This was the other quilt top that I finished off at Sewjourn.  These blocks, made by the talented women of Around The Block round 1, have been awaiting assembly for a significant period of time.  But now it is done!

This quilt top is also a decent size. I love the blocks, and am pleased that I finally decided to join them without sashing into a riot of pattern and colour. Although not using sashing did leave me with the challenge of joining together blocks that weren’t quite the same size. There was some fudging necessary. I figure that is one of the challenges you face when taking part in a quilting bee – everyone sews a quarter of an inch seam slightly differently, and because most of these blocks contain many seams in all sorts of directions, there was significant variation in the finished block size. But it all worked out okay.

I do have leftover pieces of fabric, and my initial plan was to piece the back. No promises as to when that will happen. Thanks to all the women who made my wonderful blocks – I love this quilt top!

Thanks to all those who gave such thoughtful, well-considered responses to my last post.  It clearly touched a chord with many of you.  I realise that I am learning all the time – I often just wish that some of the things I know now I had learned much earlier!  Maybe I will be wise when I am old.

I had the good fortune to spend a day at Sewjourn on the weekend.  While there I took full advantage of the design wall to play with the blocks I received from round one of Around The Block.

I had wonderful input from the other ladies who were there, particularly Meredith – thank you! I’m going to join these blocks pretty much as in the above photo, without sashing. But first I need to trim and adjust them all to the same size – because as we all discovered during ATB, one person’s quarter inch foot isn’t necessarily the same as another’s! They’re all roughly 12 1/2 inches square, so it shouldn’t be too hard to trim a little or add a little.

Then I whacked all my practice blocks up on the design wall. Before I cut into the fabric that the other quilting bee members had sent me, I usually did a practice with my own fabrics.

Lots of blocks!  These are mostly 12 1/2 inches square as well.  I’m planning to cut a whole lot of 3 1/2 inch squares from the remaining scraps (and yes, there are plenty of them) and then add them to the blocks in different ways, and offset the blocks from one another.  I’ll probably need to use the design wall again to get that right.  Probably one of my May Sewjourn weekend goals!

I’ve got a few other completed projects to photograph and blog, but I have been trying to slow down a little and do things at a less frantic pace.  I just started back at work again yesterday, and am picking up a few extra days of work here and there, so that will inevitably cut into my crafting time.  Then it’s back to school on Friday.  I’m sad to see the holidays over, but looking forward to getting back into routine.  Now to find time in that routine to go to the gym…

That’s it, the very last blocks for Around The Block are done and mailed off to MJ.  She provided us with fabrics in shades of blue and white and instructions for the Indian Star block.  MJ asked us to use one of our own fabrics in one of the star points.  I chose a Kaffe Fassett spot for one block:

and a Liberty print for the other.

A whole year and 16 different types of quilt blocks have gone by!  Sheridan has been the best bee host that anyone could wish for, and this online quilting bee has been nothing but marvellous.  I have learned so much and enjoyed “meeting” so many talented quilters.  Thanks so much to all of you.  I have bowed out of the next round (too many competing commitments at the moment) but will be following their progress with interest, and who knows, hopefully I’ll be back for round three!

I know, I know, it’s way past July now.  I finished making Jan’s blocks on the weekend.  She is travelling further than Around The Block at the moment – around Australia in fact – so I knew that she wouldn’t be waiting on them.  Well, that was my excuse for being late.  Jan provided us with pre-cut borders in different widths and asked us to come up with whatever design we liked for the centres, with the finished blocks being 8.5 inches.  I jumped onto Quilter’s Cache and found some terrific designs.

This one is Geometry, which is paper pieced at 4 inches.

I modified the Four Patch Variation block to make a 5 inch centre.

When it came to the 6 inch centre, I was lazy and simply fussy cut one of the fabrics that Jan had sent (which was around 7 inches square – I think that Jan may have been hoping that I’d do just that!)

I felt that I’d let myself off a little bit too easily with that last block so made up another centre (6.5 inches unfinished) for Jan to add borders to later. It’s called Interlocked Squares.

I also made the August blocks and will share them later. I now need to get cracking on making a quilt for my niece’s wedding – it’s in October! This year! Two months away! Yikes! Where’s that rotary cutter?

For the first time (I think) I’ve been late with my Around the Block.  So sorry Annie!  Annie asked for circles, especially pieced ones, and sent me green fabrics.  I do like green!  I usually draw up and sew up a practice block when I am faced with something I’m not familiar with – which is often.  This is my first practice block.

Since this photo was taken I have hand-appliqued it to the background! I was quite pleased with my efforts, so made up Annie’s fabrics into a 10.5″ block. The segments were pieced onto a paper foundation.

The second block only needed to be 6.5″ square. I drew up a few sketches of things I thought I might be able to piece successfully, and gave it a go.

It wasn’t very successful. I think it looks better in this photo – in reality is it VERY warped and wonky. There was no way I was going to do the same to Annie’s beautiful fabrics. So I sat and thought…for weeks. Then this morning I finally bit the bullet, so to speak, and just did the same block but in raw edge applique.

So now they’re in the mail on their way home to the very patient Annie!  I know that this will be a stunning quilt once it’s all together.

I’ve hardly done any sewing over the past week (although the hook has been flying fast).  The only thing the machine has churned out are some wonky log cabin/square in square blocks for Becky.  She sent a really lovely assortment of fabrics to make a quilt for her little boy.  I actually find wonky difficult to do effectively.  You’d think that if it is “wonky” then anything goes, but I don’t think that everything wonky looks all that great.  You need to have some symmetry in your wonkiness!  So rather than making two blocks, I made three. I needed the practice.

Block A:

Block B:

and finally Block C:

Each block is actually a square ten and a half inches, I just haven’t photographed them at the right angle.  I found that I got better results from using wonkily cut strips instead of cutting down wider strips once they’d been sewn to the block. Anyway, now that I can stand back and look at these blocks I am happy with the final effect.  Thanks Becky for sending such nice fabrics!

Over the long weekend I’ve been drawing up potential blocks to sew for Annie, who has given us the brief of “circles”.  I’ve discarded a couple of ideas but have settled on two that should work well, with a combination of piecing and applique.  It may be my most challenging month yet – but I think it will be highly enjoyable.  I’ve done sketches and coloured them in (so much fun playing with the Derwents!) and now I need to draw up some templates and get to work on practice blocks.  I’ve also drawn up plans for a quilt I’m making for my niece’s wedding in October – and since it is June and I haven’t even cut into the fabric yet I’d better get a move on!

Woo hoo!  The March blocks were finished a week ago, and they are already back in Bronwyn‘s hands.  She asked for wonky stars of Kaffe Fassett fabrics that would sparkle in the night sky.  I had to practice first of course, and delved into my Kaffe stash to make some blocks for my practice sampler quilt.

Not bad for a first go, I think, although I should probably have reversed the fabrics so that the star was floating in clouds. The next one has stripes along some of the points, but would have benefitted from a more subdued choice of background fabric.

So on to the squares I made for Bronwyn! They are all different sizes. The first one is 12.5″ square. I adore the feature fabric and couldn’t bear to waste any of it so pieced the leftovers together with some of the solid to make the central shape.

This one is 6.5″ square.

As is this one. I attempted to add some piecing to the points but much of it was lost in the seam allowances.

The last is 8.5″ square. What a fantastic print!

And here they are together.

Bronwyn sent loads of Kaffe fabrics to choose from and it was extremely difficult for me to pop them all in the return envelope – I really do think that they are one of the most wonderful fabric ranges around! The saturation of colours is almost unequalled.  I have recently come across some superb Australian Aboriginal prints from M & S Textiles  that I think could be used in a similar way to Kaffe prints – lots of colour and pattern.  Although I’m still trying to figure out why they cost around A$24 per metre to buy here in Australia where they are manufactured yet cost around US$11 (or less) per yard to buy in the US….

You can see all the blocks that have been made for Around The Block over here.  There are so many fantastic blocks and the finished quilts are going to be just brilliant.

Amy requested Around the Block blocks that would combine to become a “teeny, weeny, quirky village”.  The central design was to take up no more than 5 inches in the centre of a 7 inch block.  I am not used to working with such small blocks, and improvised piecing isn’t my forte, but I did the best I was able with the gorgeous fabrics Amy provided.

We had the option to use raw edge applique or to make pieced blocks, so I did one of each. I like this block best, I think – the high rise apartments!

A seahorse in a beach bungalow – this was one of the suggestions that Amy had originally made.

One of the hardest parts was deciding on which fabrics to use – there were so many that I loved!

Now they’re safely in an envelope on their way home. Check out the flickr group to see what else the other bee participants have come up with!

Donna asked for simple shapes inspired by the Dear Jane blocks, and sent us lots of pretty pink fabrics to combine with white so she can make a quilt for her little girl’s 5th birthday.  As usual, I tried some practice blocks first.

This one is called the Goshen Star.  It is much more effective in the fabrics that Donna sent.

Next up I tried a straightforward Double Wrench block.

Once again, this block looks more effective when made with a solid.

Because there was a little fabric left, and I fancied doing a block containing curves, I figured out how to do a sort of drunkard’s path block. I wish I’d known what these block units were called before trying to figure it out for myself, because I could have googled it! Anyway, it worked out okay.

I cut out the four sub-unit squares, lined them up, then traced around an 8″ embroidery hoop to get a nice circle on the block. Then I cut out the circles, shifted them around to a contrasting sub-unit, and sewed them together. I had to trim the edges of the block back level before sewing the sub-units together to make the block. Is that as clear as mud?

Donna still needs to add borders to this one. Since then, I have found a tutorial for the Drunkard’s Path block here and here and another version here and here.

Now I need to start on Amy’s February blocks!  I will definitely need to be doing practices for hers.  You can see the blocks being made for Around the Block over here.