BossyOz

April was our last month in the Modern Insta Bee, UK Hive 1. Queen Bee was Rosanne. She bravely asked us all to make the Baseball Curves in solids. I guess I wasn't the only one who had looked at all the blocks in the book and slightly dreaded anyone picking this one.... Well, no one did, for eleven months.... I set off making a test block. It got a bit too small, and a bit wonky.... Perhaps I should have ironed the fabrics beforehand... Thanks to Google I found a brilliant tutorial by Fiona at Benidgolioness providing tips on how to get the block perfect.  She has some great pointers and advise. Saying that, I preferred cutting my blocks with the grain line, i.e. as stated in the book. As I didn't have that many "sunglass worthy" colourful solids at home, I went to The Village Haberdashery for some shopping therapy... Once I sussed the block, it was super fun to make. I had quickly made three blocks... Three blocks laid out, didn't make any...

March saw Joanna picking the Mosaic Tiles, a block we hadn't yet made during the past 10 months. It was also one of few in the book (Modern Bee: 13 quilts to make with friends, by Lindsay Conner) without any half square triangles... Joanna asked for them to be made in scrappy beige / cream low volume background with hot pinks and bright oranges for squares. I find it really useful to audition fabric on Instagram before I make the blocks and this was the selection I showed Joanna: As this was a new pattern, I made a test block in red and white.   Cut up and rotated, it looked like this, which means I have another block for my "sampler quilt". Noticing that the block seemed a little bit boring with only three different fabrics, I decided to use quite a few extra fabrics for the proper block for Joanna. This also meant I had lots of extra sub-blocks. In the end I sent Joanna two finished blocks, plus some left over sub blocks.  (Picture from Joanna...

Where has time gone??? It's already June and I haven't yet blogged about the blocks I made for February, March and April in the UK Modern Insta Bee.  Let's see if I can get a few post made today... Here's February! Julie picked the Triple Star by Elena Roscoe of Hot Pink Stitches . To match with Julie's home, she asked us to use black for the background and hot pinks, not too girlie, but more lace and leather. To be on the safe side, I picked out a few pinks from my stash and asked Julie which ones she'd like. Then the cutting commenced.... Layouts were tested... Here's the middle star; there are some seriously small squares... Centre fabrics is by Karen Lewis Textiles . If you haven't seen her screen printed fabrics before, go and have a look at her home page. They are absolutely gorgeous!!! Quite a few seams later, here's the final block! It is a really vibrant block, with very strong pinks against the solid Kona Jet Black. ...

To celebrate that Camilla, one of the members at the Swedish Church in London has been ordained, the "sewing grannies" / stitch and bitch / the sewing club / Syjuntan made her a surprise gift and memento of the event. Those who could contributed a block with a green shirt. I turned them into a wall hanging which we gave to Camilla today. In the Swedish Church, the deacon wears a green shirt, hence the symbolic choice of block and colour.