Case in Point: The NewBee quilting bee. What happened? How did I get so far behind? How embarrassing! It's really quite paralyzing... I feel guilty posting about other quilty projects and such that I've completed when I have blocks for others that are languishing. So I blog about nothing. For a long time. Until I get myself caught up!
December blocks for Debbie came from a June/July issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The block is a modified shoofly ---- actually, to my way of thinking it's a mini shoofly block in the center of a sawtooth star. I didn't receive enough background fabric in my package to finish my two blocks, so all I have to show for my {lateness} are two shooflys and four flying geese!
These are January's ---- Justina's birthday month. Ouch. Yes, I sent a belated birthday gift.
The block in behind is my ode to Atkinson Designs' "Happy Hour" book and Cluck, Cluck, Sew's "Juice Boxes" quilt. Both are fairly straightforward concepts --- HH uses rectangles and CCS uses squares. You can see I prefered squares. For whatever reason I got it into my head that Justina wanted 12" finished blocks; no dice, she asked for 9" finished. Ugh. So on top of being late, I had to {re}calculate all my measurements and somehow work with my already cut pieces! It was an exercise in patience and the centers aren't quite as off-centered as what I initially worked up. {grin} The second block is a variation that I saw somewhere on Flickr --- to be honest, it's all over the place. I have no idea what it's called, but I do like the effect, especially with smaller squares (these finish at 1.5"). Rachel of P.S. I Quilt just released a pattern for a block very similar to this that uses four 5" charm squares for the center grouping and finishes at 12"; she calls the pattern, "Smitten."
On to March --- and almost caught up, thanks to February being a by-month. {grin} Dharia's theme was the "Jewels of Spring" and she sent a variety of prints in purples, greens, and teal/blues along with a moderately dark gray solid. I had fun with this month for sure!
The block in behind is a 9" finished quartered log cabin ---- I pieced fabrics within the logs on two quarters and I chose to vary the width of each quarter round. I used every fabric Dharia sent just to get my block to the right size, and look, no wonk! {grin} The block out front is my diamond in the rough! I set out to play up the "jewel" theme and was going to 'snowball' each of the print corners with grey (that's gem-like, right??); I added two corners and decided I liked them much better this way and stopped. Two of Dharia's inspirational pictures featured peacocks....so, perhaps these are feathers? Leaves? Partial arrows? Take your pick! Whatever they are, I like 'em!
So, one more month to finish up --- a Cooper's Block for Songbird and I've got until Saturday to get it in the mail. And I'll actually be on time!
And speaking of time, in my spare bits of it I made a charm square runner for some missionary friends, Andy & Liz and boys, who were moving on from my church to another building project {Origins by Basic Grey + Jumbo Ric-Rac + Polka Dots = Love!}...
and participated in a group quilting project with the ladies at church!
EDITED TO ADD (4/27) --- I did some more hunting around and the main pattern I used for the table runner is called "In Pieces" by Mary of Mary's Cottage Quilts. It was a feature on the Riley Blake "Cutting Corners College" how-to page. I modified the pattern by using less charms and cutting my row sashing at 2.5" to accomodate a 5th wheel trailer dinette --- and I love it!
No one can accuse you of not being busy!
ReplyDeleteYour charm square runner is adorable. =)
Have a great {guilt free} day!
I was just wondering how I missed this wonderful blog. Then I notice you post only about once a month. Then I read why. You are so disciplined! Love your tablerunner and your black and white blocks. Your bee blocks are interesting. Are they going into one quilt?
ReplyDelete