Bee Blocks

I realized that although they are on flickr, I haven't posted any bee blocks on my blog for a while. I guess it's time to play catch up!

For the final month of Around the Block, MJ requested Indian Star variations with her chintzy, scrappy blues. Her words, not mine. I'd never call someone else's fabrics chintzy. In a wonderful twist, she asked us each to include a scrap of our fabrics in one of the points to help commemerate the girls in the bee. I chose American Jane ovals and a Japanese print for mine. What a wonderful idea for a quilt bee.

And with those blocks, I completed round 1 of Around the Block. Thank you, girls, for a wonderful year. A special thank you to Sheridan who chased everyone's blocks and made sure we were enjoying ourselves.


For The Beehive in August and September, we had two rounds of easy blocks and Amy Butler. Since they were so quick to do, I've worked ahead on my September commitments. The block shown above is squares in squares for Angela using her Amy Butler fabric. We'll each construct a single block which she'll then quarter and reconstruct bento box style. It doesn't look like much now, but when she's worked her magic it should be a treat for the eyes.

Then we get to my pièce de résistance. My sistine chapel. My Mona Lisa....



Ok, I may have overstated that a tad. But hey, I'm proud of these. For the 3x6 Bee, we each choose our own block style and our partners select their colours. I've chosen another Victorian Textiles template set. This one has so many curves that I knew it would be a substantial challenge. The set is called Curved Nine-Patch or sometimes Improved Nine-Patch. When completed as designed, you'd end up with a large quilt of circles in a cathedral window design. Because the 3x6 bee requires 12.5" squares, I squared each block up and then double-sashed it to bring it to size. I have four more of these to complete. I know I'm going to have a hard time parting with them.

But bees aren't always about parting with things. Some times you get to sit by the postbox and wait for your blocks to arrive. As Round 1 drew to a close, Round 2 of Around the Block kicked off. We're doing things a little differently this year. Instead of having assigned months, we all send our fabrics and instructions at once. As block makers, we get to select which block we'd like to work on for the month. We'll get all of our blocks back throughout the year.


This time around, I'm requesting for a spiderweb quilt. I hope this is creative enough for our group. I made some test blocks for myself and I asked the girls to follow the tutorial posted at Heather Ala Mode. Although it's a straight forward pattern, I hope that I've sent plenty of fabric for the girls to make a few creative decisions about their blocks. I'm a bit worried about that aspect of my request. For my blocks, I'm using fabrics from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird as a foundation. Then I've added in some Girl Friday, American Jane, Denyse Schmidt and assorted solids to give it "oomph". I really can't wait to start to get a few back and watch this quilt grow.

And that's my quilt bee round of up August. October brings a new and clever sort of quilt bee for me... stay tuned!