Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: December Blocks

Yes, you are reading that correctly.  It is not a typo.  December.  That is how things are going in this house lately.

Anneliese was queen bee this past December in the Modern Irish Bee.  She asked for two HST-based blocks in scrappy style.  The first has a mini HST center on point, which is a fun twist.  Check out Anneliese's tutorial for instructions of how to make your own.  It is a super way to use up scraps and very easy to make with lots and lots of chain piecing.

The second was to have a fussy cut center that reflects us.  I've always had a deep affinity for frogs, so this Kokka print was the first thing I reached for.  Man, he's cute.

They will be in the post today, Anneliese.

Long Overdue Bee Blocks

To my shame, I still have four bee blocks owed to hive members from 2014.  Time just got away from me.  I am grateful to have finished off two of them this past weekend, leaving only two to go.

These blocks were made from fabric that was given to me by the queen herself, Anneliese.  Using her tutorial, they were combined to create lots of HSTs with her LV prints used as background and a fussy cut center.

Sadly, the second fussy cut was a bit off center, so we lost a head.  I assembled the block so it would be easy to replace this piece if you so choose, queenie.

I am quite pleased to say they are in the post on the way to you, Anneliese.  Hope they arrive safely.

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: October Blocks

I totally cheated.  I knew what blocks Tomomi wanted for her bee month ahead of anyone else as I pre-schedule the bee block blog posts to appear on the first of the month.  I cheekily packed up all of the fabrics I needed to make her blocks and brought it with me to the Modern Quilters of Ireland retreat last weekend (27 Sept).

Tomomi was looking for book shelf blocks, but with a twist.  She wanted to blocks 11-13 inches long x 12.5 inches tall with various sizes of books and Ash background.  However, she wanted us to each create a section on her bookshelf with a theme.  Humm....now that's interesting.

I choose to give her a section of bird watching guides:

and a section with cook books:

Tomomi, I hope you like them!  I know several other hive members have started thinking of really super, creative themes for you.  I am sure will you will love what they create!

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: September Blocks

It's a rare month that I have my bee blocks finished already!  This month in the Modern Irish Bee, Helen has asked for four happy, bright, loud, clashing Wonky Cross blocks using her own tutorial.  We were to use Kona Solids as the background fabric and then use (non-floral) scraps for the crosses.  

I had great fun making these blocks.  We usually only make two per hive member, but as these were so easy to make I was happy to make four.  

I have to say I was surprised to find four different colors of Kona Solids in my stash.  I was sure I would have to go to the shop and pick up a few FQs.  Lucky me, though...a little dig and I found enough.  They are quite Eastery, though, aren't they?  Sure, when they are mixed in with all of the others from the hive they will be fine.

We were asked to not trim them.  To leave the little crossing strips dangling from the edge.  I feel like I have not finished my job sending them all scraggly.  That said, if you tuck in the edges and align the blocks, you can see they will be quite pretty together.  Helen, I hope you like them.  They will be in today's post.

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee Blocks: May v2

Yes. You are reading that correctly.  These blocks are for May.  I tried to make bee blocks previously for Erin using her own beautifully written tutorial.  With my continual struggle against the scant quarter inch seam, I made a mess out of the original blocks.  They were about an inch too small and no amount of unpicking and re-sewing would find that lost inch.

Instead I have been practising my scant quarter inch seams and have (are you ready for this!?!?) finally fell in love with the idea that it can actually help me!  I re-cut my scraps, cut fresh little Kona White squares and dove in again to make two 12 1/2 inch square block for Erin.

I hope these fit with the others a bit better, Erin.  Let's forget those little 11 1/2 inch shorties ever crossed your threshold.  xx

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee Blocks: July

I did warn you that it is going to be a bee-block filled week, did I not?  Next up are bee blocks from July made for Fiona R.  She is a girl after my own heart asking for scrappy string blocks for her month.  I love quilts made from scrappy strings but never want to go to the effort of doing all of that cutting and piecing myself.  It makes for a perfect bee block, then, doesn't it?

Fiona asked that we use this tutorial to make eight 6 1/2 inch blocks.  As a personal twist, Fiona asked that we incorporate a selvage strip in the center diagonal.  Now, I have a pile of selvages that I save up and give away to selvage-loving friends when I see them, but I do not generally incorporate them into blocks that I make.  That was a whole new adventure for me.

I had only a few selvage strips that were long enough to go into the center, but I did find a few others I could incorporate into the edges for a bit of fun.  I found that if I sewed them in using a traditional 1/4 inch seam, I would loose the fun text or color dots that really are what Fiona wants.  So, instead I tucked the next scrappy strip under the selvage, placed the selvage on top and sewed 1/4 inch on top of the selvage strip itself.  It won't fray, clearly, as that's the one job a selvage strip does have.

Should I have done it differently?  Any hints for incorporating a selvage without loosing it's personality?

Fiona, I hope you like them!  They were good fun to make.

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee Blocks: August

I have been quite slow to blog lately.  There's lots of life to be living with little time to sit down and write about it.  Some I might tell you about eventually (like my visit with Susan and our trip to Festival Of Quilts) and other bits I will most likely let pass by.  Eventually we will be all caught up and back in real time.

Where to start?  Well, this past week I took a holiday from work to enjoy a week at home.  It was wonderful.  My main focus sewing-wise was catching up on bee blocks.  I am behind.  Really behind.

Let us start by showing you my Modern Irish Bee blocks for August.  Miss Fiona requested a modern, funky churn dash using warm, clashing fabrics. Although her inspirational quilt does not do much for me personally, I loved loved loved making these blocks and I think this will be one beautiful quilt when all of the blocks are pulled together.  Churn dashes always come together so nicely for me, so it is a pleasure stitching them.  The biggest challenge, to my surprise, is that Fiona requested we do not use flowery fabrics. I had not realized that most of my stash is flower-based!  An eye opener for me!

Regardless, I made two 9 1/2 inch unfinished blocks for Fi.  They even came out to 9 1/2 inches the first time around.  Now that's refreshing.  Do pop over to Fiona's post if you are looking for a churn dash tutorial. It is very nicely written.

The color balance is prettier in real life, Fi.  I promise :)

Hope you like them, Fi! I look forward to seeing how these come together from our bee buddies.

Bee Blessed: June

When Judith posted her mosaic for her accomplishments in May, I saw a pretty little block there tucked into the upper left hand corner.  Ooo...isn't that pretty?  I must look into that pattern - it would be fun to make!  

But wait!  Wait!  Lucky for me, it's this month's Bee Blessed block!  You can click on over to Sarah's blog to see the details, but long story short these blocks were made with this tutorial.

Much to my dismay, with all of these seams they ask you to use a scant quarter inch seam.  Will I ever escape?  I took your advice from my last disaster and moved my needle one point to the right.  It absolutely made my seams smaller, but not so small I was nervous they'd unravel when Judith received them.

That said, they are barely the right size.  A little small, I think, but totally usable.  I very much look forward to seeing this top finished.  There are several ways you could arrange these with a wide variety of patterns created.  I can't wait to see what final layout they choose to use.  Another great choice in block, ladies!

Bee Blessed: May Blocks

The Bee Blessed blocks for May were delightful to make.  So delightful I could see myself making a full quilt in the future.  Yep.  They're on the to-stitch list.

Using the Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial for bow tie blocks, I whipped these up in no time.  It honestly took longer to find the solids in my scrap bin then it did to stitch these cuties.

Sarah and Judith, fab choice in blocks this month.  I thoroughly enjoyed making these and can't wait to see the finished quilt!

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: May

Erin is bee mama this month in the Modern Irish Bee.  She was looking for scrappy Road To Tennessee blocks in bright summery colors, with only a peppering of darker navy and grey.  I tried my best to oblige.

With a dig through my scrap bin, I pulled out 32 happily colored prints that I could pair with my white squares.  Still, my scrap pile does not look any smaller.

There are three things in quilt world that I'm not entirely comfortable with yet (beyond appliqué...that's a WHOLE other adventure).  Drunkard's path blocks scare me (even with Leanne's tutorial).  Scant quarter seams (what, exactly, is scant enough?).  And finally creating triangles by sewing ON the line, not 1/4 inch away from the line and squaring your blocks.

This project included two of my three weakest points.

I had recently seen a trick for corner triangles posted on Cluck Cluck Sew that I thought might be a new (better for me?) way of tackling these pesky corner triangles.  I will say I thoroughly enjoyed stitching on the corner triangles using their method, but sadly it did not always result in a nicely square piece.

In the end, I have two blocks for you, Erin.  I am happy with the fabrics used and think they fit in your summery vision.  I am reasonably happy with how my points came together even without locking seams.  Two stars.  However, they are absolutely smaller than the 12.5 inches square that they should be even with my scant seams.  Any scanter (is that a word?) and I am not sure they would have held together!  I hope they are still OK, Erin.  If not, they will surely spruce up the back of the quilt.

xx

Bee Blessed: April

Clearly this past weekend was focused on bee blocks.  This is my last bee block post this week.  I promise.  I just got a fright on Saturday realizing this is the last week of the month, so I quickly had to kick myself into gear.

Up next are these super bee blocks for Bee Blessed!  Judith and Sarah are looking for Asterisk blocks this month.  They were specifically looking for a matching pair of positive/negative blocks using a white or a modern print in the negative space.  

I pulled out my favourite white on white print that has swirly little dots (don't know where it's from!) giving it some interest without being overwhelming.  It goes so beautifully with this navy print.

To make these blocks, we were sent over to Craftsy for this video tutorial.  The tutorial is wonderfully done, making these blocks very easy to make.  This was my first time using a video tutorial to make blocks, which was quite interesting.  A whole new experience that took me a while to get oriented, but it worked out swimmingly in the end.

The blocks are designed to be oversized, then trimmed to 12.5 inches.  After my Twinkle Twinkle experience with weirdo sized bee blocks, I've purposely trimmed these to 13 inches square so that Judith/Sarah can fiddle with them as needed to fit into the quilt.  I hope that helps the piecing a bit, ladies!

Modern Irish Bee: April

Whew!  April is flying by!  With it, though, has come some beautiful weather.  Would you believe I'm sitting out at night in the back garden writing this post?  Shocking.

This month in the Modern Irish Bee, the talented Miss Anna went for a few wild improvisational blocks using this tutorial as a guide.  She wanted a fussy cut to anchor the block, but wanted it to be off center.  From there we were let to dive into our scrap bins and stitch.

Now, I must have added in additional instructions to Anna's request because in MY mind (apparently in my mind only....) these blocks were to be somewhat monocrhomatic.  Even though her inspirational mosaic clearly has multi-colored blocks.  I wonder if I picked that theme up from the tutorial?  Anyway, everyone else has gone wild scrappy and I'm the only weirdo with monochromatic blocks.  Anna's nice enough to take them for her quilt anyway :)  Thank you, Miss Anna!

When digging through my scrap bins I really only had two piles of scraps big enough to make a block: teal/aqua and pink.  I thought they looked OK as a pair, so I went for it.  The aqua block has a Melody Miller teapot as the fussy cut focus point.  The pink block has a little Hello Kitty, the only thing in a pink vein that I have to fussy cut!

I squeezed in a few DS goodies, a small bit of Liberty, Nordika (because Anna digs it) and a few selvedges.  All in all I'm quite pleased with the result.  I love making these blocks, Anna.  I could stitch these all day long!  

Modern Irish Bee: March Blocks

This month in the Modern Irish Bee, the über talented Sarah is our queen.  She requested bright, colorful spider web blocks using a grey-based LV print in the central star.  Sarah wrote out beautiful instructions in her blog post to make this block, carefully warning us of a few pitfalls (thank you!) and referred us to a lovely tute by Heather.  

I have made spider web blocks in the past using paper templates, but Heather's tutorial used a fabric square cut into quarters as your guide.  She gave very simple, straight forward instructions for marking the triangle templates, making it quick and easy to start stitching.  I like, too, how the star is kind of thick and chunky  here, showing off the LV fabric. However, this method does result in 4 rather large LV scraps in the process.  This is fine by me as I'll use them right up in my medallion quilt.

Sarah specifically asked for eight coordinating strips in the same color family at the immediate edge of the star.  The idea is that this will really highlight the star in the midst of the scrappy webs.  I do like the look, but boy I found it difficult to find 8 matching, non-repeating prints!  I did it in the end, but really had to dig through the old scrap bin!

On the negative side, my blocks are indeed smaller than the 12 inch square (unfinished) they should be.  Sarah says it's OK, but it's really niggling at me.  There might be a quick unpick of the four quadrants and a re-stitch in the hopes of finding a real 12 inch square block in there! 

On the positive side, I love how these blocks turned out.  I might steal Miss Sarah's idea and slowly make a few of these in my quiet moments and eventually build up to a quilt top.  They were super easy to make, creating a very satisfying evening of sewing.  I love how they used up the old scraps very quickly, giving me a walk down memory lane with each quarter square. 

Bee Blessed: March Blocks

Do you have deja vu?  Checking your calendar to see that it is indeed March and not February?  Don't you worry!  It's me - it's not you.  

I so loved making last month's Bee Blessed blocks that Judith was nice enough to let me make more little hearts for her.  The only deal was that they could not be pink or red.  Easy peasy.

I went with the two biggest pieces of fabric in my scrap bin, grabbing a green Boho print (my stinky night time photos of that block looked horrific!) and then a pretty turquoise/aqua with white links from the Mixed Bag line.  Judith, I really enjoyed making these.  Thank you for being so flexible :)

But wait!  Did you just put two and two together?  Yes, Mixed Bag has arrive in the shop...

AND if  a piece is in my scrap bin I have already started to use it!  I will show you that project in Monday's post.  I just couldn't resist this cute origami print when it arrived!  It had to be used.

And finally, if you have not already voted for FSQ in it's bid to be the best retailer in Galway, please do!  You can catch all of the details in this post AND register for the 50 euro gift certificate here after you vote.  To those of you who have voted, I'm sending a massive THANK YOU your way.  xx

Bee Blessed: February Blocks

As soon as I saw the tutorial for February's Bee Blessed blocks I was ready to stitch!  I love this idea for a quilt block.  It is perfect for this time of year.

Although Sarah and Judith were asking for any color hearts (so long as they were bright fabrics), I couldn't stay away from red.  I did eye up a pink FQ or two, but the red florals were calling my name.

The blocks they receive from February will be combined with those using March's tutorial.  I am so very curious to see what the next block will be.  These will make one very sweet quilt!  Great idea, Bee Blessed ladies.  xx

Modern Irish Bee: January Blocks and a Book Review

In our inaugural month of the Modern Irish Bee (2014), Miss Ruth requested two scrappy blocks finishing at 12.5 inches each using this the tutorial she wrote in combination with these cutting instructions.  I was delighted when I saw her choice in blocks.  What fun to give these at try!

Using Kona Ash as the background fabric with accents of Kona Snow, Ruth wanted us to make little 9 (or 16 patch) blocks of 1 inch finished squares.  I had a wonderful time digging through my scraps finding a small tasty piece or two.  How cute is the little deer?  I didn't purposely fussy cut that!  Honest.

Our second block was to have 20 little 1 inch squares again with the Kona Snow frame and Kona Ash backing.  I'm not going to lie - small little mistakes in my seam allowance in those 20 pieces did add up and I created a wonky 12.5 (top) to 12.0 (middle) to 12.5 (bottom) block that had to be partially unpicked and re-sewn.  Second time is the charm.  

Ruth, I loved making these blocks for you.  You're going to have one stunning quilt!  

In other news, I've just finished reading Quilting Isn't Funny...

...by Megan Dougherty.  It was delivered by good old Amazon over Christmas and  I've been picking it up and putting it down since then.  I love the idea of this book as we (quilters) are filled to the brim with wit and humor (you know who you are!).  I that the author this is a fellow blogger who has turned her love/hate relationship with quilting into a magazine column and book.  Congrats, Megan!  And finally, I think the book is formatted well as it contains smaller excerpts/essays preceded with a little 5-8 sentence commentary by the author setting the scene for the piece.  That being said, it just was not my type of humor.  I think I go more for word play or dry humor when the humor here is based on the reader relating to the character/situation.  I didn't really relate.  Some of you may see yourself in these stories or have had similar situations and will love this book!  To give you a chance at a laugh, I'll happily give my copy away to the first person who leaves a comment below and their paypal address to cover shipping.  If you want it, its yours. 

Bee Blessed: January

It has been months and months since I have made bee blocks.  I have really missed it - trying out a new-to-me block and pulling fabrics that make me happy.  What could be better?  Bee Blessed choose a Greek Cross block for January, to be made using this tutorial.

And here's what I whipped up: one block in purples and one in green.

I used left over Chicopee charms from this bag for the corners in both blocks, and then a little birdie print for the center 

or Architexture plum charms in the center of this block.

I am already looking forward to seeing what they choose for the February block!

Testing Bee Blocks

I am totally jumping the gun here, but I couldn't control myself.  The Modern Irish Bee starts a second year all bright, shiny and fresh in January.  As soon as I picked February to be queen bee, my brain has been racing with all of the opportunities to try something new.

When trying to choose my block, I have been considering the bee setup.  We have a wide variety of skill levels, so something pretty straight forward would be best.  This is also a scrappy bee, so a block that lets me draw on the stashes of others seems greedy appropriate.

I stumbled upon the spool quilt along hosted by Laura of Adventures of a Quilting Diva.  Each month she posts a new spool tutorial, so there should be about seven available by the time my February month comes along.  That would let folks in my bee choose what they're most comfortable with AND gives me a wide variety of blocks in my quilt.  Love that.

To give it a test run, I pulled (widely) monochromatic, stripey FQs thinking most folks would have something like this in their stash.  I set out making four blocks from the spool quilt along: (left to right) block 4, block 1, block 3 and block 2.

I really dig the first and last block, but the second from the left is a bit bland.  Anyway, I think what I've learned is A) there's a wide enough variety in skills that folks could be entertained without being overwhelmed and B) that I like a darker spool color over the Ash in the second purple thread block.  I'm going to make another set of four this weekend and see where this goes as it gets larger.  I may really dig it as it gets more scrappy, but right now it's looking a little uncoordinated and boring simplistic.

This is also my first time using LV fabrics as a background.  I have to say (in 100% total honesty) I'm not sure I like them.  Folks who are gaga about LVs, can you tell me why this isn't wowing me?  Is there a secret I don't know like you shouldn't use LV in a large space or it should coordinate better with what's going on in your block?  Any insight, ladies?

Modern Irish Bee Blocks: August

While I was in a bee block kind of mood, I jumped into Geraldine's Modern Irish Bee blocks.  Geraldine was super nice and already had her white background fabric and her gorgeous scrappy prints pre-cut into triangles for us to make HSTs.  What bliss!

We were asked to make two HST blocks with the prints and whites in alternating, diagonal lines.  You can imagine how many different ways these could be combined to make a quilt top, so I am SO excited to see what Geraldine makes with our blocks.  You can see on her instagram feed (@sophiebelledesigns) that she's already playing with this design idea to make gorgeous things!

Anyway, I made these.  You'll have to believe me that the whites are white here.  Stinky late afternoon iPhone photos...

Ger, I hope you like them!  They are on the way to your home right now :)