Wrapping up Four Years with the Mid Century Modern Bee

Four years ago, Cindy of Live A Colorful Life sent me an email. She said she was starting a new bee for quilters that were 50+ in age with a modern aesthetic. I will be forever grateful for that email. It was the start of many online connections and true friendships right when my blog was getting off the ground.

Now, four years later, the Mid Century Modern Bee is coming to a close. Over the years we've had a few people come and go and I've enjoyed meeting each and every one along the way. The bee also gave me the opportunity to make a wide variety of blocks including ones I'd never sewn before. Dresden Plates, Spiderweb, Churn Dash, 9-Patch, Log Cabin, lots of paper piecing . . . these are just a few of the blocks I've had the pleasure of sewing for an amazing group of quilters.

Today I thought I'd share all the blocks made for 2016.

January 2016 for Elizabeth of OPQ, also found on Instagram @occasionalpiecequilt

February for Cindy of Live A Colorful Life, also found on Instagram @liveacolorfullife

March for Linda of Chirp, also found on Instagram @lkhomework

April for Stephanie of Peas in a Pod, also found on Instagram @stephiepeterson

May for Carla of Grace and Favour, also found on Instagram @carla_knit2yarns

June for Rene' of Rene' Creates, also found on Instagram @renecreates

July for Sherri of A Quilting Life, also found on Instagram @aquiltinglife

August for Mary of Needled Mom, also found on Instagram @needledmom

September for Mary of Mary on Lake Pulaski, also found on Instagram @maryonlakepulaski

October for me here at Springleafstudios and also found on Instagram @springleafstudios. 
I had everyone make the letters for the word Bee. I asked each quilter to use their favorite fabric for the capital B and was quite surprised that I got so many reds and bluish greens. At this point I have only a very vague idea of how I will use these. It will be a long while before the concept works itself out into a finished quilt. When done it will be a lovely reminder of my connections to these women.

November for Nancy of Patchwork Breeze, also found on Instagram @patchworkbreeze

December for Elizabeth of Pieceful Life, also found on Instagram @piecefullife

Isn't the word "Bee" just the perfect block to bring this bee to an end?

It most certainly was another year of variety and fun. I'm sorry to see the bee come to an end but happy to know my friendships will go on. Thanks for a fun four years ladies. And thank you Cindy for inviting me to play along.

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Summer Bee Blocks

It's been months since I shared my blocks made for the Mid Century Modern Bee. One of the things I like about sewing bee blocks is the variety of designs I have the chance to make. This summer has been no exception. Lots of variety.

In May I made this churn dash block for Carla of Grace and Favour. She gave us the freedom to make whatever style churn dash we wanted and one of the examples she provided was this one with a center square. I liked the additional space to use another fabric.

In June it was the Raspberry Kiss block for Rene' of Rene' Creates. She asked for clear, cool blues. Perfect colors for a Florida resident. The tutorial is by Rachel of Wooden Spoon Quilts and can be found here.

Then for July it was colorful log cabins for Sherri of A Quilting Life. Sherri always has so many wonderful projects going on on her blog. Especially some great scrap projects. I look forward to seeing all the scrappy log cabins come together. It's such an iconic quilt block.

Wrapping up the summer was this woven block for Mary of Needled Mom. Mary asked for oceany blues and teals. The pattern for this block is by Elizabeth Hartman and can be found here.

Well that wraps up my summer bee blocks. Four more months of MCM to go in 2016. October will be my month to request blocks so I better start thinking about it now. In the past I've had bee mates make test blocks for a couple of my patterns which helped tremendously as I worked through the pattern writing process and tested various fabric concepts.

Are you in a quilting bee? If so what is your favorite part?

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Remember Me?

If you've forgotten who I am I don't blame you. I haven't been here for a while. My intention is to blog once a week but April truly disappeared. Believe me though, I have been in my studio doing an assortment of sewing projects and new quilts.

Earlier in the month I made this name tag to wear at my modern guild meetings. Right from the start I knew it just had to be a leaf. I pieced a variety of leafy green prints. Added a little curved side. Then my name. I love how it came out. Just right for reinforcing my leaf identity.

The back includes a little pocket to hold a few business cards.

I also finished up these two MidCenturyBee blocks for Stephanie. Her subtle palette came from a photo of a window in the old Gibson guitar factory. The building now houses the Kalamazoo Academy of Rock where her daughter was recently accepted. Stephanie's quilt will help raise money for some much needed restoration of the building. She called this her Gibson palette. The quilt will be so lovely when it's done. Good luck with the fundraiser Stephanie. You can see her quilt come together over on Instagram @stephiepeterson.

I've also been busy working on several quilts this month. Some are for a new pattern under development. More on that in a later post. I'm also starting a quilt for our newly claimed guest room. My problem is in deciding which quilt to make. I know I want some low volumes like these . . .

And some splashes of Kaffe color with like these . . .

Stay tuned for what I finally decide on. My plan is to try a quilt-as-you-go technique. I've done this for table runners but never a bed sized quilt. Hope it works.

I'll leave you with this sweet image of Charlie, my daughter and her fiance's bird. He and my Offset quilt match. Maybe that's why he likes it so much. Isn't he pretty?

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Icy Cold / Red Hot

Last week it looked like this outside . . . icy cold.

But inside it looked like this . . .  red hot colors.

Bright little scraps came from these red hot little churn dash blocks.

My March Mid Century Modern Bee blocks were made for Linda.  Each block features red along with one other saturated solid. The colors are so intense they proved hard to photograph.

Hope you like them Linda. You can visit Linda on Instagram at lkhomework. Check out her feed to see more about how she's using all these bright blocks.

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Quilty Randomness

I'm still here. Still sewing. You just wouldn't know it by my lack of blog posts lately. Today I just want to catch up a little with what I'm making.

Right now I'm playing with this group of mostly Amy Butler fabrics. I've had them pulled aside for awhile and am so happy to finally be cutting into them. Aren't they luscious?

Here is what's taking shape on my design wall . . . a new variation of my Cascade pattern. Hopefully I'll be ready to sew it together this weekend at our guild sew day.

Yesterday I sent this wall hanging off to my longarm quilter. The queen size quilt is also finished as is the massive pieced back. You can read more about that here. Don't think I'll piece a back that big again anytime soon. It felt like making an entire second queen sized quilt. ugg. It will be sent off for quilting soon too. I'll post about both quilts when they are completed.

I've also been making bee blocks. In January these beautiful blue blocks were made for Elizabeth/OPQuilt. I can't show the entire block because she's creating a pattern from the design. It will be very graphic and bold.

This week I finished up February's blocks for Cindy/LiveAColorfulLife. She's making a sweet quilt for her newest granddaughter Ella. My stash doesn't contain much novelty fabric for kids so I bought this cute panel fabric. The images were a bit too big for the block size but with some careful cropping I think I managed to make it work. The pattern is Books for Baby found in Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi. It's a really cute pattern.

That's about it for now. Lots of plans . . . not enough time.
Hope all your sewing plans are moving forward.

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Closing Out the Month

I'm closing out the month of November with a quick post on my bee blocks. 2015 marks three years for the Mid Century Modern Bee. I love the online connections and friendships I've made in this bee. In three years we've lost a few and gained a few members but I still feel connected to everyone through either their blogs and/or Instagram.

In typical fashion, I waited till the end of the month to get November's block done for Michelle, (@speechyquilter on Instagram). She asked for scrappy house blocks based on this great little tutorial. It was a quick block to make which is appreciated at this busy time of year. Everyone seemed to go with a little fussy cut image in the center so I did the same with this sweet little bird print.

In a very not so typical fashion, I cranked out December's block before December even started. That's a first! It's for Elizabeth (@piecefullife on Instagram). She was really sweet to post her request early and also chose a super easy block. Solid colors and quick HSTs. I don't know what she'll be making but sewing these blocks has me considering something similar with a few prints I'm itching to use.

So that's it for 2015 and bee blocks. I have received all the striped blocks from everyone and put them on my design wall. Now I'm contemplating several possibilites. I'm even considering whether I could squeeze two quilts out of the blocks after I add in my part. Stay tuned as this idea develops. Don't all those stripes look amazing? I can't wait to get started.

By taking a photo without any arranging, I can already see relationships between the blocks that I hadn't noticed just by looking at my design wall. It's hard to take it all in and really see those relationships between blocks and colors when viewing first hand sometimes. That's why I would encourage everyone to use your digital cameras. Then you can take photos of several arrangements and view them side by side on your computer to see where things work and where they don't.

2016 will bring some new members to our Mid Century Modern Bee which also means we're saying goodbye to a few. I'm sad to see Susan, Michelle, Carla and Mary go but life and priorities change for all of us. Thanks for all the great blocks you've made for me. I will miss you being a part of MCM.

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Catching Up

I haven't been sewing much this summer. Plenty of ideas, not to mention things I need to be sewing. But it's summer  . . . what more can I say.    : )

Since it's the end of the month already, it's high time I to got my act together and made my August bee block for the MidCenturyModern Bee. Mary of Molly Flanders asked for a basket block. I loved making basket blocks back in May for Carla so it was fun to do them again. Why did I wait?

Mary has a real vintage style about her work and I don't have a lot of fabric that fits that bill but I thought this sweet floral had a vintage vibe. My only problem was not refreshing my memory on what Mary asked for until I'd already made this one. She asked for neutral backgrounds. Not sure this blue print really counts as a neutral so I'm going to make another today. Hopefully she'll find a use for both.

These baskets are really easy blocks to make. I followed Elizabeth's tutorial so as not to reinvent the wheel. Seriously. Why struggle through when someone has figured it out for you?

I also managed to get this top sewn together over the weekend. I pulled out a box of finished blocks that hadn't been sewn together and took it to guild sew day. Remember when Emerald was the Pantone color of the year? Yep. That's how old these blocks are. So nice to make a little progress. Who knows when it will be quilted though.

Somewhere along the line I changed directions for the design and made this quilt instead. That's why the Emerald blocks languished till now.

I still really like the Emerald blocks so it was a good project to grab and go. Having a project or two sitting in the wings ready to take makes it easy when sew day is suddenly upon me and I haven't had time to gather something else. These nifty 12" x 12" scrapbook boxes made by Iris work really well for this. My Drunkard's Path is stored in one of them.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Also linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation.
What have you been up to this summer?

Be sure to check out Mary's shop, Sunny Day Fabric. She and her sister have some wonderful selections including notions that you usually don't find at your average shop plus lots of sweet fabrics.

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Going Green

I finished up my June Mid Century Modern Bee block for Rene' of Rene' Creates this week. After being so far behind in May I really wanted to get caught up. Maybe, just maybe, I can keep the ball rolling when July comes around.  : )

Rene provided us with a paper piecing pattern (with permission from the designer) and we each chose a color. Without thinking I chose green. I love green and have plenty of green scraps.

I won't say this block was quick. It has very veeery small pieces. I mean teeny tiny itsy-bitsy only 1/4" wide pieces. Those little center squares are only 3/4" but the end result is an amazing scrappy circle.

I dug into all my green and light scraps. Made quite a mess.

Had help selecting the light scraps. NOT!

Sorted scraps and started piecing. Only made a couple of mistakes. Hint . . . don't take a lunch break in the middle of piecing without marking which parts you've already sewn. Otherwise you'll be unsewing. Just saying . . .

Ever so slowly one quarter was done . . .

Then two quarters were done . . .

Then three . . .

And finally . . . all four quarters made into the finished circle.

Pretty amazing circle if I do say so myself. I can see why Rene' asked for help on these. I wouldn't want to make very many. I think one super sized block for the whole quilt might be kind of cool though. You can see the quilt pattern for these circles here.

With green circles making a recurring appearance here in the studio, you could say I'm going green.
In April I made this jade green circle block for the quilt the Denver Metro Modern Quilt Guild plans to enter in QuiltCon Pasadena. Maybe you'll see it there. 

The final quilt came out beautifully thanks to the hard work of Stephanie, Christine and Wendy. This is the finished quilt. The photo was taken with my phone and isn't the best but you get the idea.. There's another row of all neutral circles on the far right that I couldn't squeeze into the frame. It's really a wonderful quilt and a great team effort by the guild..

It was also about a year ago that I took an inset circles workshop with Latifah. This was my concept . . more green circles.  Sorry to say this hasn't been finished but it was worth learning the technique.

Last but not least, to keep the curve theme alive there are the quarter circle blocks I'm making for my Drunkard's Path QAL. This was my May block. Green once again along with red. It's going to be a Christmas quilt.

There'll be another post for the QAL soon, so stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by.
Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

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