Bees for Me

Well, seems my computer hasn't let me edit photos for a bit, I can't show you my latest stuff.  However, I can show you what I'm choosing for my months in two bees. 

I have the month of January in both the Bee White Black and the Bee Scrappy groups!  So, in between sewing bee blocks for others, I've been cutting up fabric and sending out packets to others.

For the Bee White Black group, I had originally planned to do a traditional block pattern, but couldn't get the fabric I wanted for the blocks.  Searching on ebay (love that site), I came across some cool looking black and white fabric, but unfortunately, there was only a yard of it.  I bought the fabric (well, duh) anyway because it gave me a great idea for quilt blocks.

Here are some scans of the fabric:

Pretty awesome looking isn't it?  So my idea was that each member make a block that looks like one of the squares on the fabric.  I sent out a fat quarter each of white and black Kona with instructions to make one of the squares or something similar ending with an outer border of black (any width as long as the finished block ends at 12.5 inches).  I plan on sashing them altogether with more black so it will give that slightly off-centered look that all the squares have.  Already some of the blocks are done.  You can check them out as they appear at the Bee White Black group page.  I'm getting pretty excited for this quilt.  This will be my first all solid quilt.  (I'm blaming Cherri House for this, but then after you check out her City Quilts book you'll start looking at solids too!)  The coloring is simple and I think would translate well into many other color choices.  Make some up for yourself!

The block I chose for the Bee Scrappy quilting group is a wonky, scrappy block designed by Sarah Vee over at the Sew Joy called Liberated Churn Dash.  She's got a great tutorial and very generously gave permission for me to link to it for my group members to use (and for the rest of you too!).  I really like her idea of combining wonky and scrappy into an otherwise very classic traditional block.  This will be my first wonky quilt, but after making all those wonky houses and stars and such for everyone, I just had to have one for myself.  I chose to go with black and white prints and white background for this one (guess I just had black and white on the brain) which I think will give a fun look to the block.  Each member is getting an 18 inch white Kona square and few needed some black and white prints too as they didn't have quite enough in their stash.  (I know, tragic isn't it!)  You can check out the blocks as they are created on the Bee Scrappy group page.  I may have to make this block up in a colored version sometime because it is just too cute of a way to use up scraps!

I can't wait for my lovely blocks to come pouring in!  Try some of these blocks--and let me know, I'd love to see your work!

Off to the post office now--hopefully some packages are waiting!