Friday, April 22, 2011

April Bee Blocks

I finally sat down and worked on my bee blocks for April, the envelopes seem to just sit on my sewing table giving me the evil eye until I break into them and get them done.  Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy working on these blocks, as I've said before I really like trying new things and different techniques, but I think I've gotten to a point to where I may have bitten off slightly more than I can comfortably chew.  I feel like I haven't worked on anything of "mine" in weeks, and every time I sit down to sew its for a bee or swap.  While these things are addictive, I think in the future I will treat them like accessories...what is that Stacey and Clinton say?  Put on one less accessory than you think necessary?  Anyways, something like that.  Rambling over.  Onto what I actually have gotten done!


This block is for the 3 x 6 bee caretaker swap.  My secret partner listed aqua/turquoise and orange as her color preferences, so I hand pieced some hexies together with fabrics from my stash and then sashed them with some kona white.  This will be going out in the mail tomorrow, hope she likes it!!


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These blocks are for Dustin in the Solid Bee.  He requested we make either flowers or butterfly blocks of any shape or size.  These blocks are actually quite small, the butterfly is about 7 inches x 8 inches and the flower  is about 8 inches x 10 inches.


I paper pieced both of these blocks using the pattern found here.  I really enjoy paper piecing.  Now I don't have the patience to do an entire quilt out of paper pieced blocks, but its kind of like paint by number only with fabric!


For the Simply Strings bee, Suzy requested these really fun strip pieced block.  She sent along instructions for us to follow, and these blocks came together quite quickly. 


I am really excited to see how this quilt top comes together, as everyones blocks are following the same pattern, yet slightly different!


I know this technically doesn't fall under the category of bee blocks, but  I've also been working on my pouch to send to my partner in the pretty {little} pouch swap.  Lucky for me my partner seems 100% open to about anything I want to make for her!  I pulled out my purse frames and started playing around with some patterns to see what I came up with.  


This is what I have so far.  I'm not 100% thrilled with the shape yet.  As I scour etsy for ideas, I'm looking for a shape more like this...I think I may have it figured out, but for a first trial, this isn't a bad option, if I end up keeping this one, I'm sure I can find a use for it!!

Anyways,  happy Easter everyone!




7 comments:

  1. I really like that pouch, and also am so glad you referenced Stacy and Clinton because I love that show and my mom and I talk about what Stacey and Clinton would say about our shopping choices ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I say something along those lines to my husband but he has no idea what I'm talking about.

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  2. oh wow, I love your hexie block and the pouch! I've been feeling overwhelmed by all my flickr commitments (as I've been calling them)lately too. Every swap and bee looks like fun but I think it's time to reign it in for a while and get my own stuff done.

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  3. love your pouch! i am a little intimidated by the metal frames, any tips? :)

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  4. Amen, sister! I don't even do swaps, but still feel like it's been a looooong time since I just sewed something purely for fun. Your frame pouch is beautiful. I bet if you boxed the bottom, it would be just like the Etsy ones. I think that one would look great in your Amy Butler bag!

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  5. Yeah, I bit off nearly more than I can chew, bee-wise. Oh well...live and learn! Love your blocks!!

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  6. Your pouch is beautiful
    The butterfly block has great colors!

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  7. I am just beginning to make purses with metal frames, have a box with 8 frames of different sizes sitting in my sewing room; I am definitely intimidated by them, shhhh don't let anyone know. Your hints are greatly appreciated. The patterns on Etsy are so beautiful so I hope I can get close to what these artists have done.

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