BEE-UTIFUL STACKED WINDMILLS

Tricky Business....

This block is fast becoming a favourite in the Quilting Bee community, so far it is the most popular block to be chosen in both of my current Quilting Bees, bringing my total made to 4!! I do love making this block and each time seeing the differences that fabric choices and placements can make.

First up was "Radiant Orchid", Pantone's colour of the year and Rachel's colour choice of the month, the rest was completely up to our own imagination and creativity....pink, grey and floral what's not to love??

I had a few hiccups with the centre of this one, trying to get those blessed points to match up, hence the unpicked stitches....grrrrrrrrr

But I got there in the end. So feeling confident and some what pleased with myself I thought well why not crack on with the other one?? If I had known how much this second one was going to misbehave I would have invested in a good bottle (or 3) of Rose before I started. 

The recipient of this block sent across her own instructions and asked that we use those instead of the book, she sent very clear links to various websites, which were easy to navigate, but for some reason I just could not get on with this one.

A square within a square...simple enough concept, cut a big square, cut four smaller squares, sew them in the corners cut off the excess leaving 1/4 seam allowance. I could get this far then all sense appeared to leave me....

I managed to do this 3 times!!!! Before sense found me again

A multitude of half square triangles, colourful language, blue smoke and wasted fabric later things were starting to take shape

I played around with a couple of colours for the 'center ring', originally I had florals but it was just to much, a darker blue really changed the whole look of the block and wasn't what Isobel was after so in the end I decided on the very pale green with a subtle leaf design. This is the end result an English Summer Garden for a very worthy cause, the intended friend this quilt is going to recently lost her husband to tragic circumstance, hopefully this quilt that Isobel is putting together will go a little way to making her feel better.

Something else I really enjoy about creating the same block is fabric choice and placements, in both blocks I used Robert Kaufman Modern Bliss in grey you can buy yours here, it really is such a great fabric to work with and so very versatile as well. It lifted up the pale florals in the English Garden block, yet made the bright pink pop in Radiant Orchid! You may have noticed that I have also been using it in some of the blocks I have done for the Nautical Quilt.

As always we love to hear from you, please leave us comments or email us with your thoughts, feedback and guidance.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

A TRIP TO THE BEACH....

Come Together

This months British Queen Bee is the lovely Catrin, you can find out more about her in both English and Welsh on her fabulous crafty blog. Catrin made the following request for her block, 

"I'd love the overall color scheme to be beach related - blues, yellows, and neutrals - think beach in Summer. Happy with prints or solids, and the "white" of the block can be white / off white / pale neutral." she also very kindly produced this diagram for us...so totally stealing this idea when it's my turn!

The first thing I had to do was pick out the fabrics to use, it really quite amazes me how much I actually have in my stash....(don't tell my boyfriend, or my mother they will gang up and say I don't need to buy anymore!) I saw 'beach theme' and thought eeeeek what on earth have I got for that, I am going to have to go out and get something, but when I actually started to pull things I was surprisingly spoilt for choice!

This block is described as one that "marries the familiarity of sewing squares and strips with the new skill of making quilts with triangles", so the first step was to cut out said squares and strips!

And then sew them together...

The fabrics I chose reflected pebbles, sea foam, the sun, waves and wooden benches...well they did to me anyway! I really like the way this has turned out. Again it is not a block I was drawn to initially and not a theme or fabrics I would have naturally picked for myself but with every block I complete for someone else I end up in more of a pickle about what to do when it is my turn!!!

And here is the finished article and whopping 20" square!

Speaking of finished articles, the first bee block I did was for the lovely Katie, you can find that post here and you can see her quilt top placement below

I can not recommend joining a Quilt Bee enough, I really am having the most fabulous time doing this and learning a great deal about fabric, quilting, sewing and myself! I thoroughly recommend the book to!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx