Starburst

October was Shelley's month in the Fresh Modern Bee. I was sent these LURVELY fabrics to work with.  I had been wishing to see that middle print in real life and now I'm craving some for myself.  (The one just left of the bikes) A small piece of that bike fabric already lives at my home, or else I'd be drooling over that one too!

She asked for a 16.5" block with any kind of star.  She had some great inspiration photos for us, and I immediately was drawn to to the circle ones.  Me loves circles.  Me also loves paper piecing.  (In small amounts).  I would go entirely crazy making a whole quilt like this.  But one block?  Fun!  Fun!

The seams do get a little bulky, and I'm a little bummed about the color placement I used. The outside ring of points simply doesn't stand out enough and I wish I'd rather used the dark green on the outside. But there's no such thing as perfect in quilting is there?   And I really do love this block anyway!

Christmas in September

Is anyone getting in the mood for Christmas?  I'll have to admit that I'm not.  But I enjoyed making these blocks for Janice in the Fresh Modern Bee.

She sent some fun Christmas fabric and asked for pictoral blocks in any size ranging from 6.5" to 14.5".  First of all I made a stack of gifts.  

A snowy hillside with three trees.  I'm really enjoying this Bee, and can't wait to find out what next month will hold.

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More Sailboats

You may know by now that's it's almost impossible for me to make more than one quilt in any design or color.  But I was asked to make another sailboat quilt in similar colors, ('similar' being the key word here!)  Since I didn't have any more of the Make Life fabric that I used for my other quilt with this design, I pulled out a charm pack of Happy Daisy by Chloe's Closet.  Using different fabrics adds a bit more interest so it's not quite so ho-hum.

If I ever made another quilt like this,  I think I'd add a wider white border around the outside.  This pattern just seems so vintagey to me, and I think it could use more white.  But I really like these fabrics in here.  They're a bit brighter than the original quilt.

Here's the first one, made with 'Make Life' by Sweetwater.

Now I'm off to work on painting my hideous china cupboard since the kids are both sleeping.  Maybe I'll show you a before and after once it's done.  (If it turns out, of course)  

A New Bee for Me

I've been working on my 3 x 6 Bee blocks today.  If you haven't heard of this bee, you're really out of the loop:) I actually stumbled upon their Flickr group a couple weeks ago, and was able to squeeze into the 16th  group.  This swap is totally my style, at least I've had a pile of fun making these blocks.  There are seven quilters in each group, and we each make a block for the other six people in our group.  We specify up to three basic colors that we'd like in our block.  Each person chooses ONE block style and they make a block for each member out of the colors that each person requested.  If that doesn't make sense, go check out the rules here.

So my mind began to churn with block style ideas.  My original idea was this:

After a few hours of resizing templates with grumpy chilluns' pulling on my legs, I threw that one out the window.

I rolled ideas around in my brain for a few days, and then came up with the idea of making paper-pieced flying geese.  Now, I've only paper-pieced once in my life, and that was about 8 years ago. . .

But after a few false starts, it worked out wonderfully, and I can now report that I LOVE paper piecing.  It speaks to the tiny little part of me that would love to be a perfectionist and churn out perfect quilt blocks, when in reality, I'm totally incapable of this.  Impatience being the culprit! 

 

(my cutting table is TOO small)

I made a block like this. . . (by the way, this is the block I made for myself, since I requested white, blue and green)

and really liked it, but I was feeling a little insecure that it was too plain, with too much white space, so I thought maybe I'd add this:

to the bottom right hand corner.  Or this:

to the top right hand corner...

But somehow, nothing else felt right.  So I just went for this plain and simple Off-Centre Column of Flying Geese.  And I love it.  I'm totally freaked out that my bee members won't like it, but I'm trying to tell myself that 1.  It's my fabric, and my time, so I'm not ruining someone else's fabric.  2.  I'm going to like every block made for me simply because it's unique, and it was made with care by someone else, especially for ME!  3.  If these lovely ladies wanted something perfect and exactly to their taste, they would have made it themselves, or gone the the nearest Home Decor shop and bought a Made in China version.

So now that I've bolstered my courage, here are the blocks I made.

First up is lnwcohen.  She requested orange, aqua, and white.  Totally awesome colors and I loved making this block.  Only regret.  That silly little weiner dog did NOT want his head in the picture.

Next is woolymama.  She wanted a rainbow with white.  Her couch is dark red and the room has a retro feel so I knew I had to add one of my fave VW vans.

Miniaturequilter requested purple, green, and cream.  I freaked out at the P word because my purple stash is tiny, but amazingly, this turned out to be one of my favorite blocks.  I'm totally gonna have to make a quilt in these colors now!

Ktelschow wanted to be surprised.  Yikes!  Can it get any harder than that?  It's for her husband, so that made it a bit easier.   That playful bulldog,  was a last minute addition, but I think he feels quite at home with all these stately geese.

                                      

Jenjohnston wanted purple, blue and white to make a quilt for her all white bedroom.  She mentioned that she liked Amy Butler, so the Water Bouquet in Navy worked out perfectly.  I wish soo much I had a piece of purple Tufted Tweets chairs to add in here, but oh well.  

Janesfabrics asked for pink, orange, with pops of green.  What a yummy color combo.  I could NOT decide between a pink background, or a safer white background like the rest.  I'm glad I chose the pink, even though it does blend in with the little bike a tad bit much.  That bike just had to be in there, because the seat is orange and the fender is green!  And there's one little mistake on this block.

Which I'm trying to reassure myself with the fact that you won't find anything funky like this at Walmart!

Thank you ladies for giving me the chance to work with such lovely color combos.

and now I've got a stack of tiny snipped triangle pieces from all those geese.  I'm thinking a Flying Farfalle quilt would be perfect.

Now I must go clean up my sewing room before I start on my next project.  

HaHaHa.  Why would I start being organized now?

I Love Asterisks

I joined the Fresh Modern Bee and June was our first month.  Jennifer asked us to make asterisk blocks.  This is the first Bee I have taken part in, and I've already learned some new things.

1.  ALWAYS make a test block first.

2.  Wild and wacky ideas may not turn out exactly as envisioned.

3.  Some one else is going to see the back side of your quilt block.  Eeeek!

4.  You may discover a new block design that you would have never made otherwise, but now you'd like to 20 more.



So here are the fabrics that arrived in my mailbox.  (I LOVED working with these bright happy colors)  Green Floral from Erin McMorris Park Slope line, Black Ta Dot from Micheal Miller, and another geometric print from Micheal Miller.  I can't remember that name and am too lazy to look it up.

I made my sample block first.  It's the first photo, pulled from the scrap bin.  So, I thought 'this is easy, let's dive right in'.  I had all kinds of ideas, since my crazy brain rarely lets me follow directions to the letter.  Jennifer gave us room to make different sizes and varietions,  so I thought a few tiny asterisks floating on black polka dots would be cute.

This block was fun, although I made it yesterday, so I think I've almost forgotten the small moments of frustration!

Here is where things went downhill a bit.  I had the crazy idea to make a shadow on the asterisk and never thought about potential design problems.  This one almost didn't make the cut, but after a bit of ripping and extra piecing, I think it will be OK.  Thankfully, this picture seems to disguise the tiny seams and problem areas.

This morning I made two more simple blocks from the left-over fabrics.  This one is 6.5".

and this one is 3.5".  It reminds me of a little black long-legged spider.

Here's the whole family.  Daddy, Mommy, Big Sister and Little Brother Asterisk.

Here's Daddy Asterisk picking some Lilacs for the table.

Here's Mommy Asterisk making supper.

Here's Big Sister climbing into the toy box.

Little Brother's doing a chin-up on the old milk can in the front yard.

I hope Jennifer likes these blocks.  It was so much fun making them, and I can't wait to see what next month holds!


On another note, I won a giveaway in SewMamaSew's big giveaway day.

Four coaster made from the lovely FMF and Katie Jump Rope.  I can't seem to get my sticky little fingers on too much of this coveted fabric, so now I can at least look at these lovelies everyday.  

They're way too pretty to hide under any old mugs of coffee, so I hung them in my dining room, and am loving their square beauty.  My husband noticed them right away and commented that he like them there.

They are beautifully made and give such a fun look to this boring corner.  They come from Sue and I highly recommend that you check out her blog for some great quilting inspiration.