Catch Up Wednesday

Okay, when my computer decided to have its little diva moment, I wasn't able to keep up on posting photos of all the quilt blocks I've been making for bees (most were even sent on time too!), so here they are.  Well most of them.  Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the lovely shot cottons used for Sew Buzzy's January blocks--I was sent a lovely soft green and blue to work with, very nice.  I also forgot to photograph my last embroidery swap piece before it was sent off to Europe.  Sadly, this piece never arrived at its destination.  (Cry with me.)  I will however be making Susi a new piece, because its just too disappointing to not get a swap!  Fortunately, I did get the rest so you can see them. 

Not in any particular order:

A blue asterick block for January's Moody Blues Bee (Tracy) person.  She is using various blue solids for the backgrounds.  They look fabulous with the gray print centers.  Here's a link to the tutorial.

Two miniature house blocks for Jennifer (November) in the Scrap Happy group.  These will go towards a child's blanket so she can have one at grandma's house when visiting.  How fun is that?  I just made up my patterns.  Added the cat and bicyclist for a bit of whimsy.

Two railfence blocks for Jenifer (February) over in the Scrap Happy bee group.  She asked for bright and scrappy--I think I got that one in the bag!  Railfence is a great block for beginners.  Here's a link to a pattern (but really, its just strips sew together, cut in blocks and rotated--been around forever!).  Here's a example of one with more strips.  So lovely!

These snowball blocks went to Christina (November) in our Sew Buzzy group.  She sent a pattern and lots and lots of fabric for us to cut and sew--giving us the option of just a few, or if we had the desire, more.  As we currently have an MIA member (bah!), I went ahead and sewed up all the snowballs.  This is just one possible arrangement.  Here's some easy instructions for those who've never made one.

Two Square-In-Square blocks for Gwen (January) in the Scrap Happy group.  She asked for bold colors, prints or solids, and peekaboos in the centers were okay.  Here's the example image she gave us to go with.  We could do as few as one square-in-square within a block or a hundred.  I did one with four and one with nine.  Okay, so I am in desperate need of solids in my stash (sadness), but I did have plenty of fun prints including a couple of squares with these little scottie dogs.  Hope she likes them.

Two Starburst blocks for Lori (February) in Bee Scrappy.  She asked specifically for yellows, oranges and pinks.  So summery!  Where's my lemonade?  Even though this is for a scrap bee, I actually had to go buy a few fabrics--I'd cut up just about all my orange fabrics this last summer for a quilt I'm working on!  While I was there I picked up a couple of pinks and yellows too--hey, why not?  Here's the tutorial, because you know you'll want one too!

String blocks are pretty popular right now--and if you haven't tried one, you should.  Here's the instructions.  They're very easy and look great whether scrappy or all coordinated.  These four (the extras to make up for the MIA member) belong to Mika (October) in our Sew Buzzy group.  She sent almost all the fabric and asked if we'd put in some of ours and in trade keep some of hers.  I contributed the striped fabric.  It has a bit of a shimmer to it on some of its stripes that worked perfectly with the shimmery orange and pink fabric she'd sent along.  I'd been saving that fabric for a couple of years for something special--this must of been it, because it couldn't have been better matched!  In trade, I kept a small piece of Valorie Wells Sole fabric (you can see some of it in the top left block, third stripe from the bottom right corner--yum!).  It will be cool to see where these blocks end up in the quilt!

Another set of string blocks (I told you they were popular), this time for Eileen (February) of the Sew Buzzy group.  Eileen sent this lovely combination of fabrics to work with--go ahead, oh and ah!  I did extra to again make up for the MIA member (don't get me started about bee members who just stop communicating and keep fabric, grr)

Last, but certainly not least, a String-X block for Jenn (November) in the Bee Scrappy group.  I'm sorry I don't know all of the fabrics she sent, but I included some Nicey Jane for my part and so I do recognize some more of it in what Jenn sent.  This is really a striking block, not too difficult either.  Just take your time with careful cutting and sewing to line up the seams!  Try one--you can always make it into a pillow!

Whew!  That's a lot, and I still have a couple of February ones (and now March) plus one really, really late set of Harry Potter blocks (and yes, I will be sending an appropriate amount of chocolate to make up for tardiness).