update on April bee blocks

I never posted about all the goodness that I got in the mail in April!  I mentioned before that I was in the Hexy group of the 4x5 bee. The blocks that I sent in are posted here. And these are the beauties that I received.  If you go to the flickr link I've linked to everyone that made these lovelies.

And I already forget which month was mine in the Sew Modern Bee, I realized that I never posted all the blocks that I received from those great members (and one PMQG member who jumped in too!).

I'm one lucky swap member!

A bag for my cutting mat!

I've been wanting to make a travel bag for my smaller sewing mat and tools to take on sewing events. Then when I saw the Bekko Line, I knew it was perfect and I had to finally get to it! It's a large scale, home deco weight print. And the geometric print are right up my alley!  I've had this tutorial from Because I Said Sew bookmarked for a while so I set to it and I'm thrilled with the results.

 The tutorial is made for a 24" by 18" cutting mat and that's what I used. The tutorial is pretty good but I would recommend reading the whole thing first. I didn't and wound up ripping a few times at the part where you sew the bag together. I did it wrong several times before I finally wound up asking Jeanna for help! She was so kind and gave me more directions via email. But if I had read through the rest of the directions, I would have figured it out! Sorry Jeanna!

Here's the small pocket on one side. Perfect for all your cutters and tools (note the dora shoes of my assistant!).

And then the other side is one LARGE pocket where you can put all your big rulers and maybe even patterns. Very well thought out! (the white is the lining and the blue is the pocket).

Thanks Jeanna for a great tutorial, I love my bag!

April Bee Blocks

I am sort of finished with my April Bee blocks. For do.GoodStitches Linda Beth requested scrappy half square triangles in light and dark values.

Then for Make it Modern, Jenniffier requested modified Bento Box blocks that she is going to cut up in aqua and orange.

and here's the 'sort of finished' part.  Jen requested these leaf blocks. She gave us two methods to make them and I chose paper pieced. I've done many paper pieced blocks so I don't know what my stumbling block has been with this one. But I've had the pull and resew so many pieces of these. And then I get to this point and they aren't long enough!? So I've left it up to Jen at this point if I should add white to the top (where it looks like they might be short) or if she wants me to send them with the inner and outer sashing. Either way I'm embarrassed that these kicked my butt! I think my brain is fried from going back to work. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

My bee blocks with basic directions

I really love my bee blocks this round for the 4x5 bee. I am in the hexy group and was totally in love with these blocks by Hambone and Jennicakes. So I set out to recreate them in my colors.  Here's my test block in my own colors:

Then I made blocks for all the ladies in my hive:

I thought about doing a tutorial for this, but I really don't have time right now for all the photo taking and editing. So here are some basic instructions if you would like to make this yourself.

The center is 3 diamonds. Start with a 3.5 inch strip and cut your diamonds like this tutorial.  Then piece them together. For how to make Y Seams, Jinny Beyer has the best video tutorial here. Seriously makes them so easy!

For the outside, I used a 1.5" strip. Just start at one end and stop at the other and trim it to the angle created by the original hexagon.

Once you have added 2 rows of strips around the outside you need to do your background. I used two 2" strips for the top and bottom and sewed those on first. Then I used 4" strips for the sides. Then take your 12.5" ruler and cut the final block out!

Decision making - would love your opinion...

So as we quilters are known to do, I'm dropping all my projects and working on what I'm most excited about. I want to make this Ornate Mini Quilt from the Sometimes Crafter for my office.

I'm actually struggling with colors. I usually have a starting point, but our office is being re-done shortly into neutral colors. So I can do whatever I want. I hit up Design Seeds which is my favorite place for color inspiration and pulled a few options. I think one is emerging as a favorite, but I'd love to know which you like best. Most of them I didn't pull all colors because you don't really need a lot of colors for this quilt.

Option 1 inspiration palette:

My fabric pull:

Option 2 inspiration:

My fabric pull:

 Option 3:

My Fabric pull:

 Option 4:

Fabric pull:

hmm... looking at these, I'm not sure I like any of my fabric pulls. lol. I think I'm definitely over thinking this one. Anyway, here's the poll. Let's see what you think! If you have another color idea, please post in the comments.

A quilt top finish

I finished this top before I went back to work but I was so miffed at it that I put it away. The sun was actually out so I took a few photos. Let me give you the story on this one.

The pattern is Apron Strings by Sweetwater. My first irritation is that it is listed on the back at "jelly roll friendly". When you read the directions, those strips at 1.5" wide, not 2.5". I don't know about you, but I have zero desire to cut down my jelly roll! So I had an old honey bun of Hello Betty in my drawer and decided to use that instead.

Then I later found that I had an old version of the pattern and had some issues cutting the strips. Instead of cutting the patterns and the white, it had me cutting all the patterns. So I wound up piecing those together for the backing (no photo yet).

Then, I had issues because the way the blocks are constructed doesn't leave any room for squaring up. So there are some minor inconsistencies throughout the quilt.

Finally, since I used an old fabric line, I had a hard time finding a border fabric. All I could find was this small print orange. I pretty much hate it as the border. It's too busy and hurts my eyes. I may rip it off and replace it with a solid.

But for now it's getting put away until I can look at it without screaming!

PMQG March challenge

I realized in all the chaos of the last two weeks I never posted about these finishes.  Our Philly Modern Quilt Guild Challenge for March was to make a cover for these Ikea seat cushions. They had been popping up in our Guild Sewing days and everyone wanted one so we decided to make a challenge of it. The bottoms have this great grippy stuff on them so they don't slide off. So one of our members, Bobbi, gave us a quick tutorial for creating a drawstring closure.

So all we had to do was figure out our tops. As soon as this challenge was announced I knew what I wanted to do. I've had the Joseph's Coat block on my to-do list forever (here's the tutorial I used) and I knew it was perfect for this. But I wanted to attempt something a little special with it. I got out my ombre fabrics from Vanessa Christensen's first line and started cutting. Sadly the ombre effect wasn't enough to work in this small of a block.

And I have pin marks because I used interfacing on the petals. Anyone know how to get rid of those!? I didn't really plan on washing this, but I guess I can.

So I wasn't thrilled with that one so I tried again and I really like the second one.

It's very sewing appropriate isn't it!? 

I wasn't able to make it to the meeting since it was my second day of work, but the rest of the guild covers should be posted on our site soon!