Amy's block for Amy

Okay....I too couldn't resist making this block!  I have to admit that I actually had trouble mentally remembering to be "wonky" with this block! I know in life I am pretty good at "improvising". I have three kids, I have to be! But intentionally doing that in a quilt block proved difficult! I am tempted to turn around and make a second block of this just to test myself and practice the art of "wonky-ness"!

I decided to get this block done as quickly as possible because we are moving in about ONE month. I have a quilty to-do list that I am trying to clear off...with success I am pleased to say! I have 2 bags cut out and ready to sew for gifts for my good friends. I have the top pieced of the Zelda quilt I drew for my brother. And I finished a new boppy cover for my sister's soon to be born baby. My oldest son gave his good friend the Mario quilt I made. I have my youngest son's friend's quilt done and ready to deliver...I am really excited about it-he absolutely loves Legos...so I designed a quilt with building blocks-

And I have the top pieced for my daughter's best friend's wallhanging. I figured out how to paper-piece and came up with this-

Amy- I will get your LOVE block in the mail to you soon! Thanks again for stretching my quilting abilities! I am having so much fun with this bee!
Happy Quilting!
Amy (USA)

Is it June Yet?

OK Girls, I promise I am not trying to be a quilting over achiever:

I know it is not even officially June yet in Europe or in the US (but it is in Australia!)

I thought, however, that this looked like such a fun and colorful project; it did not require precision so it was in my comfort zone,  my husband is out of town this week so I didn't have to make dinner, and I could have been writing report cards 

but that didn't sound very pleasant 

(do you know that school doesn't get out here until 29 June?!)

So! I decided to spend the evening making this:

What a perfect way to spend my time! 

I  L- O -V- E  it!

Thanks Amy!

...and I have to say once again how delightful I think our little bee group is, how nice that we all came together!

Jennifer

PS: That really dark piece looks like black in the photo but it is just a dark purple!

LOVE- June

Hi Ladies,
First off, I will admit I was totally convinced I was July! Whoops! So... I had to improvise here. I had plans of taking all of June to perfect my tutorial with fantastic pictures and clear directions. I was looking into using paper piecing too. Alas, I don't have my fabric, and don't have time to understand paper piecing, but we're going ahead anyway!

This month we are going to use only solids, and this is done by free cutting and piecing. I would LOVE for the end product to look like this:

http://quiltycat-quiltycat.blogspot.ca/2010/09/layout.html

I love these colors. I would like bold colors, no pastels, no grays or browns or black. All cotton, please. 

I wrote to the creator of the above, and she told me that she used the book by this lovely lady:

http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.ca/2010/12/feeling-overwhelmed-by-all-love.html

If word quilting is something you'd like to do more of, she wrote a book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1604680172/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=lazgalqui-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1604680172&adid=1JGRPH18H1YQGR8BS1MA&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Flazygalquilting.blogspot.ca%2F2010%2F12%2Ffeeling-overwhelmed-by-all-love.html

Here is a link to some tutorials for "unruly piecing" :http://www.unrulyquilter.com/tutorials/unruly-piecing-basics.pdf

Now... onto my tutorial! 

Here are some hints that I wrote down while doing my square:

Iron your seams as you go.

Don’t cut your fabric into same width of strips! Save some squares too.

Mark a 9”x9” square on your cutting mat.

The wonkier the better!

Clean your edges before ironing.

You'll need at least nine different colors. I love quilycat's variation, much better than mine.

Okay, start with the L. I want the whole square to be about 18" x 18", so each letter will be about 9"x9". You can look at any square from the examples and try to copy them, or design your own. you can also use mine as your guide. I'm really going to start now...

Take a strip and a square. Exact measurements don't matter. The rougher the better! Sew them together. Iron seams.

Now, take another strip of your side color, or one in a similar shade. Sew it on! Iron seams.

Check that this square is at least 9"x9". If it isn't, start over. Just kidding! That is the beauty with this design. Just tack on fabric where you need it. Easy, eh? (See, I'm becoming Canadian.)

Now the O.

I would have preferred the pinks to be closer in shade. I think you lose the definition too much since they are so different.

And the V....

Whoops! I forgot to sew the piece that goes between the two sides of the V. I could have used a different color for the middle too.

And... the E.

Here it is shown that my E wasn't long enough, so I added a piece to the bottom.

Tada! So, what I like, and don't like...

I don't like that my L and V use the same background color. I want more variation. I would also like there to be variation in some of the letters. For example, two oranges for the L, but very similar shades. I would prefer that the pinks in the O were closer shades. I like how most of my lines are not totally straight. I like the slanted lines best. I like that the seams don't meet in the middle.

I hope that is clear enough. Please e-mail me with any questions!! Can't wait to see your LOVE!!!

Oh! Can you please send me some scraps along with your square? I may do a striped sashing, and would love to have most or all of the colors in it. Thanks!!!

Amy's (Canada) Squares for Shauna

I had finished these squares up until the very last step at the beginning of the month... Shauna helped me with the fabric selection- a definite bonus of having a fellow Stasher nearby! Juliette and I finished up the sewing today! Can't wait until next month!

Amy's Blocks for Shauna

I must admit that sewing circles terrifies me....I finally decided that I couldn't put these blocks off any longer and tackled them. And, lo and behold, I survived! I will even go so far as to say I ENJOYED sewing circles! Not perfect, but I will definitely sew circles again.

I decided on orange after seeing the rainbow of colors popping up. It was screaming summer to me-Jennifer you are not the only one with summer on your mind! All the fabrics are from my local quilt store. Unfortunately I have no idea who made them. I think my favorite is the orange with the suns and the gray that looks like clouds!

Thank you Shauna for the challenge! These will be in the mail to you on Tuesday.

Amy (USA)

Jennifer's Blocks for Shauna

It looks like Linsay and I were both sewing on this beautiful sunny day in Switzerland.  Be sure to see her post below mine.

I have been looking forward to working on these blocks for Shauna. I first had to order gray fabric, I only had solid grays in my stash. When I was ordering I also saw the cute fabrics with butterflies, ladybugs, and bees and decided to go with a summer theme (I am so glad summer is here!).

 Shauna, your directions were so easy to follow, thanks for yet another fun bee project. As Linsay said, it is a long weekend here so I will get them in the mail on Tuesday. Here is a preview:

Have a great weekend everyone!
Jennifer

Linsay's block for Shauna

May has been a busy month for me.  Flora turned 13 at the beginning of the month so we had a trip to the cinema and a celebration sleepover for some of her friends.  Arabella and Flora both went on a school trip to London for 5 days and, while they were there, I took the opportunity to go and visit my brother and his family in Scotland.  His children are 6, 4, and 2 so the household is busy and noisy.  The children are great fun and once they were all in bed it was nice to have a glass of wine and a chat with my brother and his wife.

Today I made Shauna's blocks.  This is a very satisfying block to make.  I had a look at all the comments on the blog before I started and I thought that no-one had done green circles so I chose green.  I am going to post them on Tuesday because Monday is a holiday here for Pentecost.  I think it probably takes five or six days to get to Canada.
I recruited the dog to act as my model this month.  I thought that his grey coat would blend well with the block.  His name is Zephyr and he is a whippet.  The sun is shining here today and I have my washing drying outside and it seemed a good place to show all 4 blocks together.
Thanks Shauna, great block to make. 
Linsay.

Hayley's blocks for Amy and Shauna

Hello Everyone I hope you are all having a great week-end

I am a little behind in posting my April block for Amy on here. Its been done for almost a month and should be almost at its new home by now! This block challenged the heck out of me, but after all the cutting I think it came together nicely.

Last night I got to working on Shauna's blocks. When I first saw her tutorial I was shaking in my boots thinking...OH MY CIRCLES NOT CIRCLES. However, when I read through her excellent instructions a second time I thought I might not be that hard. The blocks went together nicely and even after cutting and sewing them back together I still had circles...LOL I was pretty amazed by that.

I hope both blocks are okay. Thank you both for the challenge!

Hayley

Need some new fabric?

eQuilter from Boulder, Colorado is a fun place to shop online: http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/home.html?sid=31U9Hz2yB0YQ5c0-39112471228.ef. They are having free shipping in the US today and tomorrow and 50% off on international shipping. If I'm making a big order I especially like using their Design Board to look at my fabrics together. I have always had quick and excellent service from this shop.

Be sure to check out their clearance selection too: http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?catid=40&sid=31U9Hz2yB0YQ5c0-07112419228.c2

Another place having a sale Is FatQuarterShop.com but they don't have free shipping:
http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/browse_dept_items.asp?sid=400651741744006&Store_id=499&page_id=17&Sub_Department_ID=21&categ_id=21&parent_ids=&page_viewall=Y&sNode=&Exp=Y&Search_Dept=&Search_Text=

Jennifer

Quilts of Denmark

Greetings! Last week, my neighbour Pat and I drove 1 hour to Ailsa Craig, Ontario to attend a quilt show called "Quilts of Denmark".  I took my camera so that I could post some of the beautiful works of art onto our blog and share them with you. Here are the ones that really grabbed my attention.

 And...a raw edge circle quilt! I like how the circles are layered. If I would have seen this before posting my circle tutorial, I might have asked for extra layers of circles to be added :).  However, it would be trickier to line up all the circle edges. I like how the quilter quilted swirls between the circles. I was thinking of quilting swirls onto the circles themselves for our group quilt.

 And the lovely bird quilt. A work of art. I am inspired to add text to some of my future projects. Talented quilters and artists.

Hope you enjoyed viewing these amazing works of art. Happy sewing. Shauna :)

Shades of purple

Chris' block for Shauna

I had a lot of fun choosing fabrics and creating this set of blocks. I enjoyed reading about your connection to circles Shauna :) The technique is quite straight forward...the hardest thing for me was cutting the squares (and circles) in half using the folded lines. I found it tricky to see the actual line as I seemed to see a shadow at the same. Does anyone know what I mean? I guess I might use a pencil next time. I look froward to seeing the variety of blocks created and of course your final quilt Shauna. Good luck!