Swappy Stuff

I've been working on just a couple of little things in the sewing room this week, mostly finishing up since I won't be home much the rest of the summer.  This is the June block for Tricia in the Modern Instabee Bee.  I'm in Hive 8.

I had a much more difficult time than usual choosing the fabrics for this block, although it was a super-appropriate color scheme given that July 4th is next week!

This one is kind of fun to put together.  It all nests inside itself one layer upon another.

My big complaint with this book is that the authors have cut the initial fabric pieces so big you waste a ton of fabric.  I've made notes in my book and cut down the cutting size so I don't waste so much.

Since I'm going to be gone so much this summer, I decided to combine my MQG Michael Miller Challenge and my mini quilt for my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap.  I can't say much about my partner, but I really couldn't find out much about her, so I decided that these fabrics reminded me of a beautiful sunset.  I used the QAYG technique and put the big petal in the corner as the sun, then used my EZ Dresden template to cut the rays - clouds interspersed with sunshine. 

I found this gray wheel dots MM fabric at my LQS and used the circle to cut a pattern, added the seam allowance and sewed it using the technique I use for drunkard's path blocks...

And then I matched the quilting of the rays beginning at the seam line. 

Then I used the same little wheel dot for the binding.  This one is off in the mail on its way to my partner.  Sure hope she likes it.

Bee Blocks - A Cautionary Tale

I haven't participated in a real online bee for about a year,  until now.  I just got kind of burnt out with the make a block every month circus.  Most of the bees I participated in were fun and no-to-low-drama, but that is not always the case.  I tend to be much happier living a drama free life.  But a new book came out recently, and everyone on Instagram was pretty excited, someone organized a bee and bunches of people joined.  I'm in Hive 8, so that must mean at least 96 people are playing along.

And this time, I am the slacker.  We didn't get organized until sometime in February, and the February block was due before I knew it (and February was a darn short month this year, says I!)  Nevertheless, only a couple of weeks late, I sat down yesterday to make my block.  We sew from our stash in this bee, and the Queen Bee this month chose yellow and gray for her colors (and we all know how I feel about gray.)  I made this block and was pretty darned satisfied with it.  In fact, despite the fact that it was gray, I liked it a lot.  It went together like a dream, all my points matched up, my seams looked perfect...

Until I thought, "That's a really big block."

So I went back and re-read the instructions.  The book says that the unfinished block should measure 15-1/2"...

Mine measures 16-1/2".

Oops! 

A rookie error, and I should have known better.  But I was still aggravated.  I cut perfectly.  I sewed perfectly, and the block was too big!  Waaay too big.  I missed this one little instruction that said to trim your blocks.  Darn!

I was tempted to just send it the way it was, but that wouldn't be right.  I thought about ripping it apart, trimming the blocks, and putting it back together, but that thought left me cold.  Really cold.

 So I dug in the stash and found some more gray, made some new HSTs and trimmed them to the correct measurement...

And this one measures exactly 15-1/2".  Perfect.

While I was at it, I went ahead and made March's block.  The QB requested aqua and yellow (always a favorite combination of mine.)  This time I was much more deliberate, and paid a lot more attention to the instructions.

But when I got my HSTs trimmed, I have to admit I was slightly annoyed.  The author had you cut the squares to 3-1/2" and then trim the HSTs to 2-1/2"  I wasted a ton of fabric.  An extra 1/2" just to cut off is kind of ridiculous.

At least the re-made blocks weren't so wasteful.

Two blocks done.  Ten more to go! 

Woo hoo!

Stymied

After almost 2 full weeks of playing, I came home from church today determined to get caught up on some stuff, most notably the February and March bee blocks from the Modern InstaBee that I joined back in January.  There has just been so much going on, I hadn't taken the time to sit down and make these blocks.  But, as so often seems to happen, I was frustrated at every turn.  Both the February and March queen bees want Kona white as their background.

Do I have Kona white?  Nope.

I haven't bought any since I bought the bolt of Moda Bella White several months ago.

And they are not the same - I know, because I mixed them in a quilt and you can tell.  You can really tell.

So, tomorrow I will haul myself off to Joann's or my LQS and buy some Kona White, and get these boogers made.

I hope.

Yesterday at our ECMQG meeting, Diane did a demo and workshop on improv curves.  I've done some improv curves before, but our sew days at ECMQG are really fun, and I haven't been able to stay for awhile, so I dragged my baby sewing machine off to the meeting, and decided to play with the group.  I used 5 of my FQs from the warm FQ Scrap Pack I bought from Westwood Acres Fabric (those scrap packs are so fun!) and played with the curved piecing Diane showed us.  I managed to get my 5 blocks put back together before I left, but they were a little boring so I sliced them up going the other direction and put them back together again and this is what I ended up with.

No idea what to do with them now.

They kind of remind me of the Oh Fransson Crazy 9-Patch and Lattice Quilt  blocks

That I used to make this quilt (which was one of the first "modern" quilts I made and still one of my favorites...)

And this one, which was a charity quilt made from donated fabric (definitely not a favorite, but I didn't choose the fabrics....)

I'm thinking of squaring them up and maybe cutting them up again.  After that I'm kinda stumped.

But I'm open to suggestions...

So I spent the afternoon writing blog posts and surfing Pinterest.

Don't judge me.  {please!}