A surprise and Dead Simple

I received a little present from Erin over at Bittle Bear during her give away.  Whoo hoo, Love this fabric, and Thank you, Erin.  These are so pretty in person.  

Presents from Erin at Bittle Bear

I'm playing in this QAL , I have a palette, which I posted HERE, I moved photos around on my computer, now I can't find the picture of my palette, wherever I moved it, so just go look at the older post.  Or the solids are below.

Solids for Dead Simple QAL

I pulled some fabrics, I feel I have too many mediums.  Not so amazingly, my pulls are full of Kaffe Fassett and a little Joel Dewberry.  

The Medium Grey, Ash and Espresso.  

Curry, Amber, and another yellow that I wanted to use.  This end of the color palette is so ME!  I didn't have much of the lightest yellow, but the orange and amber color, covered, which is why I feel there are too many mediums.

I put together some of the Bow Tie blocks for the Bow Tie Swap.  Luckily, I checked the directions after only making one, they all would have been wrong!  I cut the small pieces 2.5" instead of 2", I was mixing sizes for the postage stamp swap.  Making them all wrong would not have surprised me in the least, because I was working on these  AHEAD of time, so it would just be karma to have them all be wrong since I'm working ahead of schedule.  

Bow Tie Swap

I'm starting a quilt using a young man's shirts.  This has part of a flannel.  Never an easy task to use clothing in a quilt, pulling everything together.  I'll have more in the days to come, and a story to go along.  

Block 1 Jesse

Getting my Bee on

Working this week on getting some Bee blocks in the hopper, and on time.  This is one of two blocks for Lael in Honey Bees II on flickr - she is making a quarter log cabin quilt that should be striking with the soft colors and splash.

September Block for Lael Honey Bees II

Postage Stamp block for a swap.  This is only #1, I have a lot to make, I have stacks of 2.5" squares cut and ready to sew.  

Postage Stamp

I am making 5 blocks for the ladies in the NuBees group.  They each supplied a color combo and I came up with the block.  This is the one I have completed, I chose the Uneven Stacks block.  I have wanted to do this block, and now I have a chance, I might use this in a future bee.

Uneven Stacks for NuBees

This is literally the most challenging block I have ever put together, over and over and over again.  We were supposed to make 2, but after taking the first one apart over, and over, and over - I lost one of the pieces, so thank you, I only had to finish one.  This is called the interlocking rings, I think.  It was interlocking my brain into a mush.  But, I did conquer it, and only 2 weeks late.  And this is the last block for the Christmas Bee.  

Christmas Bee - Kari

Now, I have some September blocks completed, completed all my August Bee blocks, and somehow have 3 sets of a round robin I'm in.  Apparently, I am behind on that one.  And for some reason, that is utterly beyond my comprehension, I started a new Bee, it was while my brain was mush on the above block.

Ok, FINE, I'll do it, but I did resist

I tried.  I tried to resist.  And then today on Lily's Quilts for her Dead Simple QAL, she had a post titled Resistance is Futile.  Really?  A Star Trek NG reference?  I could no longer resist.  It was futile.  Here is my color palette from Design Seeds.  I think over there someone is secretly an evil borg, trying to make us all do this QAL, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  Because I secretly did want to participate, just needed that one extra push, or mind meld, whatever.

Bee Neglect & WIP Pips

I have been neglectful in my Bees, I am (was) behind on 2, one is the Aqua & Orange Bee.  Katherine of Honey Hill Designs requested 2 blocks with circles, a vespa, and the letter 'K'.  I can only assume that 'K' stands for "mental block trying to put these two blocks together".  The vespa fabric was very cute, I had a hard time picking one vespa to use.  Block 1 I thought of (finally) a hot air balloon running off with the vespa, not quite a circle, but I think fitting.  

Block 1 August for Katherine

Block 2, I added the bottom most orange fabric for the 'circle' part of Katherine's request and I reversed appliqued the letter 'K'.  Yes, I reversed appliqued.  I like the look of the letter in there, I might try this on something else.  To see the rest of the Aqua and Orange photos on flickr click HERE.  And now, I have one more August to complete, and I have 2 September blocks done, so I'm almost not behind.  

Block 2 August for Katherine

Working on the back for the Sherbet Pips back.  I found a tutorial at Lily's Quilts for a large dresden plate, Big Fat Dresden.  I cut out the template for the dresden plate on paper, and I just cut around the template on fabric.  Nothing fancy.  I still didn't use up all the fabrics.  

I am making 3 of these large dresdens for the back.  Each one represents a daughter in the family that will get the quilt. 

Here is how large the dresdens are, 22" to the top.  I am not following the tutorial 100%, I am going to machine applique the dresdens to solids for the back, and I will not add the center or the side insets.

The trick for the center is to pin it everywhere until you have used up all your pins.  Now to chose zig zag or straight stitch.  My dresdens are not laying flat, so I will unsew a seam on each one and make the seam larger than the 1/4" to get a big fat flat dresden.   After these are appliqued down, I'll measure to complete the back.  I like to wing it - not measuring till the end. 

Sherbet Pips Blocks Beauty

These are the fabrics I started with for my Sherbet Pips quilt.  This is going to be a gift, I want this quilt to be special and have meaning.  Sometimes, after I get going on a quilt that will be a gift I worry that the recipient is not going to 'get' the quilt.  I don't want to over-explain my meanings to people, but I feel as if they need to know the value I have placed on their quilt.  Not the monetary value, but why I find them 'quilt worthy'.  

I thought this was going to be 5 rows by 5 rows.  The blocks were 11" unfinished.  Looking at it on the wall I didn't feel it would be large enough to snuggle under on the couch or have a picnic on.  

I added one more horizontal row to the bottom.  I had very little of the Girl on The Swing print.  I almost left it out, because I felt like hoarding it.  I did end up using it, as I was working on the blocks, I realized that if I thought it was so pretty, so would the owners of the quilt.  And I wanted the little girl feel of the prints.  There are 4 blocks with Girl on The Swing with the white background.  That was pretty much all that  I had.  I have an idea for the back now that the top is complete.  I want to use all the prints in the Sherbet Pips collection, I don't want left overs.  This will be the only quilt I make with the Sherbet Pips.  Some later time I will talk about the recipients and why I made them this quilt.  

Yay!  Bee Blocks Done.  This is for Sew Modern Bee and Rachel also is working with Sherbet Pips!  Her quilt will have a completely different feel than mine, but I love this line, and I can't wait to see all her blocks together.

These blocks are called Fractured Starburst and there is a good tutorial HERE.  Carrie provided a paper piece template to use, as her blocks are larger than in the tutorial.  I used the template for this block using fabrics she provided.

I've made this block BEFORE, and it took a few tries to get this one right!  I made this block with my fabrics to send to Carrie.  I felt like I needed to prove to this block that I have it down pat.  

This block, another paper pieced, is for a LQG.  It wasn't hard, but it did take awhile, and I can see why she wanted a group to make these blocks!  We were asked to make our own center.

I have to say this is going to make a striking quilt.  These were presented to Peggy at our meeting.  

I'm selling my Mom's Bernina 145 if anyone is interested.  She moved up!