August Bee Modern Blocks

I’m happy to say that I’m longer behind in my quilting commitments! Woohoo! It was so freeing to work on blocks that were being completed on time and not already late. I’m never late normally…for anything…so it’s been difficult to let go of so much lately and leave my sewing behind. But I’m feeling a bit more in the sewing groove lately and hopefully will at least remain at this pace.

So on to the pretty blocks!

I posted last time the fun bunch of fabrics that Alexia sent us for her quilt. And I’m happy to say that I managed to use most of them. I also threw in a bunch of my own scraps as she said would be okay.

The first block I worked on was a pieced quarter circle block with a log cabin border. I had never attempted a pieced circle before although I’ve done appliqued circles. I was a little nervous about doing it, but I found a good pattern in one of my many quilting books and am so happy that I did. It turns out that it was a really good pattern! I found that working on the pieced circle reminded me a great deal of garment sewing. Since that is how I began all my sewing adventures so many years ago, I felt comfortable pretty quickly.

And an up close view of the center… I added some of the pink bits in the center from my own stash including the sweet Denyse Schmidt print.

I was pleased enough with using a new technique that I thought I would tempt fate and do a second block also with a different new technique. I’ve been looking at so many wonky star blocks recently and hadn’t attempted one yet personally. Alexia’s inspiration mosaic including some, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. This one I didn’t have a pattern for though. So of course there ended up being a bit more frustration in constructing it.

After making the star center, I decided that block needed something else. A border! But no, I couldn’t just do something simple. I needed to make it complicated. :p So a pieced border it became. I had to work on it another day because by this point the block had taken a lot of time. But I was happy with how it all turned out in the end…almost. Somehow the block became a 1/4″ too small. Grr… But it’s still usable if she uses a smaller seam allowance. So frustrating though with no easy fix.

And now, since I was on day three of block construction anyway and I a bunch of fabric left over from making the pieced border, I decided to make a third block. yep…another one. This one had much simpler construction though and used a bunch of scraps. It would have been more difficult to make if I hadn’t already had the strips used for the border. But I like how it turned out as well. Perfect with the little owl center.

All in all, a pretty satisfying month for the Bee Modern Swap for me. Here are all three together!

And now I’m starting to think about my upcoming month. My month is October…so it’s quickly approaching. I’ll start giving a preview of what’s to come soon!

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