the bee's knees

Summer really flew by, didn't it? Maybe I should share all the bee blocks I've made in the last few months, quick before fall sets in.

First up are Monique's (sewfunbymonique.blogspot.com) scrappy trip blocks from June. She wanted pink, brown, orange, purple and a touch of aqua so they'd match the ones she already made back during the scrappy trip along frenzy. 

These are such quick and fun blocks to make (free tutorial at quiltville.com). Hopefully Monique will get a chance to incorporate our bee blocks and finish up a WIP, it's so nice to check things off the to-do list.

Next are Nicole's (boldgoods.com) Christmas in July blocks. She pointed us towards her Christmas Pinterest board to use as inspiration and asked for any style and size blocks we wanted.

I had a hard time figuring out what to do at first, mostly because when I'm given free reign I kind of freeze up, especially when making for someone else. 

I thought a green circle of geese block (free template at quiltbynumber.com) might pass for a Christmas wreath in a not so obvious sort of way. I had fun creating a scrappy yet unified background out of various low volume scraps.

I went for quick and easy on the second one, throwing together more scraps from my Christmas modern plus quilt into a rectangular block. 

I might have gone ever so slightly overboard in August...

Kris (dukesayssewwhat.blogspot.com) has a really cool skateboard block tutorial on her blog and asked us to make just one since they're a little big. I planned on doing two anyways but somehow ended up with four. 

I probably don't need to post them all individually but I'm going to anyways :P

Kris and her husband own a skateboard shop in the Pacific Northwest and she's always stitching something by hand while  watching her son do cool stunts at the skate park. 

She said we could use different textures if we wanted, so I snuck in a few bits of voile, flannel, and canvas/twill. 

Last up is my first ever set of do. Good Stitches blocks, as I've been invited to join the Heal circle led by Nicke (kisskissquilt.blogspot.com).

I'm super excited to be part of this charity quilting bee! I'm filling Rachael's spot, (imaginegnats.blogspot.com), she's left some tough shoes to fill but I'm ready to give it a go.

These are modern maples blocks for August (free tutorial at larkcrafts.com). What's really neat about the Heal Circle is Nicke gets to hand deliver the quilts to hospice patients. 

I've noticed several other members are familiar faces either from blogging or Instagram or both, so that's pretty cool, too. Thanks for having me, ladies! 

Now if I could just make it to the post office... 

Just a quick note: I'm posting from the blogger app on my iPhone and there isn't a way to add hyperlinks, or if there is I just haven't figured it out yet. I'm also not 100% sure how my photos will turn out, they might be a bit blurry if viewing from a computer. Fingers crossed that isn't the case!

Krista who?

Did you forget about me? I don't blame you! I got married and fell off the face of the planet. It happens. I've been busy with work and quilting and wifing and whatnot. I thought I'd pop in and share what quilty things I've been up to since the last time I shared. There's quite a bit, actually. But first, here's the obligatory wedding photo.

after the ceremony

After the honeymoon, I managed to clean up and organize my sewing room. It's now the most usable space it's ever been! There's still a lot that could be done, so I don't want to show it off just yet. But let's just say Jon spends a lot of time in here with me now that there's room for him, which is why I've been so productive lately!

I finished our wedding quilt a few weeks ago. Well, the top, anyways. I'm not sure how to go about basting this 90"x105" beast, let alone quilting it. It's a St. Louis 16 patch in Charleston Farmhouse by Felicity Miller. I threw in a few coordinating prints from my stash to make it stretch a bit further and add some dimension. Jon really loves this quilt, which makes me super happy.

16 patch wedding quilt

I also made ~30 more scrappy trip along blocks, giving me a total of 64 for a 96" square quilt. This is comprised of 2 parts Chicopee fabric by Denyse Schmidt and 2 parts coordinating prints from my stash. I spent a minute and a half deciding on the layout, about as much time as it took to scatter them all haphazardly on the floor. Good enough for me!

chicopee scrappy trip along

I've made some more progress on this hand piecing project. This might be the first time it's appeared on the blog! I don't have a real plan for it but so far there are 25 batik four patches put on point in Kona coal. It's a bit silly to do 90 degree angles using the English paper piecing method, but it's just what happened one day when I needed something to do in the car.

spread out on grandma's plush carpet

My flowerburst hexies have come out of hiding. Kris coined the name a year and a half ago when I first started working on them. I'm not exactly sure how many I have now, and they don't resurface that often, but purple and teal one pictured was my project over the past weekend when we were out of town visiting my grandmother.

hand piecing in the car

Last up is the voile strip quilt I finished yesterday after work. It's a variation on the 1600 jellyroll quilt (aka jellyroll race!). I used 70 4"x50" strips, which yielded a generous king size quilt top. I was calling it my 3500 quilt since it started as a 3500" long strip rather than the 1600" of a standard jellyroll. The colors and values aren't dispersed perfectly, but that's part of the excitement of starting with one long strip and having no idea where you'll end up. It was so fast and easy and brainless!

voile 3500 quilt

Surely that's enough to make up for a two month absence! I think I owe someone a pile of Liberty HSTs from the Give Me Liberty sew-along. I'll go with Cathi, of Gertrude Made, who whipped up a lovely pair of patchwork pillows using her treasured Liberty stash. Thanks to everyone who played along with us, that was a great last minute escape from all those pre-wedding jitters! 

Until next time...

comma mini charm zip pouch

The Moda booth at Quiltcon was handing out free mini charm packs, comprised of 2.5" squares. I picked the Comma line by Zen Chic and immediately sewed it up into a simple patchwork panel when I got home. I pieced them using the fusible interfacing method, mostly because I planned to make a zip pouch from it and figured the stiffer it was, the better.

I added some batting and quilted it using a zig-zag stitch along all the seams, then decided it wasn't quite stiff enough for my liking and went back over it with a grid on the diagonal through the points. All this was done with my walking foot. I used some mechanical genius circuit boards (a Timeless Treasures print I got for 50% off at Fat Quarter Shop a while ago, gotta love a good deal!) for the backside and quilted it with wavy lines in orange thread. 

The lining fabric is a Tina Givens print called "on the fence" which I picked up a few months ago in a super sale at delta patchwork for something like 2 dollars a yard. Talk about cheap! The scale of the print turned out way larger than I was expecting, so I figured I'd use some of it up for this. 

I put little tabs on the ends of the zipper and kept the zipper+tabs length a good 1.25" shorter than the width of the outer panels so the tabs wouldn't get sewn into the seams. This way it's less bulk to sew through and the corners look neater, I think. I also kept the lining a good half inch shorter on the sides and bottom, making it a tad smaller so it would fit better inside the pouch. 

I'm very please with how it turned out, even though it took me a month and a half to finally install the zipper and finish the darn thing! It measures in at a generous 12x14 inches and will be perfect for carrying my rotating cutting mat, square rulers and other larger, flattish quilting tools when I'm traveling. And kudos to me for whipping up a post about it the same day I finished it!

There are still two hours left in this Friday, so I'm linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday :D

Oh and don't forget about the Give Me Liberty! sew-along Nicole and I are hosting! I plan to post about my progress on Monday and would love for you to come by then and share where you're at in the comments. Have a fantastic weekend!