In between trips out of town, I have been finishing my bee blocks for April. In the Modern Stitching Bee, Rebecca from Making Rebecca Lynn asked for x and + blocks in rich colours. I have not made these before, and I have to say that they are not as fussy as I expected.
It took longer to pick the fabrics than it did to make the blocks. I also learned that I truly need to organize my bins of scraps because I keep making scrappy blocks out of the folded pieces of fabric on my shelves instead.
For April in Always Bee Learning, Mary asked for Ogee blocks. As you know, I love sewing curves and in case you have not seen it, my video for sewing curves is here. As Mary had cut the "L" shapes exactly to the 1/2 inch required for these blocks, there was no room for error but once I got going it was not hard. When I make curves that are trimmed so that the curves touch at their centres like this, I generally cut the L shape wider and then trim it down after piecing the curve, so it was nice to see that I could manage it without that safety net too.
Debbie from A Quilter's Table sent her May fabric for Always Bee Learning early and asked for 13" x 7" half rectangle triangles, using the Modern Quilt Guild tutorial, which is here. I found these the hardest of the bee blocks I am showing you today. I checked my 1/4" seam, I measured and cut the fabrics perfectly (I thought at least) and I trimmed them ever so gingerly and carefully but in the end three of them are out by almost 1/8" on one side or the other. I expect that Debbie can make them work, but I am going to practice this block some more to figure out how to get consistent sizes - I think making them a bit bigger and planning more trimming might be the ticket for me.
These last four blocks are for the Pack Patch Quilt Along. The pictures are deceptive, these blocks finish at 3" x 4" so the ones in the pictures are 4.5" x 3.5". Chase from quarter inch mark is giving inspiration for two of these tiny blocks a week and I could not resist. This first one is "my true colours".
This one is "favourite colours". I have to say that I love all the colours, but the day I made this one, these were my favourites.
This one is "April showers". We also had April snow here.
And this last one is "May flowers". It is not too late to join this QAL, the blocks take about 10 minutes to make and they are so cute.
I am back in town for a couple of weeks now, regular sewing and blogging should be possible again.
Best,
Leanne
24 comments:
Great blocks, Leanne! Yes, trimming can help tremendously with accuracy. Wishing you happy stitching!
Great blocks! My x and + blocks came together nicely too and I am really impressed that they were much easier than expected.
I'm totally crushing over those two X and + blocks. Love love love the fabrics you chose for both. Orange and blue complementary scheme is one of my favorites.
Ooh you've had a blog makeover. Intrigued with your 'disclosures policy' section!
Lovely bee blocks and I adore the little squares blocks!
Lol, I had the same 'longer to pull the fabric' experience with those X and + blocks!
What a lot of bee blocks! Fabulous! And I love the new look! Jxo
Your blocks are great. I really struggled to egg the x and + blocks to line up in spite of the fact that they should go together quite easily. Must have been having a doofus day!
Lovely blocks. And maybe I need to play more with the half-rectangle triangles too.... :-/
so many lovely blocks here, and a big thank you for the link have wanted to have a go at the half rectangle triangles for a while and did not want to buy the template so that is on my list to try this weekend.
I recently organized my scraps into clear bins by colors. It is so much easier to find the scraps I want now, because I too would go for my FQ stack rather than dig through the mass of scraps.
You are ahead of me, I still have my March bee blocks to make - and the Aprils. I'm on it this weekend though with apologies all around! I like your color combo of the x + blocks. Those are fun to make.
Love your blocks. I had to make x+ blocks for a bee recently too, and found that they were a lot of fun. I had a pretty restricted color palette, but can't wait to make some for myself in colors more like yours.
I also have the HRTs on my "to sew" list. I'm surprised they're so hard to get right. At least now I'll now it's not just me when mine don't come out perfect on the first try. :)
Fun blocks- I also found the 1/2 rectangles a bit of a math puzzle. (And I have done them before!!). I love all the different blocks and the tiny ones are really cute. Happy Spring!
Some great blocks - I am always one for 'cut big and trim'!
Your blocks are beautiful! Great job
Wow . . . lots of nice blocks. I need to get my April blocks done ASAP or it's not going to be April anymore.
Your fabric choices are so awesome!
Goodness, how many bees are you in Leanne?! My head is spinning! The fabric choices in your x and + are fabulous squared! Coral and aqua and then yellow and aqua (<--maybe a new fave colour combo!) are ridiculously sophisticated. But listen, your text prints are orientated differently in the bottom half than they are in the top half and that is driving me crazy. But maybe that's just me! Haha... Glad to have you back!
I received these x blocks in my email box as I am on your email list yesterday. So funny because I have been making them one by one for a while now. I had seen them on Pinterest. I love them. Anyway I clicked on your link to where you got the pattern - Rebecca. She lives in my neck of the woods. Its a small world.
I do love those blocks. Have you seen the original Japanese quilt made with these?
They are all lovely Leanne. The easiest way I could figure out to make half rectangle triangle unit was to paper piece them - trying to get the points to work did my head in otherwise. If you figure out a non- foundation method that works I'd love to hear!
Definitely going to watch your curves video, it never seems to go smoothly for me! I've not seen the Ogee block before but I love your version!
thank you for a most detailed tutorial I will have a go at a cushion.
I like all your blocks. Thanks for the link to the half rectangle block. I need to try making some
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