divergence

This quilt was a result of one of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild bee I participated in last year.

I was the queen bee for the month of April, so I guess it is fitting I finished it in April of this year.

I used the same backing for another quilt and liked it. I thought it would be perfect for this quilt. I quilted swirls as an all-over quilting design. The thread is a very light gray, the same light gray I piece with most of the time.

I think the quilting really adds a dimension to the quilt.

Scrappy binding, again. I really like how this one turned out. Look! I even remembered to label the backing before I loaded it onto the frame.

Free foundation paper-piecing pattern I designed for the bee can be found in this blog post. More about my process and how this one came together is in this post from January.

Make Modern

I made these blocks for a group project.

You can find instructions to make your own Cross-cut Blocks in this post from A Quilter's Table.

My blocks measure at 12.5" by 12.5" (finish at 12") but the idea is the same.

Bee Blocks: May

This month the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild Queen Bee is Monica. She has set me the task of making two Alpine blocks. White, red, yellow, and teal. All fabrics I definitely had on hand. Someday I will run out of fabric. Someday.

You can find a tutorial for this block by Alyce on The Bee Hive. The stitch and flip method makes up blocks quickly and with accuracy.

I've made myself notes on how to make the block using my favorite tools for flying geese units (Easy Angle ruler, the Companion Angle ruler, and my recently purchased 6.5" square ruler from Creative Grids for the square and rectangular cuts). Sadly, this method does not work very well for a square-in-a-square block, but I'm totally okay with that.

Two finished blocks ready for the next meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.

Do you have favorite cutting rulers that make traditional piecing easier? Do you have a square-in-a-square technique that is quick and accurate? I would love to learn about it.

Bee Blocks: April

April was my month to be queen bee for one of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild's bees.

This bee is based on stash fabric, so members should be able to pull fabrics from their collection to create two 12.5" by 12.5" blocks (unfinished), or similar square inches of blocks. The blocks should not be overly complicated. (Do not download the image below, it is only an image and not a foundation. The foundation is linked in the text below the image.)

I wanted a gaggle of flying geese. I also wanted to make it really simple for everyone to make the blocks. I set myself the task of using EQ7 to make foundations for simple paper piecing, if that was something they wanted to try. They can also use their favorite method to create flying geese of the appropriate size. You can download my foundation to make your own flying geese. Make sure you print "actual size" and measure to make sure the outer line measures 6.5" by 9.5" before printing all your foundations.

I printed out my foundations and pulled some fabric from my collection. I'm not going to provide a step-by-step foundation paper piecing tutorial as there are so many out there. This one from Fons & Porter has nice video tutorial. I asked for five of these units from each of the bee members. This works out to one goose unit less than two 12.5" squares would be if sewn into squares.

I made two blocks using this method.

I also cut several flying geese units using my favorite rulers for this kind of work: The Easy Angle and the Companion Angle. Bonnie Hunter has some great videos about her ruler that does the same thing these two rulers do.

I didn't sew my geese units into blocks yet. I'm going to wait until I have the units from the other members of the bee so I can scatter mine around to give it all a little more uniformity.

A super-sized thank you to Jane at Projects by Jane. Without her tutorial I would have been lost and unable to upload and share this foundation for paper piecing the geese. Jane has loads of great stuff and patterns on her site so you should go check those out, too.

Bee Blocks: March

Thuis month I made bee blocks for the queen bee using a pattern from Blossom Heart Quilts. The block is called Alpine.

I pulled the requested colors from my stacks and stacks of fabric and cut two blocks for the bee. I didn't use the exact cutting directions because I'm not a fan of stitch and flip construction for flying geese blocks. I used my Easy Angle and Easy Companion Angle rules to cut those geese and their corners.

A slight miscalculation in cutting and they ended up a little more scrappy than I had planned, but I don't mind. Another project checked off for the week.

Bee Blocks: February

The queen bee for the first round of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild set me a simple task. Make the equivalent of two 12" bu 12" blocks in whatever makes you happy. I dug through my 2.5" charms and found enough to make a single 6" by 12" piece.

I also pulled out my Quick Curve ruler and directions to make this darling churn dash block (instructions for this block found in the Curve It Up pattern). It is always fun to make something a new way.

Then I made two flying geese units that measure at 6" by 12". That means that I have at least one 6" by 12" block too many. I suppose she will have to suffer through my block-making craze.

Now I just need to plan what blocks I want for my month.

Friday Finish: Scrappy Bee Blocks

Earlier this year the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild had a few quilt bees.  For my month as queen bee, I decided I wanted scrappy stars.  Any star would do, as long as it was low-volume against a good contrast background fabric.

I posted my directions for a Friendship Star and for a Wonky Star so everyone had easy access to the directions.

Any star would do, as long as it was low-volume against a good contrast background fabric.

I used my new design wall to decide on placement of my blocks. I have a project bin full of 6" and 12" blocks that I've been adding to throughout the last couple years. This was the perfect opportunity to use them.

In an effort to avoid working on a very strict grid, I did end up with some short seams. I'm really pleased with how the quilt turned out, but short seams are such a pain!

Once I had the top together I realized I had added an extra row. I was aiming for a 7' by 8' layout and had managed to create a top that was 8' by 8'. Too big! So I did some surgery to remove a row. I rarely rip, so this was important enough that I just hunkered down and got it done.

Here is the final layout. Every star made by the bee is in there.

I pieced the backing and it was a close call with the sizing. This quilt is no small piece of work. This is how I make sure the backing is big enough for the quilt. I fold both the top and the backing into quarters and lay the top on the backing making sure I'm matching the width and length. This means I don't have a have a huge area to lay out the quilt. The top is significantly wider to make sure there is room for the side clamps on the long arm frame.

I selected thread that matches the backing fabric. I wanted to use So Fine! because it is a very understated thread and it quilts up beautifully. The bobbin thread is Omni. This quilt took 8 bobbins to quilt. (The average crib quilt with medium/light density quilting takes about one bobbin.)

The quilting isn't easy to see on the top since it is such a scrappy quilt. This is a view of the back of the quilt while it was still on the frame. This motif really added some amazing texture to the quilt.

Quilted and off the frame!

The texture of this quilting is so much fun!

I dug into my binding bin and found the 10 or so yards of binding ready to go. I attached the binding by machine with a machine-finish. (My tutorial for machine-finished binding can be found here.) I put it on the bed and it is a perfect fit!

Have you been part of a quilt bee this year? If so, did you finish your bee project?

Busy Bee: June

As a member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild I'm participating in a monthly quilting bee.  For June, the bee blocks were something a little different.

This time the queen bee wanted some scrappy hexagons made with strings.  She gave each of us a template which was perfect.  (I used my Super Sidekick from Jaybird Quilts when making cuts.  I recommend this ruler if you're going to be cutting many triangles.)  I sewed some string sections together and then trimmed the triangles.

It took me a couple tries to get all the triangles I needed mostly because I was using shorter strings.  I did get some great variety, though!  I laid out each hexagon on my design board and went to the sewing machine.

The queen bee asked that all seams be pressed open.  It was a challenge, but my fingers survived.

Once they were all sewn together the points mostly met in the middle.  

I think the last time I did something like this the pressing to one side made my piecing a little more accurate.  I still think they cam out great!  I may need to use some of my strings to do something like this for myself.

Have you participated in a quilt bee recently?  Did it help you learn a new block or new technique?

Embroidered Thank You for a Queen Bee

My Darling Husband asked me to make a thank you gift for a friend.  The somewhat loose request asked for a bag (or something) with a bee embroidery.  Not one to turn down a challenge, I came up with a plan.

I found this tiny bee design from Urban Threads and thought it would really make the zipper tab so much better.

The wide-open pouch design is a free tutorial from Noodle-head.  I've made more than a few of these and I love how easy they are and how great the finished bag can be.  These bags are great for holding your small knitting projects, or a crochet project or even some hand sewing.

Then I picked another great bee design from Urban Threads called Queen Bee.  Urban Threads offers many of their designs as hand embroidery designs.

Stitched up and assembled.  Design stitched on Pfaff Creative Performance with embroidery attachment.  I used fusible fleece for this project so I didn't add quilting.

The lining has a touch of gold in the fabric.

See how awesome that zipper tab turned out?  The final review of the bag was very positive.

I made another one in purple, but the zipper tag isn't as cool.

Have you used Noodle-Head's tutorials?  What about designs from her book Handmade Style?

Busy Bee for May

In February I told you about the bee that I joined in my quilt guild.  I am a member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  The bee is to be run by a different member for six months.  I started the bee with my star blocks.  First I did a friendship star and then a wonky star.

Since then I've made more star blocks and a plus block (not shown).

I also made some crumb blocks in a single color family.  Here are my red and blue blocks.

The May bee block is a great block.  It is a wonderful way to use up some little pieces of fabric.  I made the colored bits of my blocks with fabrics from my crumb bin.

I made two blocks.  One in green and the other using my yellows and oranges.  You can find a tutorial for the Scrap Plus block at We All Sew.  I handed these blocks over at the last guild meeting.

I also made a big signature label for my bee quilt.  The quilt isn't even close to done, but the label has been signed by all the block makers and I'm really pleased with that.

Have you tried any new blocks lately?

Busy Bee: Wonky Star

As a member of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild I've got my chance to be queen bee for one of the many bees we're doing this year.  I signed up for the Scrappy Bee because we all know I love scrappy.  Here is my step-by-step tutorial for one of the blocks for my turn at the helm of the hive.  This is the second block tutorial.  Go back and check out the Friendship Star tutorial.  No matter how you use this tutorial, I'd love to see what you come up with.

Like the Friendship Star, the Wonky Star is an easy design to make and resize to fit into many projects.  I'm going to cover how to make one that finishes at 12" by 12" and uses up some scraps and some of these cute little crumb blocks I've got piling up.  At the end I'll give you the measurements for cutting and piecing a block at a quarter this size.

For the larger block all of the squares were made using crumb blocks.   Each of these squares are 4.5" by 4.5".  For more information on making your own crumb blocks I recommend checking out Bonnie Hunter's tutorial about making them.  Victoria Findlay Wolfe has one, too!

This block needs 8 dark/medium crumb blocks and one light crumb block.  To make the star points I started with some left over triangles from the Friendship Stars and pulled a couple 5" charms.  I chopped them mostly on the diagonal to make eight triangles.  With the wonky block you can afford to take some chances!

Sew one of these triangles onto the crumb block making sure it will completely cover the block when pressed.  (If it hadn't covered the block completely I would have just added some more light fabric until it did.  With scrappy you can get away with that kind of renegade behavior!)

Press the fabric, trim the crumb block away and square up the block to 4.5" by 4.5".

Repeat with the another light triangle to create the other point.

The goal is to have this part of the block finish at 4.5" by 4.5" -- not to have perfect points.  You will make four of these blocks.

Once you have all four side blocks done lay them out and arrange as desired.  I just rearranged them so the points didn't get lost in the crumb blocks of the corners.

Sew each row and press.  I pressed the center row towards the middle and the top and bottom rows towards this ends.  This helps the rows to nest when you sew them together.

I webbed the rows (learn more about webbing from this post from Bonnie Hunter) which makes the sewing easier but complicates the pressing.  It isn't for everyone and I don't use it often.

The block should measure 12.5" by 12.5".  If it is a little small you may want to check your seam allowance.  With only a couple seams for this block it should be pretty close.  If it is a little big don't worry about it.

This block is easily made in the smaller size.  I used a crumb block center but the background blocks were 2.5" squares (I have a drawer full of them).  Each smaller unit in this block is 2.5" by 2.5".  Block measures 6.5" by 6.5".  This one uses eight dark/medium squares and five light squares.  Four of the light squares are cut in half diagonally to make the star points and assembled just like the larger block.

I didn't use the crumb blocks on the smaller block.  I think the scrappy dark/medium fabrics make it scrappy enough.  Feel free to make tiny crumb blocks (like the center of this block) if you have some leftover lights.  I usually have few or no light/neutral fabrics.  Block should measure 6.5" by 6.5".

Before writing this tutorial I made a couple blocks.  Then I had to go back and make the blocks for the photos for the tutorial.

Four 12" blocks and four 6" blocks and I'm well on my way to a fun quilt!

If you can't tell, this is my first ever quilt bee!  Have you joined in a quilt bee?