Quilts

WIP–Bee Blocks (post revised)

June 26, 2013June 26, 2013 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve revised this post, because this morning I realized that TODAY is Wednesday, not yesterday (when I’d originally written it: we’re a little foggy on life over here), so today I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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I joined a new bee (newby! newby!). I am honored to be included in the Always Bee Learning bee, and the first block’s fabrics have arrived to be sewn (they have different rules than the Mid-Century Modern bee). But Linda’s blocks for the MCM bee still hadn’t been made, and I like to honor my deadlines.

So I gimped down to the sewing room, pulled out a drawer and put a pillow on it for the left foot, got out my portable iron and pad and put it on the table on the right. I figured it was good to be sewing as long as I wasn’t putting any weight on the foot, right? (I’m really hoping that MY idea of “partial weight-bearing” agrees with the doctor’s).

But had to stand for a few minutes on my right leg while I cut the strips, then I sat and sewed. And twisted to iron, but finished up one block before dinner.

After dinner I finished the other one (normally we only do one, but everyone else was doing two and I didn’t want to be a slacker); I packaged it to mail tomorrow, hopefully making it to Florida by July 1st. That small block in the front? We do signature blocks with our Mid-Century Modern (MCM) bee.

This is what Linda is doing with them: using them to border another set of blocks from another bee. She says she’s stuck about what to do in the corner–maybe a rounded version of the stack?–so if you have any ideas, head over to her blog and leave her a comment. It’s always interesting to see our bee blocks being used. Another quilter in this bee finished up her quilt (scroll down to the Mid-Century Modern quilt in neutral fabrics); I hope when it’s my turn I can be as successful.

As I lay in bed yesterday, I did make a button for that new bee:

At least I can be somewhat productive when I lay around here.

What else am I working on? Well, another July 1st deadline is for this month’s Schnibbles quilt. My husband brought up a camp chair (small chair we use when we go camping) and I could slide it in the cubby hole of my sewing desk, and yes, I did get some of that top quilted last night. While I can only quilt for a short while, it feels good to be productive and to see a quilt take shape.

hanging Kaleidoscope Quilt

Thanks, all, for your nice comments about Kaleidoscope (in previous post). My husband hung it up in the hallway this morning. It brings a smile to my face as I slowly make my way up the stairs. Here it is again:

Final thought: Happy Birthday, Rhonda! You are an inspiration, always.

Quilts

Feather

May 7, 2013 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

When Suz of PatchworkNPlay said she wanted to do an Anna Maria Horner Feather for her monthly block (I think that link will get you there or just Google it), I started in on some new territory. For one thing, this block is really tall–like 17 1/2″ tall and about 9 1/2″ wide. On the screen it always looks so dainty. This is not dainty, but bold and much more interesting than I had thought.

Because Suz lives Down Under, as we Americans call it, or OZ, as they like to call Australia, and she sent us her background fabric via air mail, I was desperate not to screw this up. So I laid out my fabrics in the colors she’d requested, then printed out TWO copies of the pattern and laid it all out, too.

As per Suz’s advice, I followed *this visual tutorial* to paper piece the feather blades. What I learned: thinner through the middle works better than thicker. Work really hard to keep on the angle suggested on the pattern. And even if you biff on those two things, it will still come out just fine. Our group has made several:

Mine’s on the top, laying sideways.

We each also including a signature block. I have a template I use because I’ve spelled the name of my blog wrong more than once (which is why if you want to reach me you can just type in OPQuilt and it will get here).

Done! for the month of May. Now I want to make a bunch more!

Quilt Bee

Bee Projects, et al

March 12, 2013 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

I’d participated in the Far Flung Bee last year, and although one member never sent her blocks, I had enough to make a project for Spring.

I’d been to my local quilt shop (LQS, for you non-quilters) and picked up some cute button-like fabric from Riley Blake’s latest line. When I got home, as is so often the case, I had another piece tucked away in the stash. I needed both pieces to finish this off, even stitching the binding on by machine because I was just so ready to get those blocks sewn into a project.

I used Jane Sassaman fabrics (from the stash) for the backing. I was listening to a fascinating book and couldn’t stop (my mother had already finished and was waiting for me to wrap it up) so I had to find projects to keep my hands busy while the book took me on its adventure. Read this, or better yet, listen to it while you quilt.

(P.S. Because of this book, I finished the Lollypop Trees quilt top.)

Next, I compiled this stack of fabrics, mostly new, to complete my latest Mid-century Modern Quilt Bee block.

Debbie of A Quilter’s Table had asked for “low-volume,” or neutral, fabrics using a tutorial she’d found online to make this block.

I took a photo to remember where I thought all the fabrics should go, then sewed it together. I’m pretty happy with the result, and hope she likes it too.

I’d finished the book, but kept going on some long-delayed projects. We’d gotten a new sofa in November 2012, and I’d purchased some random fabrics to brighten up the room, but had merely draped the fabrics over the pillow forms. It stayed that way all through the holidays until today! when I finally sewed all the cushions — with zippers, I’ll have you know. As my daughter will attest, I’m no decorator, but she approved these fabrics before I sewed them. I’ll probably re-arrange them 45 times in the next week, trying to find the order I like best.

And last night, I sat down and watched the old movie Possession (a favorite), then The Piano Guys concert (complete with TV pledge breaks) in order to finish all the hand sewing on my EPP quilt. Hopefully today I’ll get the borders on, right after grading a stack of homework and prepping for class. I’ve been in a finish-it mode for a little while now. I like starting projects, but it’s also nice to finish some things up.

Quilt Bee · Quilts

Undead Bee

November 16, 2012 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

I had just about given up hope — no, I HAD given up hope of our Far Flung Bee block exchange ever finishing its run, so I put up a note on Flickr. So I was pretty excited today to get a wee package in the mailbox, all the way from New Zealand.

Inside were there incredibly cute Bee Blocks from Deb. Ah, Deb, they are wonderful! I like the accent of the dark text block in the center of the tulip–a variation I hadn’t seen before. I think that’s the beauty of Bee Blocks. Each quilter brings her own vision and stash to the creation of a block, and that’s why I was pretty dejected when I wrote on our Flickr group that I thought the our bee had joined the dead.

I think some of our members have struggled with deadlines because of busy family lives, which can also include full-time employment, a full load of classes at school and other life-absorbing experiences. But have you been in a bee that sort of petered-out? How did you feel about it? Do you stay away from Bees? Join them whenever you can? Love the interaction? Bemoan that you’re not getting your “own stuff done” because of all the bee blocks you agreed to crank out?