Improv: Beyond The Bee - November Bee Block #NYCMetroMOD

Continuing my Improv: Beyond The Bee block catch up - this is my November block for Diana.

Improv: Beyond The Bee - September Bee Block #NYCMetroMOD

I'm up-to-date with making and returning my Bee Blocks but way behind in sharing them with you.  About time I put that right - this is my September Improv: Beyond The Bee block for Queen Bee Chris, yes me!

"It's The Stupidest Tea Party I Was Ever At" Said Alice

Super, super excited to share April's NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Block with you, I'm just loving the challenge set by
Queen Bee Emily N.

The Bee Block package included a piece of green cotton and instructions to create an applique block on the theme of 'Tea'.  Emily is obviously a girl after my own heart and tells us she's obsessed with tea.  We can use any fabrics from our stash as long as we use the green fabric somewhere in the block and Emily suggests to applique items such as cups & saucers, mugs, tiered cake stands, teapots and more.

It doesn't get any better for this English girl abroad, immediately I knew what I was making - it just had to be a teapot and rather than sketching my own to save time I pulled this teapot image by Colleen from her blog justpaintit.

Pulling fabrics was easy - 

in my stash I had this scrap of British Icons: London by Timeless Treasures and then I pulled some Olive the Ostrich pink heart fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.  A multi dot (C3095 White) fabric from the Timeless Treasures Indian Summer collection is absolutely perfect to link the colours together with the given green which I'm going to use as the background fabric for the finished block.

I've an idea to include some of my Queen's Guard ribbon (Berisfords Ribbons - The Best Of British Art 13605 Soldiers) and a strip of Alice in Wonderland cotton twill ribbon too.

The strip of Alice ribbon was given to me by Dee, one of my Late Night Sewing students,

she's used it in my classes to make tea cosies for a couple of her friends and she gave me this piece.  This seemed like the perfect time to use it, thanks Dee xxx

Here's a look at one of Dee's tea cosies too, isn't it fab?

 Back to making the block, here we go, step by step:

I cut the image into sections - I'm not going to use the lid handle so I didn't cut that bit out;

I transferred each section onto the paper side of the Pellon Wonder Under fusible web Emily provided being sure to draw the pieces back to front so the final applique will come out the correct way round;

I pressed each piece of Wonder Under on to the appropriate fabrics

and cut the pieces out.

Emily asked for a 9.5" block so I placed the pieces under a 9.5" square ruler to see how best to lay them out.  I'm opting for a blown apart design, having gaps between each section leaves the background fabric visible and pulls the colours together more.

With the placement decided I marked the outline of the block and the pieces on the green background fabric using a FriXion pen that'll disappear with the heat of the iron then peeled the backing paper from each piece and pressed to fix them in place.  (Be sure to test any marking pen first on a scrap of fabric first to be certain it will 'disappear' from your project - also note that FriXion pen marks are known to 'reappear' in cold temperatures.)

Before fixing the teapot lid I sewed the looped piece of Soldier ribbon in place as the handle.

With everything ironed and permanently fixed in place I freemotion scribble-stitched two or three times around the pieces and within minutes it was all done.

 I love, love, love how easy raw edge applique is and if you're interested in learning more click through to any of my other applique tutes below:

And photos of that finished block

  with a closer look at the scribble stitching,

and the tea pot lid/handle

and a peep at the back.

I've put so much of me and my home country into creating this block, I do hope Emily loves it as much as I do.

And now I think it's time for a well earned cup of tea x

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Giant HST Quilt Tutorial - (AKA My Turn To Be Queen Bee)

Hard to believe it's almost December again and that means it's my turn to be Queen Bee in our NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild Bee.

When my daughter Flicky went off to uni she took her quilt with her (My Very First Ever Quilt) so I want to replace it for her trips home and I'm asking my Bee friends to help me.

My inspiration is this 3.5'  x 3.5'  box framed copy of Warhol's Marilyn Monroe hanging in our apartment over Flicky's bed.

I want a quilt that’s abstract, bold and bright so I've designed this Giant HST quilt.  At this extra busy time of year, I like to make my Bee Blocks super quick and easy and it really doesn't come much easier than HSTs plus they have such great impact.

I’ve sent everyone a fat quarter (fq) of Charcoal Kona Solid and asked them to add a fq from their given colour group to make me two giant HST blocks.  Colours are divided into four groups so I’ll hopefully receive blocks across the full-colour range and not 22 blocks of one colour!

Bee Members are to choose a colour from their colour group:

Group 1: Red/Orange/Yellow - Earamichia/Judith/Kim

Group 2: Pink/Purple – Andrea/Maria/Rossanna

Group 3: Lime/Green/Turquoise – Brian/Ariana/Maren

Group 4: Blue/Aqua – Emily N/Emily K

I've asked everyone to keep fabric colours rich – I’m looking for saturation and intense colour and brightness within these colour palettes.  They can use solids or tone on tone prints – brights with an intensity of colour, trying not to use pastels or white.  I’ve used a tiny amount of white in a handful of my sample blocks but the overall feel of these fabrics is still of vibrant colour and the white isn’t the main player.

I also want seams pressed open (so the finished blocks will lie as flat as possible) and blocks returned to me untrimmed.

If you've stuck with me this far you might be looking for the tute here it is!!!

Giant HST Quilt Tutorial

Materials:

For my quilt Kona Solid Charcoal is the 'main' fabric used in every HST block then I've used a selection of brights.  For each block, you'll need 2 fqs - 1 x main and 1 x bright.

To make this 36 x HST square quilt top you'll need:

 4.5 yds main fabric and 18 bright fqs (equivalent to 4.5 yds)

The finished quilt top size will be 96" x 96".

Making The Blocks:

Cut your main fq and your bright fq down to two 17.5” square blocks.  This is a slightly larger square than you need to make a 16.5" finished HST block but cutting at 17.5" is visually easier and will give extra wiggle room when trimming down to size, by all means cut smaller if you're confident in your cutting and sewing.

I'm cutting through 3 layers at a time here as you can see above.

To cut my 17.5" squares I've lined up my 12.5" square ruler along it's 11.5" line and then placed my long 6" wide ruler next to it - giving me a 17.5" line. 

Above you can see how I've used the 11.5" line of the ruler along the edge of the fabric.

Draw a pencil line across one diagonal of the 17.5" square.  If your ruler isn't long enough then use another ruler to extend fully across the fabric as I have above.

Place the two fat quarters right sides together (consider the drawn line to be the ‘wrong’ side of your main fabric block).

Sew a ¼” seam on one side of your drawn line using your drawn line as your guide.

Then repeat a 1/4" sewn seam on the other side of the drawn line.

This is how your sewn blocks will look with two parallel lines of stitching.

Cut along your drawn line to create 2 giant HSTs.

Press seams open to create a flatter block and subsequent smoother quilt finish for this modern quilt.

Trim blocks down to 16.5" squares.

Below is a photo of the blocks I've made - I need 36 blocks in total and my fellow Bees will be making me 22 (hopefully!) so I've made 14 blocks myself to finish the quilt.

Completing The Quilt Top:

Joining the blocks - use a 1/4" seam to join all blocks in a row, then join all rows to form the quilt top.  Pay particular attention to the seams, nesting and pinning as necessary to ensure accurate seam joints - (see my Easy Scrappy Nine Patches tute to learn how to nest seams).  Press seams open.

As always you can check out all the blocks that our Bee make for my Giant HST Quilt on my Quilty - Giant HST Block Pinterest Board - I'll add more pins as each person in the Bee posts photos of their finished blocks and you can see my NYC Mod Quilt Guild post here too.


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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.