August Block for Shauna

August block :) I don't know if we have discussed my issues with exact cutting and following directions but "easy" patterns make it that much worse for me! Lol! Anyway, this one I was able to knock out in one try - this is huge for me, ladies! ;)

Here are my Tula Pink & Kaffe Fassett geese headed south (or north in this pic I suppose?)

My favorite easy quilt pattern is this disappearing nine patch iSpy quilt pattern that I found. As long as you follow the "arrow directions" in the pic, everything turns out perfect :) Joy!!

http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2010/05/disappearing-nine.html

Good luck, ladies, and waive to the geese as they head south... ours are already gone here in Colorado! :(

September Block for Grace OR A Comedy of Errors :)

Hello from Erin in Colorado... Playing Catch up here, bear with me! :) Anyway, this was a start... mess up... start again... mess up again... start a third time, success!!

Strike One...

Used a Batik... Read the directions better next time, Erin!

Strike Two...

Added my "darks" border to the wrong side... 

I need to work on my spacial reasoning skills!

Swing Three... SUCCESS!!

As many of the other quilters expressed, I too am embarrassed by the state of my quilt space & don't want to share a photo of it here :) My space is a playroom for my children, a living room for my family and a sewing room for myself :) My "sewing table" is a folding card table! And there is general someone using my quilt scraps to make a blanket for their "baby" or dumping all my buttons out of their jar to sort by color ;) But I have organized my fabric into clear plastic bins by theme (Holiday, Children's) and by color which has been SO much more helpful (especially for this Stash Bee!) than I would have ever dreamed possible :) There is some great feeling about seeing all the colors out there that is so warm and fuzzy when I sit here amidst the chaos of my creative space :)

Happy Halloween from my Colorado clan!! 

*My older daughter is wearing a costume my mom sewed for me 

on her old Singer for me when I was a year old <3 

The history of handicrafts in a family warms my heart...

October Block for Bianca

October Block for Bianca

Hi Quilters,

This is a fun block - it came together really quickly. I can't wait to see the finished quilt. I do watch TV while I quilt - I have an old TV hooked up to a Roku, so have a lot of options. Science fiction is my favorite, and I have been know to watch LOTR for days. Also, I enjoy buying used DVDs at garage sales - I find some interesting old movies that way. If you're looking for a specific suggestion, the TV series "Happily Ever After" is great - it has a cute theme, and is not too violent.

October- Hive 9- Block for Rose

October- Hive 9- Block for Rose

Hi Quilting Ladies!

Below is my block for Rose. Wow! I would say this quilt was like child birth, hard at the time, but when done, it wasn't so bad:) I love how it turned out.

I started quilting when I was 10 and have been ever since! love it! ;0 megs

Stash Bee Hive 2, October

Oh, Kaja, who blogs at Sewslowly has a brilliant block this month for her month as Queen Bee. I LOVE improvisational blocks so this was right up my street.  Kaja's request was very simple, squares or triangles based on a rough guide selection of colours inspired by a photo. Or possible represented in a photo. Love purples and greens. I would like to steal her photo to show you, but I won't. Just click here to see.

My first block was a large triangle. The base triangle was just a triangle plastic thingy tool for quilting. Never quite worked how to use these things. Cut round it and then just started adding fabric strips to the sides, but not the base. A couple of the strips I cut at an angle and some of the strips were varied. Now, I am not the best church attender, but I do find little bits of my Sunday School days pop up now and again. As soon as I had finished this I found myself singing "All things bright and beautiful" in particular the verse beginning "the purple headed mountain". I suppose this means I fit the brief of a river tumbling down a purple heather bank. It has ended up about 15" across the base and about 10" in depth, or thereabouts.

my purple headed mountain

The next two blocks I made were squares. Or they started off as squares but ended up slightly rectangular. I didn't square them off. I left it for Kaja, she might want to trim them moving the central focus slightly or even chop them up into smaller squares. I find that prospect quite exciting.

my three completed blocks

I could have kept making these all day. I was like a pig in clover, kona clover. Incidentally I went to my lqs to buy some more plain fabric. I bought two more purples and three greens. And ... you know what .... I bought exactly the colours I already had at home!

I am Queen Bee for November in this Bee. The best kept to last (?), this being an eleven month Bee. I am just grateful that everybody has stuck with it, always a danger when you are last!! At this stage I am undecided whether to go with a square within a square, sort of improvisational courthouse steps or a string block. I do love me a string quilt, but are string quilts so last year dahling? Whatever I decide by the end of this month, I would like a little bit of selvedge in it. So don't throw out your selvedges in the next week or so!

Helen x

Hive 1 Blocks for Lyssa!

Lyssa, these were so fun to make and I pulled out my bag of random strings to make the blocks thinking I would use a whole lot of them, but I barely made a dent in them.

I made you two blocks and hopefully they'll fit in nicely with the others made thus far!

Please forgive their wrinkly state. They did not enjoy the ride in my purse to work this morning.

--Alison

Kate's stars for Hive 6

This is one of the Julia's from hive six and I am happy to report my last blocks for 2015 are done!
Kate had us make a fun star block this month. Here are my two blocks:

As for favorite peicing technique, I am not sure. I love the look and speed of improvisational quilting but making blocks wonky is so much harder for me. This bee has given me a chance to try both. Thanks!

Julia

October Block for Lyssa - a Bookshelf Block!

Hi everyone! This is Bev from from 44th Street Fabric blog! Here is my October block for Lyssa and, as always, I hope she can use it in her bookshelf quilt!

Lyssa asked us where we would take her if she visited our City. I live in Oklahoma City and I would have to take you to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Here is my favorite statue which is a life size marble carving of an exhausted Indian and his exhausted pony.  

Growing up in Oklahoma, I am very aware of the history of the Native American people who were forced to relocate to this state because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Sadly, many died during the arduous journey during the bitter winter that has been named the Trail of Tears. Even after this forced relocation, the American government continued to violate treaties and  drove them onto small reservations. This action nearly wiped out the Native American population. I pray that actions like this against a group of people will never occur again in our country. A visit to the Cowboy Hall of Fame includes history and artifacts from before our state's formation when it was known as Indian Territory. Although it is not a light, fun subject, it is important to learn lessons from the past so we don't repeat them.

Hive 9 - October Block for Rose

Rose chose my favorite color combination for her block - blue and white!  There were a zillion little pieces, but it was interesting to watch the block come together.  I hope you are able to use it in your quilt.

Like Rose, I sewed for many years before beginning to quilt.  My grandmother was a prolific quilter and tried to teach me, but it was entirely by hand.  It was 30 years before I attempted it again.  When I discovered the modern quilting movement about 5 years ago, I was sucked in and have been gradually improving my skills since then.

Hive 3 October block

Here is my block for Bianca! I hope she likes it--her color choices are great, though you wouldn't know it from my awful photo. 

I found that the 3.5" squares were way bigger than they needed to be. Unless you feel like you need a lot of extra trimming leeway, 3" should work fine.  

Bianca asked about what we like to watch while quilting. I don't have a TV in my sewing space so I don't usually watch anything. My husband and I usually watch something after dinner though, and I hand sew while doing that. Currently we are working our way through Star Trek Next Generation and House. Amongst things that haven't ended, I enjoy The Big Bang Theory, Project Runway, and Game of Thrones.