Need To Nail That Bear's Paw

NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild December Queen Bee Chris here, wow that's a mouthful!

 I've got all my Bear's Paw Bee Blocks back now so the rest is down to me.  You can read my original posts here.

I've laid the blocks out and admired them but that's as far as it's gone so far.

There's sashing and a border to add and I need to make another 4 blocks myself to bring it up to its finished size.  

Actually I need to make 5 more blocks not 4 - the thing is that my own block for the Bee is one that I made up as a sample, trialling several colourways before purchasing my chosen fabric.  Once I'd decided that this was the quilt and colourway that I wanted to make I ordered more of the fabric and sent that out to all of my bees.  Have any of you spotted the problem yet.

That's the sample block bottom right - yes that Kona Sage is a slighter lighter and more blue dye than the rest of the blocks made from my later fabric order, you can see the difference in this photo although it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as it does in real life where it is SCREAMING at me, so I need to replace that block as well as making the extra four.

It's not the first and only time I've had problems with Kona dye lots and additionally I've noticed that the finish can also differ along with the fabric width - I'd love to hear if anyone else has experienced this.  Remember I shared with you some rabbit fabrics I bought a couple of months ago, 

well I bought that fabric at The City Quilter and chose my Kona solid colours there in the shop - Coal and Charcoal.  Boxing clever I didn't buy my solids there though, I came home and ordered them more cheapily online.  When they arrived they were both different shades - the wrong shades - slightly lighter and blue based rather than green based and low and behold this dye difference means that they don't work with my rabbit fabric.  Additionally neither of them match their sample swatches on my Kona Colour Card - though they don't match any other colours either so I know it's not that I've been sent the wrong colour.

So what to learn from this:

1.  If you're in a shop and you see a fabric that's a perfect match for something you're working on - BUY IT, don't try to be clever just grab it while you can;

2.  Buy all the fabric you might need, and some extra, in one go - don't try to match it at a later date, it's not worth the risk; and

3.  You can save a fortune buying off the internet but be prepared to be disappointed and carry the expense of the dye lot not being what you were expecting.

 A big thank you to all the Bees in my Hive - you've done an amazing job and I hope I do your work and the quilt justice when completing it.

I'll keep you posted :)

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