Purple Bubble for Rene'

I finished my purple bubble for Rene' today.  Here she is!

I had fun making this.  I enjoy paper piecing.  There are some really tiny pieces in this baby, and it was no small task to make the block.  Rene' is smart to have us helping her with these, as it would be hard to make these all yourself!  (This was my MO with my challenging blocks a couple months ago.  Thanks, gang, for helping me!)

In the past couple of months, between this project and another one I am working on (the My Small World Quilt Along), it has become very apparent to me that I have an extremely limited stash of low volume fabrics.  I'm going to make it a point to start collecting those a little more.  (Because I do need more stash.  LOL!)

Speaking of stash, I've been trying hard to work from my stash for all my bee blocks so as to use what iI have and to stop hoarding.  I've been doing pretty well with that, so thanks gang!  It was fun to go raid my purple stash for this.  I had more purples, but they were more lavender.  I wanted to stay in the darker purple vein.  I was able to pull from stash and pull from the scrap pile.  Because so many of the pieces were so small, I could really use some small scraps, which was nice.

Sorry I haven't been posting all my blocks when I finish them.  I wasn't thinking!  I'll try to do a catch-up post here soon to summarize my January through June blocks.  Better late than never, right?

Hugs,
Stephanie

P.S.  I love the idea of making a MCM bee quilt (or 12--one for each of us).  I'm in if there's an effort to do it!

April and May

 Just a little late with these but I wanted to post them anyway.

I enjoyed making Stephanie's block for April. It was a good way to remind myself how to paper piece--which will come in handy for Rene's block.

And after precision sewing, it was so much fun to make these little baskets. I just know Carla's quilt is going to be a fun one, and I have plans to make one for myself. Or maybe I should just wait until it's my turn again and you all can help me. :)

NOTE: notice how "foggy" this picture seems?While you may think I used some weird filter, I noticed that one day all my pictures had the same foggy look. I turned my phone over and looked at the lens--it was covered with chocolate! What?? I'm sure it was the grandkids....

Bubbles!

I love bubbles- blowing bubbles, bubble bath and champagne bubbles. In fact, amongst some of my friends, Bubbles is my nickname!

But I was certainly happy to have this "Bubble" finished! I seemed to get worse as I went along, but that may have just been general sewing fatigue.
I love how these look, but could not imagine making a whole quilt of them!

I did notice however that Elizabeth and I seem to have made two of the four circles of our MCM Bee logo...

Anyone want to make a MCM Bee quilt?!

Susan

Bubbling my Way Through June for Rene!

I finished Rene's block for June 2015, and while it wasn't trivial, I love the look of it and so glad I was able to have a go at it.

I took Rene's advice and used strong contrasts in my lights and darks.  I'd suggest paying attention to what fabrics go where on the larger outer strips in both the color and the print.  I used light-to-white backgrounds with an occasional creamy yellow thrown in for variety.

I started out chain stitching, or. doing the same step on all four quadrants before heading to press, etc.  But by about steps 10 and 11 (the piecing is well marked) I found it easier -- brain wise --  to just stick with one quadrant and finish it off.

I found that occasionally the crisp geometrics seemed to go soft, or wonky, even though I was pressing and stitching carefully.  I can only chalk it up to stitching on one side of the line or the other, but I think it's not noticeable in the grand scheme of things (at least I hope not!).

I think Rene' is smart to have us all help her on this, as it would be a hard quilt to make all by yourself, though certainly not impossible.   I was happy to help!

Bubble Blocks for June

All the details for June's block are posted on our Flickr group page.  I have selected Aylin's bubble block.  (Her full pattern can be purchased here if you're interested.)  I have emailed each of you a template for one quadrant of one block.  You will need to make four copies to assemble one 12.5" (unfinished) block.

blue bubble block

This is a paper pieced pattern, but I found it goes rather quickly, especially if you chain piece the four quadrants.  This somewhat reduces the number of times you need to get up, press, trim, etc.  I also found that I could stitch a "light" and a "dark" before having to trim...this works until the last few rounds when the lights and darks are side by side.  This should make sense once you are working on your block, but if not, please email me with questions.

A few items to note:

• Make sure your printer is set to actual size.  There isn't a "test" square, but the printed block should measure 6" square.  The paper pieced block is 12.5" unfinished.  Remember to allow a 1/4" seam when trimming.
• I would like a signature block.  I did not mention that on Flickr because I thought that was a given ;-)
• The bubble is easier to recognize when strong colors (within your color selection) are chosen for the darks and that the scrappy lights aren't too dark.  You can use my block as an example of what NOT to do ;-)
• Some of the strips are rather narrow.  I found using a dab from my glue stick helped hold those in place when stitching.

I thank all of you in advance for making this block for me!!!  I know it isn't the fastest one I could have chosen.  Our bee rocks!!!

Gathering of Our Quilts

For those of you who aren't readers of my blog, I recently did a round-up post of our time together for the past two-plus years, with blocks that I'd contributed and the quilts that you have made.  The first post is *here* and begins with Carla's Churn Dash quilt.

The second post ends with Anne's Tumbler quilt, and is *here.*  All the rest of you are in-between these two lovely bookends. 

Thank you for a delightful journey of quilting!

2015 blocks so far

Before I post about the block I have chosen while Queen Bee, I should share pictures of the MCM Bee blocks I have made so far in 2015.  I must admit to forgetting we have a blog...ooops ;-)

Quilter's choice for Elizabeth

Cake for Carla

Dresden for Cindy

Gorgeous Gertie for Stephanie

Baskets for Carla

Now I'm off to upload my photos to Flickr!  Stay tuned for details on June's block....