanted to showcase all of the different prints that Beth had selected:

February was Doris' month. Doris wanted to make a neighborhood quilt with all sorts of houses. She was especially interested in house blocks more simple in form and a little bit wonky. Doris sent along some greens for the landscape and I dipped into my scrap bin for the rest.

Over in SewConnected 3 (January), Gretchen sent us all black fabric + two additional solids. Her request was for more traditional, Amish-style blocks. I picked this pinwheel-style block from Quiltmaker's "100 Designer Blocks" magazine from a few months back. I really love how it turned out. I think Gretchen's quilt will be a stunner.

We unfortunately had a bee member that had to drop out of the swap, so as the group's leader I volunteered to make some replacements for those still waiting for their blocks. I made this additional block for Gretchen on her behalf:

I also made a replacement block for Cathy, whose month was a few months back. Both this pattern and the last are also from the "100 Designer Blocks" magazine -- certainly getting my money's worth!

Although I am actively trying to reduce the number of swaps I am in, I did recently sign up for a second year of Kimmie's Buzz Cuts bee. It's such a great group of very talented quilters that I just couldn't resist. Plus, everyone there is so nice!

January was Lish's month and she sent a stunning selection from Moda's Soiree line. I received fabrics from the blue colorway and made three 9" blocks for Lish.

First, a paper-pieced Lantern Light block from Quilter's Cache. (LOVE this one!!)

Here's one that I kind of made up on my own:

And finally, a block from one of Judy Hopkins' quilt block books (can't remember the block name right now):

February was fellow Triangle Modern Quilt Guild member Rachel's month. She pretty much said "anything goes" (LOVE that!) and even welcomed rectangular blocks. I went all improv on this one and ended up with kind of a mini patchwork quilt with some wonky rail fence blocks in it. (Pic is from Rachel's photostream, since I didn't get a pic before giving it to her in person at our guild meeting!)



My newest bee is Heather & Kerri's {Bee} Imaginative group. (Here's a trick -- you can always spot one of Heather & Kerri's Flickr groups by the use of their signature curly brackets!)

Kerri was up first in January and wanted to make a mini gnome village in shades of red & aqua. I had tons o' fun making these blocks. I love making mini houses and stuff, and tried to do something new & original for Kerri. First I made little twin cottages -- maybe for two best friends who build their homes right next to one another? Or two married gnomes whose trick for a happy marriage is separate sleeping quarters? : )

Next up is a much simpler little gnome home:

I was on such a roll that I was able to begin a third block (though I didn't have enough white fabric to finish it up). I thought the village could use a nice big tree ... and look! Little Red is strolling underneath.

February was actually my month in {Bee} Imaginative and I have received some AMAZING blocks. I just got my last ones, so I will post them separately once I am able to get some good photos.

Last (but not least) is Rachel's bee inspired, which is actually also wrapping up in March. January was Natalie's month and she, too, requested mini houses. She sent a fun selection of prints that made me feel like I was designing the world's cutest little candy shop:

February was a two-fer month, with both Lynn & Deb up to bat. Deb sent along a really eye-catching collection of prints and wanted simple square/rectangle-type blocks. I went back to an old favorite layout and added in the coordinating aqua & orange birds. Great selections, Deb -- I LOVE how this all looks together!

And finally, Lynn forced me to finally confront my fear of paper-pieced spiderweb blocks (which I had been avoiding like the plague). I am so glad she did! They weren't nearly as hard to make as I had been expecting them to be. Don't you just LOVE all of that Lizzy House goodness in there? The rings of dots are amaing, the geese totally make me smile, and the medals & ribbons on the green background is quickly becoming a favorite print of mine.

Another quilt that I can't wait to see completed!!

Finishing up my March blocks this week ... how apropos for the first week of April, huh? Yes, I'm still lagging just a bit behind. How are the rest of you doing out there in quilting bee land?