Catching Up: Part 4

Finally!! I've finally caught up on all my bee blocks, phew! I don't know how it happened.... okay do- moving, getting married, and being in 3 different bees was a really baaaaad combination.

I managed to keep only a month or two behind... but it was stressful. I hate having things "to do" that don't get done, it rattles around in my head until I can't stand it anymore.

In the final batch of blocks I did-

Non- wonky log cabins for Margurite in what happen to be two of my favourite colours:)


Then it was a block for Tacha, which she designed. It was a good test for my accuracy skills getting all those points right.

Then it was Marit's lady block.... such a cute idea for a bee block to have it personalized by each member with their names.

With Joyzelle's request for flowers, I decided to go with one of my favourites... Gerbera daisies :)

And finally, Leah asked for a heart block for her daughter- based on this tutorial

And that.... it is, I'm all caught up!

May Quilting bee blocks

With our big move coming up quickly (3 weeks, eek!), I am trying to keep up with all my quilting bee blocks as the next month or two will be pretty crazy. So, this afternoon I took a break from cataloging our stuff for insurance, and spent a nice few hours working on the two May blocks for Eurovision.

First up was the blocks for Katharina. She sent us 2 white squares, marked on them a 1/4 ring (in water soluble pen) and asked us to fill in the 1/4 rings any way we liked.

I had such fun playing with the fabrics she sent. My first 1/4 was bubbles...

And my second was a more geometric design, where I fussy cut the flowers from the fabric that she had designed and had printed at spoonflower (I sooo want to try that one day... hint hint H my bday is coming up!).

Then was Ulla's request for a Japanese themed 9 patch, which I was able to whip up.

Sigh... now back to packing and sorting... boo!

A million shades of Grey

With the big move coming up, I've been pondering what to do with my upcoming unemployed status. While hunting for a new job in my new (old) home, I'm thinking that it's about time I catch up on my Quilting Bee quilts. So, I've been putting together the parts to make sure I can keep myself entertained.

One of the projects I hope to finish up soon, is my Mondrian quilt. The blocks have started coming in so now I have to start thinking about sashing etc.

Here are the first few blocks that I have already recieved from the Eurovision Ladies (well ok, I made 1 ;) ), gorgeous eh!

I already have the back at least partialy planned, it will be in part this fabric which we are going to use as table runners at our wedding reception (assuming our guests don't get too carried away with the red wine!), Paula Prass' Flights of Fancy trellis in Lime.

So now I have to figure out what to do for the front sides sashing. I bust out my Kona colour chart (love it!, best 5$ ever (ok maybe a slight exaggeration, but it's great), to sort which colour to use.

I'm thinking of greys... but I can't decide on which one... Charcoal, Coal, Medium Grey. or Ash.

From the R. kaufman website, I'm thinking of adding one of these greys to my current pallet.

In reality the lightest green is a better match to the other 2 ... the real colours are here:

So, what do you think... which is the best grey.... or do you have any other sugestions, sound off!

Forging a Master

My month for one of my sewing bees is coming up next month, so today I put together the packages for my Mondrian quilt to mail out.

I gathered up my fabrics and my ideas book where I had put down some tentative ideas for the guidelines for the blocks.

As I am basing this quilt on real art, I wanted to make sure:

1. I had the thickness of the black lines correct
2. That I was sending out enough fabric

In order to see if my plan was on the right track, I cut out one set of fabric and then drew out a plan for a block.

Piecing it together was super quick (like crazy quick!) as I pre-cut all of the pieces according to my diagram, and voila...

I love it!

As I want the blocks to be in the style of Mondrian, I am sending them only 3 colours, so that the is a lot of white in the blocks like his art.

For anyone wanting to re-create this type of block, to keep the ratio right, I for a 12" finished block I used 1/2" finished thickness for the black lines.

Riding the Q-train

So I've been a bit distracted recently... and that meant my Quilt bee blocks were piling up pretty quickly.

H had to work on Sunday, so I got in a sewing frenzy and I caught myself up! A few were a bigger skill/style stretch for me, and one made me almost pull my hair out (I always knew that my weakness in math would come back to haunt me!). But all in all I got the chance to work on a variety of block styles which was really nice.

Scrappy X block for Kandra MMSB (from this Tute- which I found to be a bit lacking in detail) I think I see a baby quilt made from this one... Green, teal and yellow, whadda you think Sam?!

Scrappy gnome house (or as I call it "K-nome")- kinda Frank Lloyd Wright inspired no?!- and applique mushroom for Susi in my Eurovision Group.

And finally the one that did my head in... the Squares and rectuanges block for Mari in Eurovision (I told you I was behind!!).

It may appear the simplest... but calculating to get all the pieces to fit together (while working with a limited amount of fabric) caused me soem serious headaches! But, I guess it's like giving birth because now that it's all over I really like it!

Getting Wordy

I'm so excited, the blocks are starting to trickle in for my month at MMSB. For my future picnic quilt I requested both double hourglass and word blocks - yeah, I stretched the rules a bit and asked for two different types of blocks! As you may remember, I sent out white fabrics, and they were to add in the colours.

Check out what those lovely ladies have been making....

Looking good, eh!

A sea of white

January is my month as "Queen bee" for MMSB and after agonizing for ages over what I would have my little workers make for me, H and I came up with our master plan for a waaaay cool picnic quilt. This brilliant plan combines some retro style quilt bocks with fun wonky word blocks... hopefully it looks as good in real life as it does in my head!

Because MMSB is a stash busting bee, we send out one fabric and they build the rest of the block(s) from their fabric stash.

So, to make 2010 start out with a bang... the lovely ladies in my bee will be receiving some of this...

No, do not adjust your screen... I really am sending them different scraps of whites.

So that all of the blocks are congruous (umm, that's a word right??!), I'm hoping for a scrappy white background (to better hide future picnic stains, as well as to help blend in any stash whites that need to be added). To this they will be adding the colour and any extra whites necessary.

The holiday countdown is on (1 day to go then I'm in Vancouver for 3 weeks, woohoo!!), so here they are all packaged up and ready to go (trees not included!).

Indecisive much?!

I'm not sure what is going on with me, but I've been super indecisive recently... too much wedding planning maybe?!

I am planning the "challenge" I'll be throwing out to the peeps in MMSB and Eurovision quilters.

My months for Eurovision isn't until April, but of course the idea for that block came to me the most easily-- Mondrian (see Mom and Dad, that minor in Art History is paying off!!).

So I had a plan, but which colours to use. I asked H for his 2 cents worth and he said the "real colours"- which I thought might be a bit too wild many colours for our living room. So, in Publisher (I seriously heart publisher!) I whipped some alternative colour combos to convince H that an ode to Mondrian, may be a better choice. The problem was I couldn't choose which I liked the best, so I decided to leave it up to the Eurovision ladies to pick the colours they would work with.

The plan for MMSB has been proving elusive... I've been lying awake at night trying to decide what to do. I know it'll be for a picnic quilt, but what design.... maverick stars or a string quilt

or maybe a bento box or double hourglass.... arg, it's been driving me mental!!

So, in an effort to put myself out of my misery, and because I have to order any necessary fabric ASAP if it will get here before I leave for the holidays, I sat H down tonight to help me make a decision (see... totally uncharacteristically indecisive- I seriously hope it's temporary!)... and I think we did...

No drawing yet (maybe this Sunday?!), but we're thinking food words (ie. apple, spicy, tasty, BBQ...) done in wonky piecing, and double hourglass blocks done in food/kitchen fabrics --- you can see how H's influenced this one, but I guess it's only fair considering he'll be making most of the food we will enjoy on said picnics ;)

So... aaaahhhhh, I hope I can sleep better tonight!