April Bee Blocks Round Up

April is coming to an end and I wanted to share the bee blocks that I made for my various bees this month.  Here goes:

Gone Quilting Bee:  I make 2 blocks a month for this bee, and I was one of the Queen Bees this month.  My block is the Granny Square, and my bee-mates have been sending awesome blocks back:

 The other blocks I made was for Annaleise, which are a log cabin variation:

The 99: Based on the book, Modern Blocks, the block this month is Missing Your Kiss.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think through my cutting and ended up short with the background fabric.  I tried to put other blocks in the center, but it didn’t look right.  I felt really bad, but I hope Katey is fine with this:

 

Piece Bee with You:  The theme this month is an “I’m sick.” quilt.  What a unique theme!  My block is called, “Headache”, inspired by my nephew. J

We Bee Learning Quilting Bee:  The block pattern is Whirligig, and I love that the Queen Bee wanted girly fabrics:

 

2012 MODERN BLOCK SWAP: The Queen Bee is making a modern strip quilt and asked us to make a section of it for her.  It’s going to be a cool quilt:

 

Nubees Quilting Bee: This is the first time that I participated in this type of bee where I have to make 5 blocks and incorporate the requested colors of my bee-mates into a pattern that I choose.  I actually ended up making 6 blocks because the spreadsheet was updated and I didn’t check. It took a while to figure the pattern for this one out because it had a short turnaround.  I decided on this pattern, but I don’t know the name of it:

Wonky Trees Block Swap:  This block swap is a continuation of the Wonky House block swap, which I loved.  I can’t wait to see the trees that I get in return:

It’s been a very productive and pretty month!  May is going to be a HUGE challenge since I signed up for a bunch of other projects.  I guess I have to put sleep on the backburner! LOL

Braided Star Block Tutorial - Why Reinvent the Wheel?

I was going to put together a tutorial for the Braided Star block when I found a tutorial for it from the quilter who originally made the block that I admired.  You can find the Braided Star tutorial from The ADD Crafter, who has created a paper pieced pattern that can be downloaded.  Her technique is more economical since it doesn't waste as much fabric as mine.

Enjoy!

Retro Flower Quilt Along - Progress!

Once I figured out the fabrics and cut all the pieces, this quilt progressed pretty quickly.  I sewed the Drunkard's Path blocks without pinning, so they're done.  Now I'm just trimming the blocks and putting them together.  Here are the completed blocks so far:

I'm really pleased with the green background.  It frames the flower petals very well.  Sometimes it's worth it to step out of your comfort zone. :)

The only problem now is that I only had enough green fabric to make 12 blocks, and I think this quilt will look better as a square.  Hope the quilt store has some fabric left with the same dyelot....

Retro Flower Quilt Along - Finally Started!

I love the Retro Flower pattern and joined the quilt along.  But like all the quilt alongs that I join, I'm off to a late start.  This quilt along started at the beginning of April, but it is only yesterday that I finally selected my fabrics.  This was the biggest hurdle for me because I'm using Kona's Spring Green as the background and I couldn't make up my mind which fabrics to use for the flowers. 

Once I decided to use fabrics in deeper pastels, there was finally progress in this quilt along.  These are the fabrics for the 12 blocks that I'm making.

All the pieces are cut thanks to my Accuquilt.  I'll start piecing sometime this weekend, but we're having family over, so I don't expect to make any progress on this quilt until they leave. 

I hope I don't regret the background choice.  It is a departure for me since my backgrounds tend to be black, gray, white or tan (kinda like my wardrobe!).  My fingers are crossed ...

Quilting is not a spectator sport!

My two girls, Lola and Minilo (she looks like Lola), tend to keep me company while I'm quilting, and I'm guessing that it's not the most entertaining thing they can do, as you can see!

It's clear that they think the ironing table is their bed.  Love these cuties!



Just 3 for April!

I decided to join traceyjay quilt's "Just Three" linky party.  The premise is to choose 3 quilting projects a month to finish.  I really need to do this! I feel like I have quilting ADD, I can't seem to stay focused on any project from start to finish unless I'm under a time crunch, like waiting until a friend is leaving for maternity leave in a week before starting a quilt for her!

For April, my three goals are:

1.  Put the binding on these three wallhangings.  I always thought I didn't finish quilt tops because I really don't like quilting, but I have now discovered that I hate putting binding on even more.  Got to get over this feeling or I'll never finish any quilts!

2. Finish Selah's quilt!  I started this quilt about 6 months after my niece was born and finished it in a couple of days.  Selah is now turning 1 next week (Happy birthday Selah!) and her quilt top has been neatly folded in a drawer for the past 6 months.  I have to finish this quilt by her birthday so that she can at least enjoy the quilt while she is still a baby!

3. Make my sister's Braided Star wallhanging.  My sister never asks for a quilt, so when she does I take it very seriously!  She likes the sample Braided Start block that I made even though she thinks my background fabrics tend to be too busy.  When we're in Lancaster, PA next week, I'm going to have her choose her background fabric so that the wallhanging will be exactly to her taste.  I'm giving myself a break with this one because I'm not quilting it.  I decided to have it professionally quilted so that I can have something more than straight quilting on my quilts! LOL

These are the goals, and I'll check in at the end of the month to see if I actually achieve them.  I hope I will!

Braided Star

I saw this Braided Star block on Flickr and thought it was stunning.  The quilter made a paper piecing pattern for her block, and I was going to draft one when I realized that the block was essentially 4 quarter log cabin blocks with the background triangles equally distributed on both sides of each block. 

So here is the prototype:

It started as four 6.5" quarter log cabin blocks ...

with a triangle formed from half of a 3.5" X 6.5" rectangle sewn on opposite sides of each block. Once you sew each quarter together, you get the Braided Star block!

I'll post the tutorial for this block this weekend.