Global Scrap Bee - my very first Bee!

I might have mentioned I found myself in 3 Bee's this year.  Global Scrap Bee has just come to a close and though I am relieved to be down to a more manageable 2 Bee's, I feel a bit sad about the end at the same time.  This was my first Bee and I loved it.
As an online virtual quilting Bee, we came together through the Plum & June New Bloggers hop from 2013.  There was a bee for US residents and one for those living outside the US who didn't mind paying the postage.  13 of us came together from Canada, Ireland, Germany and Italy on Flickr and signed up for 1 block per month.  In order to keep postage to a minimum, we decided to go with a scrappy theme and use fabric from our own stash and whatever scraps we had on hand.  Quite a few of these blocks were made purely from my scrap basket.

We were led by our Hive Mama Adrienne from Chezetcook's Modern Quilts.  On the first of every month the Queen Bee got to pick a block and either send a link to a free tutorial or write one for us to follow (we all picked free tutorials!)  Maximum block size was 14" and the requirement was to send 1 block or if you had the time you could make more!

I think you can see from the variety here we had a great selection of blocks over the course of the year!  From modern rail fence blocks to scrappy stars to paper pieced kaleidoscope blocks.

I had trouble with one block when I got my new sewing machine and discovered my 1/4" foot on my Pfaff was not 1/4"and had to remake this scrappy star  as all of my points would be lost when pieced to the next one (brilliant scrap busting block!)

The Colorado Beauty block was the one that got the most comments!  The choice of colours for most blocks was left up to the maker but in the case where a rainbow was wanted the Queen Bee for the month listed the colours requested on a discussion page in the Flickr group. We then put our names against the colour we wanted to make.  It was an easy way to not get all blue blocks!

This was my choice for May.  I chose this scrappy star from Clover & Violet with low volume scraps for the background.

When sending blocks, we put up a picture in Flickr and a note on the discussion page for that month to let our Queen Bee know they were on the way.

When they were received, our Queen posted a thank you note.  The ladies in this Bee were fantastic and we had only one drop out across the whole year so our Bee became 12 instead of 13.

It was great fun looking at the finished quilts and spotting your own block in the mix!  

If any of these blocks catch your eye to make, I have updated my useful links page with links to how I made mine and the original tutorials, except for this last blue block called Urban Chickens which I neglected to put in a blog post.  The tutorial can be found at Wombat quilts here.

All in all this was brilliant Bee to be a part of - thank you ladies!

Bee Blocks round up for July

Just a quick reminder, voting for Pets on Quilts has opened.  Wilbur has entered for the dog on quilt category at number 33.  If you could spare a vote that would be much appreciated!

Please pop on over to Lily Pad Quilting to see the prizes from the very generous sponsors.  There are lots of prizes and giveaways and a number of ways to enter for them.


I managed to get my Bee blocks off at the last minute in July and have yet to start August's but I thought I'd post an update with links to the tutorials in case any of these grabbed you to make.

Jennifer from A Quarter Inch From The Edge chose one of my favourite blocks for July Global Scrap Bee.  This is my scrappy version of the converging corners block from Film In The Fridge.  I love this block.  When tiled with 3 more you get a really funky cross with cornerstones in between.  Jennifer chose red, aqua and grey as her colour palette.  A brilliant block for using up scraps!

Speaking of scrappy blocks for Modern Irish Bee, Fiona asked us to make string blocks with selvedges along the centre line.  This was a little bit tricky as I don't normally keep my selvedges. A lot of fat quarters in my stash were cut from the other end with no selvedge info, so I had a good look to see what I could find to make 8 squares.  I thought I had hit the jackpot with some Halloween fabric that had the colours depicted with really cute owls but when I sewed them into the blocks I lost most of that cuteness in seam allowance.  I hope these squares scattered through out the top will work for the finished quilt!

Finally for Stash Bee Hive #10, Tabatha asked us for cups and saucers from Kate Spain's In From the Cold pattern for Moda.  The blocks are for a quilt for her little girl who loves tea parties!  I think it's a really lovely idea.  I've been catching up on Once Upon a Time, season 2 and totally taken with the Belle/Rumplestiltskin storyline (love Robert Carlyle as Rumple!) so I was hummimg  Disney's Beauty and the Beast making this one.

I liked the idea of using different fabrics to make the set look like it was made up of separate collections, as Chip, the cup in the Fairytale, is a little damaged and a bit of an odd one out from the set.
I wasn't sure about the saucer fabric, might be a bit too dark, but it will draw the eye in the quilt when it is pieced in so I left it as is and my version of Chip should be more than half way across the Atlantic by now if not there already!

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Quilt Blocks and more Quilt Blocks!

I realised in all the mayhem of the last weeks busy-ness that I forgot to post some photos and links to Junes Bee Blocks.

Barb picked this strip block, called Liberated Wedding Ring, for our Global Scrap Bee.  The tutorial for it is on Little Miss Shabby's site.  The block is made up of 4 rectangular units with strips sewn to a paper template.

I used normal printer paper and a stitch length of 1.8.  Sometimes on strip blocks I get a bit of bowing when the paper is removed but it does pull back into shape when the blocks are sewn together.

Little Miss Shabby's tutorial gives you directions on how to make a template to use to cut the 4 rectangles to give them pointy ends!  Then you sew on triangles from the background fabric to each rectangle to make a quarter block.

And finally all 4 corners together.  I really like the look of this one and I think it will make a really cool scrappy quilt!

Irina from Modern Irish Bee designed her own block based on a star shining out from the block centre.  Each block is made up of 4 quadrants and we had to make 2.  You can imagine what it is going to look like, very creative!  I used 4 different fabrics for the red squares which are tiny!  Plus Kona White for the background.

Irina made up a pattern for us to use with very clear instructions on how to put it together - thanks Irina it made making these great fun!

Lastly for Stash Bee, Shari asked us to make some blocks from Fresh Lemons Quilts Solstice Stars series.  This one was lovely and quick and was 4th of July themed.  I had fun pulling out fabrics for this one and 2 of the reds in this were used in Irina's blocks too!

It's made up of half square triangles and 4 solids for corners and they go together so quickly.  If you are looking for a quick quilt top this could be the block to use!

You need 3 HST per colour for the block and seeing as I made mine using the drawn line method of 2 at a time I had one left over so I thought might as well make 2 more and a second block!

So that was June's blocks.  Now to start July's!

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Finish-A-Long quarter 3 goals

It's time for Finish-A-Long again and I have been busy in my head all weekend trying to put together a doable list for this quarter!

I managed 2 finishes from my quarter 2 list, so this quarter is pretty much a carryover on almost everything and I've added in things I really, really want to get done!


Carryover

• Penny Sampler (Stiched in Color)

I knew this wintery quilt wasn't going to be something I wanted to work on in the spring but I'm not taking it off the list, as I do want to have it done for Christmas this year!

• Wilbur!

This one is nearly done - just needs the final push to get finished!

•  Charm Pack Cherry (pattern Fatquartershop.com)

I have no excuse for this one really.  I bought the most beautiful Tula Pink backing fabric from Craftsy on sale and have a half bolt of wadding on hand and it's still not done!  This quarter definitely!

• Medallion QAL with Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland.  

I did manage another border on this and am in repetitive block hell on the last round.  I'm paper piecing stars, which probably would have been done quicker if I had template pieced diamonds and sewed them EPP style.  Oh well, live and learn!

• Modern Irish Bee Quilt

There are 2 more of these 20 beautiful blocks on the way to me so I've not finished and am glad to have this one to look forward to.  I just love these!  Thanks to all my Modern Irish Bee hivemates for these gorgeous blocks.

•  Triangle QAL with Sassy Quilter

Using Patchwork Prism by Anna Maria Horner as inspiration this quilt top is a rainbow of fabrics from Minimalista and Florence.  I've got some of it pieced - 2 more rows to go.  Can't wait!

•  Colour Wheel

I did make a colour wheel for my mini-quilt swap so I'm re-considering on these hand dyed fabrics.  I'm open to suggestions - thinking of lots of wonky houses maybe?

And because that's not nearly enough to be getting on with how about a few new ones?

• Global Scrap Bee

I received these lovelies from my Global Scrap Hivemates.  I'm piecing them all together along with 6 more to complete the quilt top.  The block is from Clover & Violet and is really quick and fun to do.  This is going to be such a cute quilt!  Lots of people gave extra- much appreciated!

• Picnic Quilt

I've been thinking of a picnic quilt with laminate fabric backing and this field of summer flowers seems just the thing.  These are blocks from Stash Bee Hive 10.  Thank you ladies!  I'm thinking of a double border on these guys to grow the quilt.  What do you think?  Double border or more flower blocks?  The pattern is Spring Blossom from Charise Creates.

And finally remember this Coastal Cruiser (pattern by Tula Pink)?  Well it's finished!  And a cousin of mine likes it so much she wants 3 of them!  

• So on the list are 3 more

That's it, that's the list for this quarter!

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