"Oh Beehave" - August Block

August is Andrea's month in the MMQG quilting bee "oh beehave". Andrea is making the "small plates" quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's book "the practical guide to patchwork". As the blocks are very simple she asked us to make her four blocks:

I hope you like the blocks Andrea, I enjoyed making them, the fabrics are gorgeous.

"Oh Beehave" - My Finished Quilt

So, I have finished my quilt for the MMQG quilting bee "Oh Beehave". As you may or may not remember, I asked the ladies in the bee to make me two wonky star blocks - one red on sand, and the other sand on red. I then put the blocks together into essentially two tops, and quilted it with perle 8 thread by hand - first 1/4 inch around all the stars (on the front and the back), and then adding some more stars into any big spaces that still needed some stitching.

I was initially thinking of binding it in a solid red a little bit darker than the red in the quilt, but didn't manage to find any fabric in any of my local quilt shops in the right colour. However, while I was at Amitie the lovely lady serving me suggested a stripe that they had - which conveniently happened to be in exactly the two right colours.

I have entered this quilt in the "Quilts from All Over" show that's being organised by Hawthorn Rotary Club, so added the binding to finish the quilt this weekend. Now I just need to add a temporary hanging sleeve before the show.

"Oh Beehave" - July Block

 Just realised that I had this post written as a draft but hadn't published it yet...

July's block for the MMQG quilting bee was for Frogdancer. She asked for a quilt as you go block following this tutorial:

This block was fun as it was something different. It took quite a long time to quilt the 1/4 lines and my lines were a little more wonky than I would have liked them - sorry about that Frogdancer. In all honesty, most of the fabrics in this block are far from what I would choose, but they come together really well and I'm sure that the final quilt will be gorgeous.

"Oh Beehave" - June Block

I'm currently waiting on corrections of my thesis at the moment, so have finally had a chance to take some time out and do some sewing, so this evening I decided to get caught up on my bee blocks.

June's block for the MMQG quilting bee "Oh Beehave" was for Helene. Helene asked for a scrappy, but not wonky, 15.5" log cabin block:

Aren't her fabrics gorgeous!

Multi-tasking...

So, it turns out that hand quilting is an activity that can be done very well while hanging out with people... which is what I did this weekend.

I've made great progress quilting my wonky stars - I've quilted around nearly all the stars. Once I've finished that I need to fill in the space in between them. I've been quilting with red perle 8, which means nice big stitches! I'm a big fan of this method, it makes the quilting go pretty quickly, making it enjoyable rather than a chore!

How-To: Improv Wonky Stars Layout

In my retreat recap post the other day I included a picture showing my finished wonky star quilt tops, the blocks for which were made by the "Oh Beehave" participants. Today I thought I would post some more information about how I pieced the tops. I would describe the way I pieced the tops as an "improv" method - especially since I made it up as I went along. I took a few pictures though, so I can explain some of my process.

First off I chose the layout of my stars. The design wall at craft retreat was incredibly handy for this, although a floor would have worked too. I marked the size I wanted the quilt to be with thread on the wall and then I chose the layout of both tops at the same time, so here you can see both sets of stars on the design wall at the same time:

I will now outline how I went about making the quilt top with red stars and a beige background.

First I looked at my layout and mentally split up the top into sections (photos of the finished top as they're a bit clearer). First two (the horizontal line in the below pictures), then three (the vertical line):

Next I split those three sections into smaller sections - to avoid y-seams my lines had to both start and finish either at the edge of the quilt top or a previously decided line:

I then carried on mentally splitting up my quilt top until I could see square or rectangular shapes filling in all the gaps between the stars:

Then I started sewing pieces of beige background fabric to the stars to fill in the negative space. Here you can see where I have pieced together the top into 7 large pieces:

Does that all make sense? Taking away all the lines can you see how I broke up the quilt top?

How about the top with the red background?

Here's how I broke it up:

Does that description make sense? It was actually very fun and freeing to do, especially since I was trying to use up the left over pieces of fabric sent back to me by the ladies in the Bee.

Tonight at the MMQG SASE I'm going to get some batting so I can start quilting this sucker!

"Oh Beehave" - May Block

This is the block that I made (a little early) for Shirley for the MMQG Quilting Bee "Oh Beehave":



Shirley asked for a 14.5" Mondrian style blocks made from the solid fabrics she sent us. Lots of fun to make!

My previous blocks: October, November, January, February, April

"Oh Beehave" - April Block

This is the block that I made for Marg for the MMQG Quilting Bee "Oh Beehave":



Marg asked for a 12.5 inch block made primarily of flying geese and/or half square triangles.. Something I'd never done before, so interesting to learn something new.

My previous blocks: October, November, January, February

Oh-Beehave - First Blocks Back

Las week I got back the first blocks for my month of Oh Beehave. Anna made these two blocks, and they're absolutely perfect:

And then yesterday I received blocks back from Shirley, aren't they great:

Thanks Anna and Shirley!

"Oh Beehave" - February Block

This is the block that I made Alissa for the MMQG quilting bee "Oh Beehave":

Alissa asked for a scrappy (but straight) log cabin block.

My previous blocks: October, November, January

Oh Beehave - Block instructions

This post is for my fellow participants in the MMQG quilting bee "oh beehave". My month is March, so I'm due to post requests/instructions for my block as the fabrics went out this week.

First off, here are the instructions that went out with the fabrics:

‘Feel’ of the quilt
Simple, Non-uniform, Reversible

Colour Palette:
“Sand” and “Ruby” Kona solids only

Block size:
An assortment of different sizes with the biggest up to approx 12” and the smallest 4” square

Block type:
Wonky Stars – here is a good tutorial: http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-star-tutorial.html

Scrap
Please return all useable scraps. Larger scraps will be used when making the quilt top, decent size triangle scraps may be used to make some more (small) stars if necessary.

Adding fabric:
Please do not add any fabric; I only want to have Kona “sand” and “ruby” in this quilt.

Intended purpose of quilt:
My quilt is for my friend Alex and her Fiancé as a wedding present in November

Specific construction requests:
I plan to make this a reversible quilt, with one side all sand stars on a ruby background and the other all ruby stars on a sand background.
Please can you construct two blocks – one of a ruby star with a sand background and one of a sand star with a ruby background (If you think I am being too cheeky with this request please send back the extra fabric and only one block and I will make the other.)
To try and make sure that I end up with a mixture of sizes of both types of blocks, I have included a post- it in your envelope that specifies which colour star should be bigger, please use this as a guideline.
Please use the same colour for the centre square as the points of the stars, so that the stars are all the same colour.
Some key points to think about when constructing the blocks:

• Please make sure that the points of the stars are at least ¼ inch away from the edge of the block so that points aren’t lost when I sew the blocks together (This is particularly important)
• Blocks do not have to be exactly square or in 1/3 proportions, but please don’t make them too exaggeratedly rectangular/disproportionate
• Please try to make the triangles meet or overlap where they’re attached to the centre square.
• Please try and give your stars “balanced wonk”.

First off, here is a flickr gallery with some inspiration photos that will hopefully show you what I'm going for (and what I'm not going for). I've put my comments next to the photos for you to read:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maiestia/galleries/72157625987600392/

Also for some more information, here's a diagram I made up to describe some of the points listed above and in the gallery:

1- This Star is an example of a 1/3 proportioned wonky block and if you made me one like this it'd be great. It has no gaps between the triangular points where they meet the edge of the block, none of the points go right up to the edge of the block (and thus won't be lost when sewing them together), and it has "balanced wonk"

2- This is an example of how you can play around with the proportions a bit if you like. This one has the star not centered in the block but off to the top left hand side. It's still good because it hasn't moved the proportions too much so still looks balanced.

3- This is an example of how you can make a block that isn't square. This rectangular block is still good is it doesn't look too stretched out.

4- This is another example of how you can play with the proportion of the block by making the centre square smaller. However I do not really like this block as the proportions are too extreme. You can make the centre square smaller, but please do not make it as extreme as this

5- Similarly, this block plays with proportion again, this time by making the centre square larger. Again, I don't like this block as the proportions are too extreme. You can't make the centre square bigger, but please do not make it as extreme as this.

6- This block shows you an example of "unbalanced wonk" As you can see, there is a HUGE difference in the widths of the points, particularly at the top and bottom of the block. There is also no balance of the different sides, with the much larger points all on the bottom left of the block. I definitely want wonk, but not as extreme as in this block. This block also shows you an example of having a gap between the points (on the right hand side of the block). I don't want that either

7- This is a "star block" rather than a "wonky star block". I do not want beautifully precise and symmetrical stars, I want wonky ones.

Apologies if that's all a bit thorough and it sounds like I'm being really really picky, I promise you I'm not, and I'm positive that whatever you make will be fantastic, I just figured the more information I show you all the better.

And lastly, here's an example block that I made up:

I can't wait to see the blocks that you guys make!!

"Oh Beehave" - January Block

Here's the third block i've made for the MMQG quilting bee "Oh Beehave". This one was for Anna:

Anna asked for wonky, deconstructed log cabins with the range of solid reds, yellows and oranges that she gave us.

My previous blocks: October, November

"Oh Beehave" - November Block

As I mentioned before, I'm participating in my first ever quilting bee. Here is my November block, which was for Gina:

Gina asked for slightly wonky log cabin style blocks with some geometric shapes in the centre using the colour she provided.

My previous block: October

"Oh Beehave" - October Block

I am participating in my first ever quilting bee; "Oh Beehave" through the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild. Making the blocks is a little nervewracking, but here's my block for October, which is for Esther:

Esther asked for a 10.5" block with a 6 inch central square made of geometrical shapes, then a solid brown border and then an outside scrappy border of a width of your choosing.