May Progress (Cont.)

I finished several bee blocks this weekend. First were the blocks for the Nubees bee. This is a month long bee with only four people to a hive. I chose this block design.

 Block for Brandy, who asked for low volume with a pop of color. I have never made anything with low volume, and that pop of red really makes a statement. Conclusion: I need to work in neutrals more often.

 Block for Lisa, who asked for coral, grey, and teal.

 Block for Sara, who wanted coral, navy, and teal.

 My test block with my own colors of red, gold, and black. I really like how it turned out.

 This was for Jo, as part of side swap. She wanted red, green, and aqua.

I also completed my blocks for the May HOPE do.good Stitches bee. We used this tutorial. The quilter asked for mustard, grey, and aqua. I'm so sick and tired of trying to figure out aqua, and luckily have a ton of mustard and grey, that I stuck with those. These blocks went together ridiculously fast, and I'm thinking that I might need to do a whole quilt of these. They're SOOOO easy and look great!

I put together the May block for Color Bee Shocked, which is blogged here.

Finally, I moved the needle a little bit on my Japanese X and Plus blocks. I added red corners to one set of X's and finished up two other sets that I had sewn the corners to already.

I love that dress print! It really adds a nice splash of color. I also cut a few grey squares.

May Progress

I wish I had more to report. The end of April and most of May have been slow in terms of progress.

I did finish my April blocks for HOPE do.good Stitches.

Tutorial for Converging Corners blocks can be found here. We were asked to make blocks using orange, green, blue, and brown with a grey background and a fussy cut center. I think my favorite part was fussy cutting the centers, unfortunately the rest wasn't as fun.

And I started on my April bitties. Luckily, the Bitty Bee Committee is taking a summer hiatus, which makes me feel a bit less bad about taking so long to make my blocks.

I have been doing a bit of work on my Japanese X and Plus blocks. Cutting red squares, and starting to sew them onto the X portions. Here are just a few pictures of my progress. I have also started cutting my darker text prints for the center Plus and some grey prints for the outer squares. Not sure yet if I'll stick with all grey prints or if I'll mix it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But mainly I've been cutting a lot of fabric. Since I've already ruined the surprise, I'm working on making a Plus quilt for my brother and future SIL for their wedding.

This picture is woefully out of date. I have since cut all of the fabrics shown above, and cut a ton more. I really need to take a new picture, the stack has grown to epic proportions and I'm not even close to done cutting. I'm going to cut all of the grey, yellow, and coral fabrics I have and see where I end up size wise. I'm shooting for a King, but my future SIL said she doesn't care what size it ends up at, so I told her I'd just cut the fabric I have and see where that gets me.

Bee Blocks

I have been working on my bee blocks lately. In between I am also working on an HST baby quilt, which is my first commission piece, but I'll do a separate post for that (I may wait until it's done though).

 

My first finish was the January blocks for Color Bee Shocked. It is based on a tutorial for modified bento box blocks found here. I had asked our Queen Bee to send me fabric for two blocks. Unfortunately, she had a bit of a mishap when cutting and sending fabric, so I didn't actually have enough for both. I made it work and only had to use my own fabric for the very outer layer and the non-yellow solids in the second layer. I thought they turned out pretty good and by the second one my seam allowances had gotten so good that I think I actually ended up with a 16" square block. The left block has Kona Pomegranate and Tiny Gingham in Fuchsia by Michael Miller in the outer ring and the left has Kona Papaya and Pomegranate and in the outer layer: Square Petal in Tangerine from Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry.

 



 

Next up are the January Quatrefoil Blocks for the HOPE do.good Stitches bee. The tutorial is here. For the left block I used Kona White, Poppy, Citrus, Papaya, and Earth. For the right I used Kona White, Thistle, Pacific, Aqua, and Sprout.



Bees and Charity Quilts Galore

I was updating my Works in Progress page and realized that I have a lot of stuff going on next year.

I'm now signed up for quite a few Bees:

Add-A-Border Block Swap - which moves at whatever pace you feel comfortable. I have made several starter blocks and am actively working on one Round 2 block (it's slow, my first paper piecing pattern, so I don't want to screw it up) and have several Round 2 blocks sitting and waiting for something to happen.

Color Bee Shocked - my month as Queen Bee was in November, but it's a one year commitment with at least one block a month. I have completed the December flying geese blocks which were a lot of fun and the fabric for the January Bento Boxes is sitting on my desk

3x6 Mini Bee - I finished the first round's worth of blocks for Quarter 4 and you can hop in and out of this Bee as your schedule requires. I am hoping to sign up for 2013 Quarter 1 and have even been thinking about leading one of the groups. Each quarter is a 6 Block/2.5 month commitment, but once you're done making your blocks and have sent them off, it's just a matter of waiting for everyone else's to arrive.

HOPE at do.good Stitches - I was just accepted into the HOPE circle for do.good Stitches. This is a 1-year/2 blocks a month commitment starting in January. It's a great cause and will let me play around with the fabrics I'm slowly accumulating.

Bitty Block Committee - I logged onto Flickr today to find a message waiting for me. I had requested to join the Bitty Block Committee and after being judged by my peers I was deemed acceptable. How cool is that! This one is great because you can jump in and out at any point for a 1-month commitment. They post two themes a month and you can sign up for 12 of one type, 24 of one type, or 12 of each (24 total). The blocks end at 3.5" square, hence the "bitty."

That's it for Bees, although I had considered joining Nubees, where you sign up to make 5 blocks every month. Looking at my current list, maybe that plan will have to fall by the wayside for a bit.

I also signed up as a quilter for the Hurricane Sandy Block Drive hosted by Michele at the Quilting Gallery. I have received my first stack of blocks and plan to do QAYG to put the quilt together.

In addition, I have started a baby quilt for a Charity Drive hosted by Pigtales and Quilts. I have all of the scrappy log cabin blocks done and have even sewed on a solid purple border. But I want to do a second scrappy border and then of course it needs to be quilted and bound.

I am also working on various other projects, both quilting and others, including two baby quilts with two more planned. I'm clearly crazy! But I love it.