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. ...

For January, Lynne asked us to make the Trellis Crossroads block in blue and purple flowery fabrics on a white on white background. Checking my stash, I had surprisingly many flowery fabrics, but most of them where full of other colours too and not nicely blue or purple. Saying that, I still had plenty to pick from. Starting this block I was not at all sure about the colour combination, but making the block and seeing the others from the bee, I have changed my view. This is going to be one STUNNING quilt! Here's my block for Lynne: As before, the pattern can be found in the book "Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends", by Lindsay Conner.

For December, Kerry asked us to make the Cordelia’s Garden block. This is the same block as I asked for in August when I was the Queen Bee. That time we used blue, yellow and beige. Kerry asked to use grey, navy, coral and aqua. I had a dig through my stash and realised I had plenty of grey fabrics, but not that many coral or aqua. I made the following pull and asked Kerry which she'll prefer. She opted for the lighter grey option in the bottom right corner. This grey fabric is a favourite of mine as it's slightly uneven and therefore forgiving when using it in geometric blocks. It's from the Architextures collection by Caroline Friedlander. This is who the block looked when finished. As before, the pattern can be found in the book "Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends", by Lindsay Conner. To find out more about these blocks and the quilt Kerry is putting together, please head over and visit her on the  blog or Instagram .

For November, Angela asked us to make the Trellis Crossroads block in pure white and black. This sounded simple enough, and finally a block without lots and lots of HST. It was nice with a change, LOL…… This being a new block for me, I made a test block in red, blue and white to add to my collection for the "Dear Nina" quilt. The biggest challenge for me this month was to find properly white and black fabrics! Plenty of the ones I had in my stash were off-white. As you can see in the block below, the off-white just doesn't look right. Deciding this wasn't properly crisp, I made a new one with 'whiter' fabrics. This is the one I finally sent off to Angela: To see more of this quilt and other things Angela is up to, hop over to her blog  or Instagram . As before, the pattern can be found in the book "Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends", by Lindsay Conner.

For October, Gemma asked us to make the Triple Star in fabric which she kindly sent us. As before, the pattern can be found in the book  " Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends ", by Lindsay Conner. This being a new block for me, I made a test block in red, blue and white. The "Dear Nina" block collection is slowly growing... The centre star has points which are only 1"x1" finished!!! Rather fiddly, but once past this stage the block is actually very fast to sew together. The final block for Gemma looks like this (apologies for the atrociously bad quality of the photos!): If you like to follow Gemma's quilting adventures please visit her on Instagram . 

September was Cara's month. She picked the Stacked Windmills from the book  " Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends ", by Lindsay Conner. As we had already done this block before, I didn't do a test block in my usual colours of blue-red-white but went straight for it. My block has, an almost hot pink centre block, some lovely Spirodraft corners and to round it off two light grey fabrics. Nearing the end of September, Cara published the following photo on Instagram. Previously, I had never even considered using grey in quilts, but after working with the block for Cara, I am absolutely and thoroughly in LOVE with it!!! If you like to follow Cara, go and check out her blog or her Instagram feed.

For July, Isobel asked us to help her make a very special quilt for a close friend of hers. Isobel picked the Stacked Windmills, and was also kind enough to send out fabrics for the blocks. The only fabric I had to find, was for the middle block. As I had limited fabric to make the real block in, I carefully made a test block in red, white and blue fabrics. The pile of my blocks for the "Oh Dear Nina" quilt is growing. With potentially 36 half square triangles and LOTS of points to get neat, this is a rather fiddly block, thats for sure. Promising myself to be extra careful with the points, press more often and to be sewing straight, I set off and made the block in the proper fabrics. Gorgeous colours! Having seen most of the other Bee blocks, I can confidently say this is going to be one stunning quilt! At the end of July, Isobel had eight blocks and published the below photo. To see the progress, please pop over to  her Instagram  feed. Thanks for letti...

June's our second month in the Modern Insta Bee, Hive 1 in the United Kingdom. The request from Catrin, our June Bee Queen was to make the Come Together block using a beach related colour scheme - blues, yellows, and neutrals. My fabric pull: To make sure the blocks all match up nicely, we were asked to use grey / neutral in the connecting blocks and yellow in the corners. This is how my block ended up looking: This block is huge! It finishes at 20"x20" when sewn into the quilt! To see the blocks from other bee members and the progress with putting the quilt together, pop over to Catrin's blog .

I have joined an online Quilting Bee based on the book " Modern Bee - 13 quilts to make with friends ", by Lindsay Conner. As the first hive in the UK, we kicked off now in May. The first block for us to make is the one called "Painter's Palette". It's a variation on a traditional snowball block, but mixed up a bit. The Queen Bee asked us to have fun and to use bold, bright colours; think sun glasses! She also challenged us a bit and suggested we use pieced snowballs. Go over to The Occasional Quilter and have a look at her bright, fantastic blocks inside the block! This is what I came up with: If you like to follow the progress of the bees, make sure to check out Instagram from time to time. The hashtags in the image above lead you to "my" hive and also the UK hives, as well as the American ones. If you like to join in the fun, there are further hives being created. This morning we were just shy of setting up the second hive an...