Stash Bee: Hive 7 April Block Tutorial

April 1st, 2014

HIVE 7 APRIL TUTORIAL

THE STAINED GLASS SEA GLASS QUILT!

(Say that real fast 5 times)

Back to that in a minute.

About Me:

Hi everyone! My name is Maureen and I live in Michigan. It's finally spring here! Lots of snow boogers still around, but they are melting, yay! My husband Troy and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary this month and that is our "bunch" above. Kind of like the Brady Bunch just not as well behaved! Actually, they are great kids. Four are out and doing their own thing and the two youngest are still in High School, which leaves me lots of time to quilt when I'm not at work (but I think about it lol). By day I am an X-ray Tech for hip and knee surgeons and by night I'm a quilting fanatic.

I've been quilting for almost 3 yrs now, and I love it! When I was young, my mom used to sew play clothes for me and my dolls, knit, paint, and do crewel work. She did it all! The first thing I remember working on was a stamped cross stitch of a frog, but I was young and busy and didn't have the patience for that sort of thing. Skip ahead to the college years, and I found myself needing a way to relax, so I starting doing crewel work. Then I decided I wanted to learn how to sew, so I made my first "credit" purchase, bought my first machine, and took a sewing class. When my boys were young I made them play clothes and costumes and simple skirts and dresses for myself. Then I just stopped. In my late 30's I started doing counted cross stitch and I love that, but my eyes aren't so great for counting linen threads anymore. Three yrs ago I got the bug again and discovered the on-line quilting community. I found my craft! Everything I have learned has been from the wonderful Blogs and excellent tutorials. I have participated in numerous Bees, Swaps and BOM's. I've never been a Queen Bee before, so this is new.

My sewing room is a storage room that I cleaned out and took over. I use my basement walls and painters tape for my design boards.

My stash has gotten a little out of control (no such thing), and I love it! It's not well organized, but I know where everything is. My husband says I should open a fancy napkin shop with all my works in progress Lol.

I have several favorite designers, Tula Pink, Kate Spain, Kaffe Fasset, Joel Dewberry, Art Gallery etc. etc. I'm all over the board but gravitate towards the rich saturated colors.

The one thing I have learned, and have to keep reminding myself of, is that if it's not going into a Quilt Show (it's not), or to another quilter, nobody will ever know it's not perfect! There's no need to throw fabric! (unless it's upside down and backward--again).

My favorite tools, besides the obvious necessities, are my painters tape and my pointy tracer wheel for paper piecing.

My favorite fictional character is Dori from Finding Nemo, she just cracks me up!

Phew! Now for the fun part! My Block!

It's super easy! I made two in less than a half hour. This block comes from an awesome quilt called "Gateway to Paradise" by Little Louise Designs. She has a lot of beautiful patterns made with precuts and FQ's. I've modified it a bit to fit my idea. Here is the original:

Fabrics: I would like you to use the colors of "sea glass", all shades of blues, and greens. I'm using Batiks, but tone on tone solids are fine too. For the solid I am using Kona Steel. You don't have to use the same grey, but please make sure it is very dark. Let me know if it's a problem, I will send you some. Here is my pull:

This is my idea: I will have you ladies make the "long windows", and I will make stained glass blocks for between the rows. See how my stars look just like the block I'm working on Lol.