November Blocks!

This month you'll be making concentric square blocks.

Size: 10" square (finished)
Colors: yellow, grey, white, and/or light blue

Other guidelines:

• Press seams open (if you’re worried about the seams unravelling, just shorten your stitch length a little bit and everything should be fine)
• Don’t feel like you have to use all of the same fabric in a given “ring” of the block – a scrappier look is ok
• The "rings" can be any width you like (all of the "rings" don't have to be the same width in a given block)
• Not more than three “rings” surrounding the center square
• Non-wonky, please
• I’m going for something light, fresh, and clean

I'm pretty sure no one needs a tutorial for this block (it's pretty basic), so I didn't put one together, but if you want to see some photos of a block like this coming together, here's a pretty good link.  (Scroll down about half way, past all the cutting instructions, since those don't apply here.)

Let me know if you've got any questions, and thank you in advance for your lovely creations!

For Paula

I'm a little late in posting this... it's been way too long since I've pulled photos from my camera.  These blocks were handed off at the October meeting of the KCMQG. 






I really like the orange block.  Hope you liked them Paula!  I had fun working on these for you!

Sortofacircle!

My block for Jaime was really fun to make.  I liked it so much that I have plans for making more! It's not a perfect circle but, hopefully the eye will be deceived into thinking that it is!  I used techniques from the book Cutting Curves from Straight Pieces by Debbie Bowles. I added three fabrics to Jaime's denim, gaberdine and voile......charcoal and ash Kona and the polka dot. (I think it might be by Kaffe Fassett.)

The curves were really easy. The book suggested stopping and raising the pressure foot every few stitches but I found that raising the foot was not necessary if I  concentrated on sewing what was just in front of my foot.  And.......no pins were used in the making of this block!! To see another block I made using this pattern, visit my blog lollyquiltz
Happy quilting,
Carla

Circles for Jaime

Circles for Jaime, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I hope you like these, Jaime. I promise that what appears to be orange is not... it's more of a rose color. Forgive the photo quality!

These are bullseye blocks. Raw edges and lots of fun to make. :)

I've been trying to mark some things off of my to do list in the sewing department because I've got so many things I want to accomplish before Christmas...

This was fun to do and only took a couple of hours tonight. I was able to use a couple of wools and silks from my stash, along with lots of cottons, too.

Thanks for helping me think outside the box, Jaime!

Short Month...

Just a reminder to everyone that we have a quicker turn around than normal for our next KCMQG meeting, and therefore a week less to get Jaime's block done if we're going to turn it in at the meeting.  The next meeting is the first Thursday in November, which is November 4...  A little less than 3 weeks from now...

And also, I thought I'd remind you to make a little something to swap for the holidays for our guild meeting.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make, but I think I'd better get busy!  Not much time between now and then!

I just had a little online shopping spree...  Bought some Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas (a lot)...  Might make something from that and throw in an ornament or two...

What are you guys thinking of making?

What a meeting!

What a great guild meeting we had on Thursday with Cherri House from Cherry House Quilts! Really inspirational. It inspired me to go home to my sewing room and touch fabric! We also received our fabric for the October block from Jaime. She gave us some scraps from the clothing she has made and gave us the opportunity to make our own creation to include her fabrics. I got some corduroy and denim and voile and a scrap of deep rose cotton. I have begun the adventure of making a few blocks for Jaime. Thought I would share!

Hannah's Block for Paula

I finished this block quite awhile ago (it's nice to not be rushing around at the last minute for a change!), but I forgot to show everyone.  Here it is:

 

Hope you like it!

Wonky Star for Paula

I had fun digging for orange fabrics to make this wonky star for you, Paula.  Hope you like it!

The bluebirds of happiness are sure cute!  What a fun quilt you are going to have.
Happy quilting,
Carla

Paula's Bluebird of Happiness: Block 3

Paula's Bluebird of happiness, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

This one's Paula's favorite of the 3. My favorite, too!

Paula's Bluebird of Happiness: Block 2

Paula's Bluebird of happiness, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I thought I'd be a little daring and add some orange batik. GIves it a pop, doesn't it?

Paula's Bluebird of Happiness: Block 1

Paula's Bluebird of happiness, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I had some fun with these little bluebirds tonight. So much fun that I made 3 blocks!

A Mug Rug for Paula

An extra mug rug for Paula, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I've not made any wonky stars before, so tonight I got out Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston and gave myself a crash course.

This is a 6 inch block. Paula's requesting 12 inch (finished) blocks, but since she gave us a whole fat quarter of her bluebird fabric, I thought I'd practice a bit before diving in seriously.

I had to re-do two of the four units with triangles in them. I think this is something that will get easier as I do more of them and it's a fun block to make, that's for sure.

I enjoyed using some of my solids and was lucky enough to be able to match up the colors of the light blue and green fabric pretty well. The orange border is a batik that brings out the detail in the leaves and the birds' beaks. The binding is some stuff I recently used for my Urban Swap table runner. It's a few years old. I think it's Free Spirit, but am not sure of the line.

Instead of giving Paula an extra block that's 6 inches big, I decided she might want a mug rug to go with her quilt, so I whipped this together pretty quickly tonight. Paula's in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap with me on Flickr. If you haven't heard of it, you should check it out!

Enjoy, Paula!

For Toni, by Jessica

Talk about last minute, I finished these blocks for Toni last night.  I had fun making them, though!  They were pretty low stress and a lot of fun to make! 





I used this tutorial to make these.  I eyeballed them though, because I thought it would make them a little more "scrappy" looking.  I like the second block better.  I think it has more personality: it's fatter, has a striped body, and a brighter wing color.  :)

I found this black fabric in my stash and thought it looked pretty organic and vine-ey.  I had just enough to finish two blocks.  I used my color wheel to pick out a complimentary color to use as the body for the butterflies. 

I left the blocks kind of a weird size because Toni didn't specify a final size.  I trimmed them to the biggest rectangle I could and figured Toni could slice them as necessary to fit them into the quilt. 

Hope you like them!  I had fun making them for you.  :)

Hannah's Block for Toni

 

Here is the block I made for Toni.  I had a really hard time figuring this one out, but I'm happy enough with how it turned out (I mean, you can tell it's a butterfly, right?).  The solids are Kona Ash and Kona Sky (it looks like white, but it's really a very very pale blue).  I'm hoping to have more info about how I pieced it on my blog very soon.

Unfortunately, I won't be at the guild meeting on Thursday (my husband's sister is getting married down in Houston this weekend.  I'm actually on the airplane getting ready to fly down there right now), so the block is in the mail to you right now, Toni!

Just finished Toni's block and the sig block - Toni, I think you'll like it! Can't find my camera, so no photos, my lovelies - you will see it at the meeting this week!

I now have all my blocks for my month - when I am not super busy with school I will put them all together. They are so amazing - such an amazing gift from a fun group of ladies!