Triangles in Progress

Awhile back, I posted about some blocks I wanted my Always Bee Learning quilt group to work on.  I received pretty much all of them back (though I think this picture doesn't include a few of them for some reason). 

They are all different and all look AWESOME.  I can't wait to find the time to get this quilt put together.  Right now I continue to have them on my design wall.  They are all quite traditional in design... such is often the case when working primarily with half square triangles.  So, I am trying to think about what I can do to make it more ME.  I plan on off setting the blocks in some way but haven't quite figured it all out yet.  I am sure I will show you when I finally do!

November Bee Blocks

I have a couple more that I am still working on, but here are most of my November Bee Blocks:

 Garden Fence Blocks.

 Snowflakes.

 Flying Geese.

 Pinwheels.

 Purple/Grey Mosaic.

Hidden 9 patch.

Triangulations

 My month is coming up for my Always Bee Learning Bee on Flickr.  I love this group because I am learning so many quilting techniques.  I was going to do Dresden blocks for my month, but since I still haven't figured out what to do with my last set of dresden blocks, I thought I would try out something that my mom uses in quilting fairly often... TRIANGULATIONS.  What it is is a program that lets you print off templates that when you sew two pieces of fabric together, you will end up with multiple PERFECT half square triangles.

This is heaven sent for me because I don't seem to make more than a few half square triangles without it looking a little stretched or forced.  They are a new love for me and I am sure you will be seeing me make lots of half square triangles in the near future!

Though it is an odd choice for me, I chose to do a BROWN quilt.  It will be completely brown and white.  I am really excited about it.  I love the fabrics I chose so I think it will be great.  I sewed up my first 16 triangles and took pictures of a few different possible layouts.....

I am giving everyone in my bee the option to lay them out any way they choose so I am excited to see what comes back to me!

Watching it all come together...

First off, the giveaway is still going on.  Only one more week to leave a comment and have a chance to win one of six great prizes!!!  Enter here.

So this is what is on my design wall right now.  These beauties were made by my Honeybees group.  I have a plan for this quilt and am excited to get a chance to work on it...some day!

Stars are still coming in the mail, then I will get an idea of how many more I need to make myself.  I am planning on adding different blocks in between these and making a cute border as well. I really am excited that the members of my group made me such GREAT blocks... seriously, these are beautiful!

August Bee Blocks

 I really love participating in bees.  That being said, I had a really busy month for blocks.... lots of time consuming blocks as well as blocks with batting which cost a bit more in postage.  In a way it was a good realization to me to perhaps participate in a few less bees and do more of my own creating.  It seems like with another child in our home, I have less quilting time, so I have less time to work on what I want to work on.  --- Nevertheless, it really was great to work on these blocks!

 Do Good Stitches:  We were given an inspiration picture and were asked to make two blocks in whatever shades of grey we want:

 Fat Stash Bee:  We were asked to make a confetti block in the prints provided to us:

 Aqua and Orange Bee:  This one was a first for me... we were asked to make two blocks that contained a circle, the letter K and a vespa.  For some reason I only took a picture of one of the blocks:

 Aqua and Red:  We were asked to make wonky stars.

 Christmas Fabric Bee: We were asked to make these drunkard's path circles.

 Twelve Month Quilting Bee:  Asked to make stars from some Sugar Skull fabric.

 Always Bee Learning:  We made cathedral windows-- this thing is huge (like over 24" by 24") and weighs a ton.  This took forever, I won't lie.  Of course, this particular bee is about learning new things and I certainly did.  This is a hard one to give up!

 Bee Connected-  We were asked to make log cabin Quilt As You Go blocks-  I left these untrimmed so she could cut them as she pleased.

 Sew 2 Speak:  We made log cabin-ish blocks from this GORGEOUS Neptune fabric.  I love this line.

 Sew 2 Speak:  This was actually a July block but never posted it

 Christmas Fabric bee:  These are some SMALL pieces in this block.  The finished product is great, but I didn't enjoy the process.  Kari was smart to have other people do this one!  This also took quite awhile!

 Sewn Together:  Bottled rainbow... this one also has batting that she will trim after she receives it.  This is a popular block right now on flickr.  Great for scraps.

 

I also finished up my 4x5 Bee blocks this month.  They aren't due until October, but I wanted to get a jump on these!

Dresden Dilemma

If you are looking to enter my HUGE giveaway, you can find out how to enter and win one of 6 great prizes here.

 What seems like forever ago, I sent my Aqua and Red beemates some Riley Blake- Quilted Fish Sugar and Spice fabric.  Usually, when it is my month in a bee, I hand over chunks of fabric and let them have their way with it, but this time I gave specific instructions.

You see, I got myself a handy little dresden template and was dreaming in dresdens that month.  I wanted each person to make two dresden blocks for me.  It seemed like a lot of work and since I did just get the template, I made all the cuts myself and just had them put them together.  To make it even easier, I opted for a smooth edged dresden as well.

Side note:  I think for quilting bee blocks, it really is best to let the other bee members be creative and make something original. Better to give general guidelines and let them do their thing. That is really the bonus of these bees is that you have others design for you, not just do your work.  I realized that after I did this bee that, yes, I got the blocks that I wanted, and they were all beautifully sewn, but there weren't any surprises or originality either.  I don't know, what sorts of blocks do you think are best for bees?

1. Aqua and Red Bee - Erin's July Block 01, 2. Aqua and Red Bee - Erin's July Block 01, 3. July - Aqua and Red Bee, 4. July - Aqua and Red Bee, 5. Dresden, 6. Dresden 2, 7. aqua and red bee blocks for erin (toerintx) for july, 8. Aqua Red Swap July 2011, 9. Aqua Red Swap July 2011, 10. aqua and red block for (toerintx) erin..., 11. erin sq2, 12. erin sq 1, 13. Aqua and Red Bee- July Sample Block, 14. Erin's Block #2 for the aqua and red bee , 15. Erin's block #1 for the aqua and red bee , 16. Aqua and Red Bee- July Sample Block

Now I have all these beautiful blocks back in my possession but haven't been able to bring myself to work on it.  I just can't come up with a great idea for this quilt!

I thought about something like this:  (This is the quilt from the book "Block Party")

 What I like most about this is the random red squares and the skewed white squares.  That being said, I don't want to copy the quilt.  I mean, I do get lots of inspiration from others and honestly, sometimes I do try do make the exact same quilt, but generally, I do like to change a few things to make it mine.  I am really stuck on these dresdens though!  I think because they are a little plain in that they all look the same.

Any ideas?  I will continue thinking about it and let you know what I come up with.


My aqua and red bee is coming to a close.  They are continuing on a second round, but I won't be joining them :(.  I love my bees, but I am also looking for more opportunities to do my own quilts!

Improv Quilt DONE!!

 Yippee!  I finished the improv quilt.  This is a quilt that I put together using blocks made by myself and my quilting bee mates from "Bee Connected".  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how thxis came out.

 Please pardon the shots of the full quilt.  First off, this is a larger sized quilt 92x86 and so I had to go outside and lay it on the driveway.  Also, I couldn't get high enough to take a full picture of it without this huge angle.  Finally I realized that I could hang it from my banister and take a pretty good picture of it but then my camera started acting up, so I told myself, "Erin, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"-- my kids always say that.

 Anyway, about this quilt.  Like I said, these are blocks from a bee.  I asked for improv blocks and I think this was a smart request because I knew I would be able to use every block and they would all be unique and awesome!

 I thought about just sewing the blocks together without sashing but it sorta looked like a mess, so I think the sashing ended up making it looks so great.  I used an 'almost solid' teal color.  These colors (from the modern affair and theory lines) might blind a traditional fabric quilter, but I think they are gorgeous... I LOVE these fabrics....perhaps that's why I like the quilt so much.

 I quilted this all on my own!  Yes, I have ended my apprenticeship (my mom was teaching me how to use her longarm) and have gone on my own and can quilt an entire quilt all by myself.  I still have just done pantagraph quilting, but hope to learn more custom quilting skills as I master the pantagraphs.

Here is a closeup of the back.  It really turned out beautiful and am very please with the final result!

Christmas Quilt FINISHED

 I FINALLY finished my Christmas quilt!!  This one has certainly been a labor of love and so fun to work on.  This was a bee quilt made from blocks from my fellow beemates in the Christmas Fabric Bee.  I asked them each to make me two blocks that picture Christmas.  These gals DID NOT disapoint!!

 You will remember my last post where I showed off the blocks and my fabric choices.  I really wanted something that had lots of fun colors and wasn't just the traditional forest green and red.  I think that making holiday quilts with nontraditional colors makes them all the more fun.

 When putting the blocks together it was easy to see that I needed to do a little framing around random blocks or else it was just too much white and it all just looked BLAH.

 This quilt was mostly stippled but there are also some custom design quilting within many of the blocks.

 I just love this dresden... this block has some custom quilting in it.

 Cute little trees that have some jewels.  I added some other bling onto a few other blocks as well.

 I used a striped fabric (the same that was given out to my beemates) for the binding.  I cut it on the bias which was a learning experience because I have never done bias cut bindings before.  I like the effect of the swirling stripe as it looks like a candy cane to me!

 For the back I used a fun tree print from Michael Miller.  It really adds to the "fun" of this quilt.

I plan to hang this quilt in my entryway over the Christmas holidays.  It is beautiful and it looks like a work of art to me!!  Thank you to all the wonderful ladies in my bee who helped me make this quilt!