Back to Bees

It's been a few years since I've participated in a virtual quilting bee.  I'm excited to join a couple of new bees with friends from my local KCMQG.  My first blocks are for Shea in the Crossing Borders Bee (at least I think that's name we settled on), who requested 6" x 6 " or 6" x 12" spool blocks and sent us some scraps to work with.  I was very happy to get to work with my favorite color.

I just had to make an Aurifil spool too.

The next block is a wonky log cabin in Quilt Con colors.  This is for the Blessing Bee which is a project for the guild as a whole, put together by the Community Service Committee.  Each month, members may make any number of 12" x 12" blocks they wish in one of three styles: wonky log cabin in these colors, wonky stars in pink and lime, or square in a square in orange and aqua.  Other members have signed up to assemble tops, make backing, quilt and bind.  I think this is such a great arrangement for a a bee, allowing everyone to help as they are able.  The types of blocks may change every few months, and of course, members are welcome to donate completed quilts they have made themselves.

Finished baby quilts will be donated to a local organization that gives birthday cakes and other things  to children who would otherwise not have a birthday celebration.  We are hoping to provide enough quilts for all the children turning 1, with hopes to expand if we are able. I'm looking forward to more bee blocks!

Kaleidoscope Quilt

My kaleidoscope quilt, made with blocks from my online quilting bee, is finished! I chose a few borders in Kona Ash as well as a narrow strip of a large scale print from Leanika. This was a bit of an experiment, but I like the movement this creates. The narrow piece only shows small parts of the large pattern at a time which creates an interesting effect, I think.
I used the same print for part of the backing, along with the herringbone from Modern Meadow. The binding is Kona Coal.

What I'm most excited about is the free motion quilting. I did that! No marking. It's far from perfect, but it is something I couldn't have done even six months ago. It's a great feeling to think I can envision a FM design and then make it happen myself.

You can read more about the process of making this quilt here and here.

Bee Top In Progess

I've finally pieced together the blocks from my Bee Lovely flickr group. I wrote more about the block here.

Piecing the top has been quite a challenge, which is mostly my fault for choosing this particular block. It requires a lot of precision; even slight variations in seam allowance and pressing habits make blocks from different sewers tricky to join satisfactorily.I'm thinking of adding a border to make the stars seem to float on a sea of gray.I think hand quilting will be the most forgiving way to go on this top. I think it will also help define the shapes too, since my fabrics are fairly low contrast.

Thanks to the ladies who contributed to this project!

Queen Bee

I think that is what they're called anyway. It's my month to send out fabrics and a pattern for my bee. Each lady in Bee Lovely will get a package from me with these components.

The block we're making is called kaleidoscope, and I found a paper pieced pattern here which I enlarged for my purposes and cut to pieces for templates (I'm guessing some people aren't comfortable with paper piecing). A slight variation, and probably more well known block, is the stashbuster block from Material Obsession 2. Rita made a gorgeous one!

I'm crazy about my green, aqua, and gray combo! If you'd like to make your own, there is a great tutorial here. The solid I used is Kona Ash.

2010 in Review

Here is the obligatory mosaic of some of my best crafty bits from 2010. I'm actually very pleased I figured out how to make one of these. 1. Raw Edge Circle Quilt top, 2. Redbud Blossoms Quilt, 3. Tickertape Doll Quilt 3, 4. Camera Case Wristlet, 5. Hexagon pillow, 6. Summer Sunshine, closeup, 7. Pure Baby Boy, 8. Summer Sorbet, 9. String Pieced Pillow, 10. Voile and Linen Sewing Machine Cover, 11. Neptune Quilt, closer view, 12. Out for a Walk #2, 13. Plume Sails, 14. Quilted French Press Cozy, 15. Be Merry mug rug, 16. tickertape doll quilt, 17. My First Bee Quilt, 18. Scrappy Squares Baby Quilt, 2, 19. Coordinating Bunting, Pillow and Quilt, 20. tickertape mini quilt, 21. Around Town, 22. Busytown Quilt, 23. Ruffled Wristlet Keychains, 24. whirligig doll quilt - close up, 25. Monogram Pillow

Thanks to each of you for visiting my little blog over the past year and for all your kind comments both online and off.

Fall Bee Blocks

I'm in just one online quilting bee right now: Bee Lovely. It's nice to have a single block to complete each month.

In October we made mod mosaic blocks according to Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial. It was easy, improv piecing. Fun.

In November, Briana asked us to make flying geese blocks for her sampler quilt. She let us pick our own layout. I had been wanting to try the circular flying geese block. I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon. :) A tutorial and paper pieced pattern can be found here. You'll want to measure your template to be sure your printer has printed it to scale, if you want to end up with a 12.5" block. I didn't, and apparently my printer made the templates smaller. I added some borders to get it to be the right size.

My First Bee Quilt

I joined my first virtual quilting bee a year ago on flickr. Briefly, a virtual bee consists of about 12 participants. Each month one participant sends fabric and instructions to everyone else, and the others send back a block or more to that person. My month was back in February, and I received some really fun blocks (the original idea for this quilt was borrowed from Isa - thanks!). Thanks to the ladies in my first bee!
I made about half of the blocks that came together in this quilt. I'm so happy to see the finished product. It measures 60 x 84.The quilting really makes this quilt special. You can see how amazing it is! How cool is that!? The artist who created these unique designs is Angela. I love that each block is quilted differently. That makes the quilt so interesting to look at. Thank you Angela! I will enjoy this quilt for years to come, and the collaborative aspects of it made the whole experience so fun.

Basting and Binding

Lots of things in process here.
And no, this quilting is not done by me (isn't it fabulous!?). More on that with the full reveal soon.

Online Quilting Bee - Finished Top

I finally finished piecing the top of my quilting bee quilt. I sent out the fabric and linked to the inspiration diagram back in late January, and I just received my last blocks a couple of weeks ago. This groups isn't the promptest, but look at what I got! I made about half of the blocks myself, and it is made up of 35 12.5 inch blocks. Some of those blocks are made up of smaller blocks, as you can see.
I had hoped to make a queen sized quilt, but I ran out of fabric (and motivation to be honest). At 60 x 84 it will still work as a throw on the bed in my guest room. Now if I can sell some of my other quilts, I'll be able to have Angela quilt this for me! :)

Bee Blocks

I'm now it two online quilting bees and having lots of fun trying new blocks and using fun fabrics. Here are some of the most recent blocks I've made.

Liz from Bee Addicted 2 asked for geometric blocks featuring squares or rectangles. This was surprisingly fun to make. It helped that I love the fabrics - Heather Bailey's Freshcut. I added the Amy Butler full moon dots - another fave.

The April block from Bee Addicted 2 was straight forward. The curves weren't that bad I found.

These blocks were for my new bee, Bee Lovely. Olivethebeach left things wide open by asking for geometric blocks and giving us some inspiration photos. I chose to do a spin on the me + you block. Her fabrics were really fun - something I'd never have picked.

Finally, my most recent block (done with the one for May already!) for Bee Lovely is for Tammie. It is the Map of the States block, made from a tutorial by Oh Fransson. I won't be making this block again. It's not that it isn't cool. It is. The problem I had with it is that it looks like an improvisationally pieced block, but it has #1 none of the benefits of such piecing and #2 all of the hassle of templates (see previous post!) and adding seam allowances, etc. I'm glad I did it, and I think Tammie's quilt will be stunning, now I'll move on the the next month.

More Quilting Bee Blocks

Is it tacky to make lots of blocks for yourself when it's your month in a quilting bee? Hope not, because I'm having too much fun to stop. These blocks are easy and relaxing to make. This is my favorite color combo too, since I decorated both boys' nurseries in it.

Quilting Bee Blocks

I've had fun making some bee blocks for myself for this month. The beauty of Isa's diagram is that there is a basic pattern you are shooting for, but the color choices and widths of squares/rectangles are open to improvisation. Very fun. I'm excited to see what my bee creates!

Quilting Bee Month

It's my month in the Bee Addicted 2 Quilting Bee. I sent out this stack of packages of fabric to the ladies today, and I can't wait to see the blocks that come back to me in March!

Isa of Ningiu graciously allowed me to use the brilliant diagram she made up. Aren't the squares and rectangles great?

December Quilting Bee block

In my quilting bee we are doing house blocks this month. Malama sent us bright, saturated prints and an aqua blue sashing to make any type of house we wanted, as long as it wasn't tiny. It was to be 12.5 inches high and any width we liked. My house block is 12.5 square. I hoped to put a tree on one side, but I ran out of the sashing. Hopefully she can add sashing and join the tree to the block, if she wants.

Quilting Bee Blocks for Linzi

Linzi asked for improvisational log cabin blocks. This was a lot more work than I thought it would be! It's a fun style of piecing, but it is a lot of work: cutting, piecing, ironing for each piece.

The block is 12.5 inches square. The second block has no sashing because I ran out, but Linzi will add it on her end.

Quilting Bee October Block

Here's the October block for my quilting bee. Wen is making a bento box quilt out of thrifted sheets. She'll cut each of these blocks into four, then shuffle them and sew them back together, like this.

Virtual Quilting Bee

I just joined a virtual quilting bee via flickr (see the group icon at the bottom right of this page). For those of you who don't know how that works, let me explain. Each group usualy has 12 members, and each member picks a month. On their chosen month, the quilter sends fabric and a pattern/directions for their quilt block of choice to the other 11 members. Each member makes a block and sends it back. Then the quilter has twelve, including one she has made herself, to put together into a quilt. Block sizes and rules about fabrics or improvisation vary from group to group.

I've seen these groups on flickr before, and I'm so excited to be a part of one myself! I should get my first block to make next month. Photos to follow.