Cairo Star and Loveliness

Instead of being reasonable and sewing together a block I've seen before I decided to make one up. All of that extra time we all have lying around. I'm linking up to Lovely Year of Finishes as my 3x6 Bee Blocks are my goal to complete in October and with the Quilt Photography Workshop.

This is Cairo Star, the completed block. The blue parts I think can look checkerboard or diamond-like.

These looked like sunbursts to me. For the Workshop the subject is 

"Something That Makes Me Smile."

 (The workshop is a series intended to expand and explore your photographs of sewing. There are challenges to complete, or encouragements to follow, to learn about and share our skills.) 

"My Sewing Process"

One part of the design was slightly off so I had to redraft it, after I printed all of them out...

"Frustration"

As I was sewing another block up I laid out the pieces and saw a pharaonic Storm Trooper. My dear friend who lives in Cairo, Egypt was on my mind as well, so that's why this block is called the Cairo star. I thought Cairo Pharaoh/Sphinx Star Wars Storm Trooper Star was too long a title :)

"Imagine"or "Things That Make Me Laugh"

And lastly, I also really like this star flipped on it's side. The hourglass shapes created in the middle are intriguing to me and it almost seems to have more sparkle in the white octagon. 

I may decide to share the block pattern, after I rework it, if you are interested in the design. 

P.S. I already got a tip from one of the other bloggers to upload to Flickr first then link the photos to your blog. This was one of the subjects we covered in our HTML Sewing Summit Class by Jeni Baker of In Color Order that I almost forgot about already. I'll have to try it. 

3x6 Bee Lovely Finish Blocks

I finished my 3x6 Bee Solids Blocks and got the mailed off. This round I was the Queen Bee. I definitely needed to get my blocks done, ya hear me. I planned blocks, practiced blocks, wished I had the patience and time for complex feathered star blocks. Then it came down to the last two weeks and I had to get down to business. I reviewed everyone's colors and went with my improv string idea.

 This bee wanted bright rainbow colors not necessarily in rainbow order. The blocks are to be 12.5" square.

 This bee wanted pear, aqua and olive colors. I placed the color strips towards the top. I like the balance it gives. I could also see them being turned upside down or sideways and working equally well.

Orange, yellow and aqua. There's an inspiration picture in her mosaic of a quilt that goes in the limited rainbow palette and I always find myself looking at it. Her improv ended up more straight.

Aqua, pink and red. I figured one red stripe was enough as it's a bold color. I asked everyone if they were ok with different shades of their color and they said yes. So there's a lot of pink here.

Dark green, chartreuse and aqua. That is actually a lovely dark green but the shade doesn't translate well digitally. This one just called out for a little friend to be added to the bottom.

I used the same technique on this one as I did my own. More squares instead of strips. I couldn't figure out to my satisfaction how to do this with everyone's colors. It seemed to work perfectly for a rainbow. I may try doing this again to see how it'll work.

They were safely packaged and mailed off. I'm starting to receive mine from the group and am very excited. Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes. Hope you have a wonderful week with sewing, love and adventure. 

July Lovely Year of Finishes Goal

It's time to set our goals for July! You can go over to Sew Bittersweet to get all the details of this year long finish-a-long. I have my 3x6 Bee blocks to get done and this is all I've done so far:

I'm in the Solids Hive and find myself wanting to do all sorts of strip or string piecing. I also love the look of the old scrappy modern looking improv quilts that were made in the late 1800's and in the 40's as well. This is my improv block building practice. It seems far too busy for me so wish me luck on getting it figured out! It's due an about a minute.

P.S. Sometimes I want to make a block like these paper pieced feathered stars but then I remember that I'm not that crazy. If I tried to make 6 of them in a row I might throw my machine out the window and ban paper forever from my sewing room.

Month Sucker

I got a cold in April. It's now May. Besides doing my taxes, being a mediocre friend and keeping my house clean, the whole of April was pretty much a wash. Only one hive of my bee-mates got their blocks on time, I forgot to post about the Lovely Year of Finishes finish and to set a goal for May. So here are my unofficial goals for May: sew more-I love doing it, bike at least 5 times-I love doing this as well, porch sit, blog more-even if its just from my phone and I can't control where the pictures are oriented (obsessed much?) and definitely not least-appreciate friends by being an awesome friend to them.

That shouldn't be too hard right?

So in keeping with the new goal of blogging by phone when necessary, here are my second set of 3x6 Mini Quilt Bee blocks for the solids hive (and see what fun designs popped up when I folded them to mail them?!) :

Half-Way There Lovely Finish

My April Lovely Finishes goal is to get my 3x6 Mini Quilt Sampler Bee Blocks done. I've gotten the paper pieced blocks done. This is a design that I came up with myself after doodling and drawing, measuring and dividing shapes. I love how paper piecing come together with little shapes.

I am so in love with how these ones turned out! Look at how the seams match up! And even the cream colored Tula Pink Salt Water print matches up as well. I may or may not have leaned down to it when the seam was done and whispered, "I love you." 

Now the recipient wanted calm colors in indigo, jade, ash, aqua and cream and she said she liked Tula Pink. I got a bee in my bonnet, ha!, made the block entirely out of Tula fabrics.  A little overboard but I like it :)  Here's the block before trimming then after trimming.

Rainbow with black background

Hot colors like red, orange, yellow and pink

Greens and Blues

Rainbow colors and white background

Cobalt with black and white

So that means I'm half way there. That's exciting and sad since the other half were due already and I haven't gotten them done yet. I got a cold that's not going away any time soon and that makes everything move at the pace of cold molasses. Plugging along though :) You can go over to the Lovely Finishes link up to check out what everyone else is working on here.

here

3x6 Possible Paper Piece Pattern

There are a ton of paper piece patterns out in the interwebs. I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to make for my 3x6 Sampler Mini Quilt Bee group, so I sketched and came up with this:

When I started sewing it together I thought it looked a bit like an owl.

No? Just me? The owl thought reminded me of the page 28 Project Quilting with Persimon Dreams. Every week you are given an inspiration and have to make a quilted project before the next Monday. I always think I'm going to enter but then get pulled off in other directions. The first magazine I found in my room was sitting on my bookcase and this was page 28. 

I could make a Tula pink and aqua eagle! White bits of Kona left over from the Stitched in Color/Intrepid Thread challenge would make excellent feathers. Now if only I had more than one day to work at it, I might give it a go. Oh well, no aqua sketch beak for me.

I think the white square in the middle is a bit oversized so when I make the block for my bee mates I'm going to increase the small (aqua sketch) square. As for this particular one, I like all the fabrics separately but I'm not sure they all work to their best in this configuration. I still like 'em though! Not bad for a first try. Above are the set of fabrics cut out earlier that evening but when they were next to each other I thought they were a bit dull.  So I pulled out the Tula and Nicey Jane to liven it up. They are favorites. 

It's always fun to see what camera angles do to blocks. I'm sure there are really cool variations that can be done with traditional blocks if you just warp them a bit in an image program. Happy day to you!

Morse Code Blocks

I sort of stumbled into the 3x6 Bee. I was reading the blog of someone that I like who wrote that the sign-ups would open soon. I don't even remember where I read it now! My fingers flew over to flickr and I hopped in. I always wanted to do a bee and it seemed like I was always too late or you had to have been in an online bee before. I got in though! It is officially called the 3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee and I was in quarter 4 hive 5. The solids, "Solid as a Rock!". Solids make my heart pitter patter in happiness. This is what I came up with:

They are blocks that spell out "quilt" in Morse code. I was a bit worried about the design as it is somewhat minimalist and wonky. I did ask the ladies in my hive if they were okay with that, they said yes.  I figured I'd take them on their word so I made them!

I have been sketching designs well forever really and specifically quilt blocks for a few years so I knew I had lots to work from. I kept coming back to the idea of codes or messages in a quilt. I love the idea that there is a message in the design. Like the language of flowers for the people of yore. I remembered thinking when I saw rOssie's Kelp Quilt that it looked a little like Morse code to me. I filed that idea in my brain, with all the other 70 kagillion ideas I have to make things, until the bee. I figured as it was a "modern" bee I might as well make a modern block. Not that these have a mid-century feel to them, which the Kelp Quilt does a little, but maybe they were a little minimal like Mondrian, or pixelated Pollack splatter chunk. By the way, not at all do I even compare my quilt block to the ground breaking art of those two artists, I just liked the feel the blocks gave. I sewed up a couple changing lines, spaces and wonkiness. Then made paper templates, covered with tape, that I attached to fabric to cut in order to keep the blocks mostly uniform. I paid attention to grain line so that it matches on the whole block and shouldn't distort.

I really do like them and now would like to make a rainbow something or other for myself and fell a little in love with the grey/white/blue and grey/white/green colorways. I also set these as my goal for the A Lovely Year of Finishes group or party or finish-a-long? There's also a flickr group for it here.You set yourself a goal for the month. As big or little as you'd like. I wanted a push to help me finish a few projects without it being a big stressful you-are-a-crazy-that-didn't-get-anything-done thing. Goal accomplished, check! Gold star for you. Or dark chocolate dipped cookie, since I like those better. 

The ladies in the Hive 5 were so welcoming and friendly and lovely that most of my trepidation went away quite quickly. If you have a chance to join in I'd recommend it, especially if you have loads of time and plan to have nothing unexpected happen in your life. The blocks that I've received so far I love. They were both exactly and nothing like what I expected in a great way. My thoughts of how the quilt would turn out are now totally different and it's going to be beautiful. Especially since my new digi-friends will be sewn into something that will be close to me every day. In a non-creepy heart warming way (I don't want to sew you ladies into a quilt). They didn't even know what was going on in my life but the blocks will always remind me of the kindness, thought and creativity of strangers at a time that is/was difficult. Thank you ladies! And thanks to rOssie as well for her blog and idea launch and to all the other bloggers who post and share so much and gave me lovely things to distract myself with. 

January Lovely Finish Goal: 3 x 6 Bee Blocks

I've been sewing about here and there making practice blocks for the 3x6 Bee being run on Flickr. There were also many many drawings done. I think I've settled on this idea with a few tweaks: Mod-Morse Code Bee Block. It spells out Quilt in Morse code! I think that's so fun. The color bits need to be moved a tad right and the elements shifted up and down a smidge but I think it'll be the one. Unless my hive doesn't care for it. Then I'll do one of these:

My bee blocks also are my Lovely Year of Finishes Goal for January. There's a hard due date of the 15th for these.