Bees and BOMS: July

July was a big month for bee blocks! Literally and technically. Sharon’s blocks forced me to face my fears of curves, and to great success! I was scavenging my stash for novelty “scenic” prints for her grandson to see as he drives his toy cars along the grey road, and could only pull out leftover charms from Jonathan’s transport I-spy quilt. Mercifully, these were the perfect size to cut my pieces from! Jack The Ripper only came out a few times, and amazingly it all came together rather accurately!

Gina was the second Queen Wombat for Round 2 and also the other newbie to our paper piecing bee. She requested fairy tale blocks, and I immediately snapped up designing a fairy tale castle. I turned my grand sketch into a pattern on Quilt Assistant, before emailing it off to Kristy for her expert help in numbering and sectioning it up. I had a grand old time choosing my fabrics, and creating the little windows of people – Little Apples kids, Red Riding Hood and some birds, and a mysterious, magical Little Apples blue tree in the tallest tower… Gina also mentioned that her daughter loves ladybugs, so I snuck one into the castle. Can you find it? And for those who volunteered to pattern test, I haven’t forgotten you! I just haven’t had time to write up the pattern as it’s summer holidays and also toilet training time. Which is going really well! We may even brave our first outing today…

The final bee block was an Octagonal Orb for Margaret. This was a big block in the amount of cutting, and also in finished size, coming in at 16 3/4″ square. If you like repetitive cutting and a whole lotta chain piecing, this block is for you! She asked for bright and scrappy, and I’d say I delivered…

And whilst technically made for August, the Quatrefoil quilt block was sewn in July ready to share the tutorial for the Modern Blocks QAL. If you make one by the end of August, link it up to win a fat eighth Japanese Bundle Club bundle of cool-coloured fabrics from moi!