Bee Blocks

One of my goals each month is to keep up with bee blocks. Here are the ones I've been working on lately:

Hand pieced blocks for Reed, a member of CSQ's Piecing Group. Reed does a superb job of marking and cutting her pieces accurately for hand piecing; these went together very easily. These blocks are not pressed; we let the owner press the finished blocks in the way that works best for her. With hand piecing, all the seams float free on the back, so she can spin the seams as needed. These are fairly small blocks - the finished edges of the center hexie are about 1 inch. Each block took about an hour to sew (not EPP.)

Bee blocks for Reed

 

Next up, Chrissy's blocks for Sew Bee It. She handed out scrappy X & Plus blocks, and asked us to add our own fabric for the X. These were fun to put together; I might have to make some of these for myself when I get a chance. (And when would that be, with all the other projects on my list?!!!)

Bee blocks for Chrissy

Due to a STLMQG event, Sew Bee It is doing both the September and October blocks now and both are due at the November meeting. So Cathy handed hers out, too.  She's doing all solids in HSTs, greys and yellow to which she'll add pops of turq. Her layout is sort of like wonky pinwheels, with occasional HST units rotated randomly.

Bee blocks for Cathy

Linking up today with Judy at Patchwork Times - check out everyone else's design walls over there.

September Stash Report & Goals Update

Stash Report:

Month IN: 1 yard (STLMQG free table - thanks Kristy!)
Month OUT: 7-3/4 yards (Mega Medallion wide backing; Medallion binding; 30-Something back and binding)
Month net change: 6-3/4 yards out - moving in the right direction!

YTD IN: 138-3/4
YTD OUT: 118-3/7
YTD net change: 20 yards in. At least I'm closing the gap. Think I can break even for the year?

Goals Update:

September Progress:
1. Work on CSQ 30-Something challenge, due Oct.21. DONE!
2. Work on Broken Chevron UFO. Um, worked on it a little; need to unsew some and revise layout.
3. If it's back from the long-armer, bind and finish Mega Medallion in time for Sept 16 CSQ UFO Challenge meeting. Finished in time!
4. Finish top sample for Kristen's quilt. Not touched. On hold - Kristen is too busy with school, Girl Scouts, Lego Robotics, etc. to work on hers now so I'll hold mine until she's not so busy. Maybe Christmas break, maybe next summer.
5. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE
6. Work on project for publication. Worked on it some, found insufficient contrast, now unsewing some blocks so I can replace the background fabric with a paler one.

Other, not on list: Designed & cut out the first of several new special baby quilts that will be needed in the winter. The family is growing! I'm going to have to stay busy to keep up!

October Goals:
1. Work on Broken Chevron UFO.
2. Work on project for publication.
3. Work on secret baby quilt.
4. Write tutorial for Churn Dash variation for blog (see Monday 9/22 and vote for your favorite!).
5. Keep up with bee blocks.

Palette for one of the projects I'm currently working on, all from stash.

 

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for Sunday Stash Report. Thanks, Judy, for helping to keep us accountable!

30-Something: Finished; a Sneak Peek

My challenge quilt for CSQ's "30-Something" challenge is finished.

 

A peek of just the center:

 

I'll post photos of the whole thing after the challenge reveal on October 18.
The center looks pale, which it is; the outer areas are darker and brighter and the effect is kind of luminous. I took photos in bright sunlight and the colors just glowed!
DH saw this quilt while I was finishing the binding and he likes it. I'm glad, it since I'm keeping this one for our family room.

Linking up with Friday Finish at Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict - check out all the other quilty eye candy there.

Virtual Design Wall 9/22/14: Churn Dash Variations

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately but not much I can blog about now. Also a lot of bonding with my seam ripper. Rippit, rippit... How boring.

I have not been doing any pattern writing lately, and I kind of miss it.

So, I've been playing in EQ and I've come up with some churn dash variations. Here's what's on my virtual design wall today.  Let me know which one you like best and I'll write a tutorial when I get a chance, and post it here on the blog.

 

Plus Dash Dark

 

Plus Dash Combo

 

 

Chain Dash Plus

Chain Dash

All of these quilts use 14" blocks and finish at about 70 x 86" as shown. Which one do you like best? Why? Please tell me in the comments. Also let me know if you want baby or queen size variations. Thanks!

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times - check out all the real (not virtual) quilty inspiration on everyone's design walls over there.

Stash Report 9/21/14

Nothing in and nothing I can count used this week...

I've been sewing a lot and cutting some, but nothing is finished to the point where I can count it. I guess I just need to keep plugging away at my projects!

I've been making progress on my kaleidoscope quilting:

Since the blocks are 6 inches, the quilting will be more than sufficient to hold the quilt together, but not so dense as to make it stiff. After the CSQ 30-Something challenge reveal in October, this quilt will be a sofa quilt for me. It's a good size for me and it means something to me, and I haven't made one for myself to actually use, so I'm keeping this one!

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times; check out the other stash reports over there.

Mega Medallion

Finished!

Mega Medallion

Done in time for CSQ's UFO Challenge and STLMQG's War on WIPs. Custom long arm quilted by Sandy Etheridge of St. Louis. Queen size but kinda short, could have used one more row at the bottom, but I didn't have enough of the black & white fabrics.

(Sorry for such a blurry photo - I took over a dozen shots and they all came out blurry, even though I used a tripod. Blame it on the breeze!)

Linking up with Friday Finish at Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

DWM 9/15/14: Kaleidoscope Quilting in Progress

Not exactly my design wall today - more like my sewing table...

I'm working on quilting my entry into my guild's 30th anniversary challenge project. The theme is "30-Something" and the reveal is in October. Here's part of the top but this is only a portion of it, I don't want to show too much.

Kaleidoscope Quilting in Progress

The blocks are 6" square. I'm doing straight-line quilting using the walking foot, and it will end up with stitching like a kaleidoscope block. So far all the SID work is done, and I've made some of the vertical passes. When all the vertical passes are done, I'll rotate the quilt and stitch in the other direction. The kaleidoscope quilting will come out looking like this:

Kaleidoscope Quilting

The other projects I'm working on can't be shown on the blog, so my posts are going to be pretty few and far between for awhile. I do hope to get some good photos of my Mega Medallion quilt to post later this week.

Linking up today with Judy at Patchwork Times; check out all the design wall inspiration over there.

Around the World Blog Hop
Last week I participated in the Around the World Blog Hop, and I nominated Casey York to post this week. Casey is a friend from the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, where we're in a bee together. She's super talented and her style is unique, modern silhouette applique with embroidery. Casey has a book coming out soon, articles and patterns to come, and she's lecturing at Quilt Con.  You can see her blog hop post here.