April Bee Blocks - Part 1

So, I have completed a few more bee blocks. And I wanted to share them before the end of April.

Here are the rest of the 3x6 Bee 2013 Q1 Hive D Blocks, which I finished a while back and sent off. The pattern is the Cartwheel Block by Lee Heinrich of http://freshlypieced.blogspot.com. I have to say I'm a huge fan of Nanette's yellow, orange, pink, and red block. But I'm equally enamored of the other ones as well.

Top row: Jennifer, Sara, Caryn

Middle row: Nanette, Linnea, Ursi

Bottom row: mine

 

I signed up for a month of the Sew Pieceful bee. Most of the color combos were a lot more muted and one person requested coral, which I didn't have in my stash at all. Luckily I bought some corals for the Plus quilt I'm working on. The pattern can be found at the Quilter's Cache here.

Top Row: Sara, Sarah, Allison
Bottom Row: Gabrielle, Mine, Renae

 

And finally, here is my block for Color Bee Shocked. Caryn sent these great spring prints and neutrals and asked us to make a Giant Churn Dash block. The tutorials can be found here and here.

I have to open the seams back up because I didn't read through all the pressing instructions before pressing my seams open. She wants them pressed a certain way, which I'm happy to do. I made way too many assumptions when making this block and my primary assumption was that the instructions Caryn sent with the fabric would be virtually identical to what she posted on the Flickr discussion board. Not in fact the case. Oh well.

 



I still have to make 11 Farmers Market bitties for The Bitty Block Committee and my two blocks for the HOPE do.good Stitches Bee. I've printed out the instructions for the latter and have chosen a paper piecing pattern for the former, but still need to shrink it down and re-draw it a bit to make it more manageable for the time frame I have.



WIPs

I started making myself a to do list in Word. It started to feel like I should just copy and paste the same list over and over because I have so many quilts on my list that I am just starting.

So, here is my current list and a few pictures where I feel I can share them.

Two wedding quilts. One of them I can't share, because it's a complete surprise.

The other is a yellow, gray, and coral Plus Quilt for my brother and future SIL. It's sort of a surprise, but not much of one, since I very heavily hinted like that may be happening when I asked my FSIL what colors she likes.

I started cutting the gray fabrics, before I really thought about the process. I have since backtracked to cutting one long stretch for the cross-bar and two squares for the top and bottom of the Plus. I am using two 5.5" squares and one 5.5" x 15.5" strips. I have cut all of the fabrics shown above already, and am waiting on quite a few more to come in. This will be my first king sized quilt, and I'm a little freaked out about it. Maybe I'll change my mind and make it smaller.

There is another quilt I'm making out of batiks, but everything about that quilt is a surprise. No special occasion either, just because the recipient is awesome. I am still trying to figure out which pattern to use, since it has one fabric that I want to showcase. I think I've finally settled on two possibilities.

Then there is my Japanese X and + Quilt that I am making for myself. Finally!

I have cut most of the lighter text prints into 5.5" squares. I need 56 fabrics worth, and I think I have cut 52. I have two more light text print waiting to be cut, and then I need to decide if I want to purchase a couple more or just use some of the other stuff I have. As you can see, I have a variety of things in with the text, including musical notes, keys, and mustaches. I have one butterfly fabric with a cream background that I'm considering including as well. It's basically just the fabrics that make me happy. These will become the X portions of the X and + Blocks.

I am using Kona Rich Red as the points on the X blocks. Here they are pinned onto my mustache print. 

Here the points are sewn on and ironed flat. I will be using four different text prints for each block, but the blocks will line up in such a way that the four text prints will touch. Hard to explain right now, but I'll show you once I have a few blocks done.

As I am cutting fabrics, I am also cutting 2.5" strips for a Scrappy Trip Along quilt. Right now I don't have nearly enough variety to start making any blocks (light text prints, some greys, yellows, and corals mainly), but I'll keep cutting away.

I also have my charity quilt to finish, I need to put together, make the backing, and quilt the Hurricane Sandy quilt, and then get in touch with the organizer and let her know that I just received the last of my blocks and should I still send it to the Sandy charity or pick another charity instead.

As for my UFO's, I have the Star Wars baby quilt, the Split Rail Fence quilt, and the placemats sitting around looking at me longingly.

I also need to update my WIP and Completed Pages. I'm thinking about giving them a make-over at some point, but that will have to wait.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - April Goal

I have decided to join up in the Lovely Year of Finishes challenge for April and see how it goes. I do well with deadlines, and thus far I haven't had much luck doing that.

My goal for April is as follows:

Get my Fracture Quilt basted, quilted, and bound.

This is my completed top. I also have a simple pieced back, but no pictures. The binding is cut, the batting is pre-shrunk, I even have an idea of how I want to quilt it, but no progress has been made in almost a month. This ends now. My goal is to finish this thing and send it off to its intended recipient, who was born at the end of January.

If that gets done, I'd like to try and finish cutting my light text prints for my Japanese X and + Blocks, but that's my personal goal, not for the April challenge.

This is what I have so far. The 2.5" strips to the side are for a Scrappy Trip Along quilt that I want to get started on at some point as well. I am cutting one strip for that, as well as 4 5.5" squares for the X and + blocks. I have not even begun to make a dent in my text prints. :)