Bees And BOMs: February and March

Gemma was February Wombat for our paper piecing Wombat Stew bee. She asked for New York Beauty/Mariner’s Compass/Star blocks – we could choose what level of curves we did or did not want! I had a Google and Pinterest around and decided to attempt this New York Beauty block showcased on Sew Sweetness. I was excited to give it a go and brave the curves, not to mention play with the colours – due to the small pieces, I mostly used solids. Note – if you use any of these block patterns, you will need to go over ALL the lines in a pen so you can see them properly. It was all going swimmingly until it came time to add the final arc to the centre segments.

So. Many. Issues. I unpicked several times, pulled and squished I managed to get the quarter segments together.

But I got there. I did add the corner bits to make them square, but alas I’ve lost that picture! Also, joining the four segments together in a circle would not actually create a very round circle at all, so in true, very-generous style, Gemma said to just send the quarters and she’ll use them abstractly. Thank you so much for your patience, Gemma!!

She was also Pin-prov Queen Bee for January/February. As you can see, a very similar colour palette! These colours are exactly what comes to mind when I think of Gemma – rich, saturated colours with bright contrast. The point of this bee is to draw inspiration from the Queen Bee’s Pinterest board, and then create a full-length (12.5″ x 60″.5) row using her chosen background fabric. The rest is up to us! There were a lot of triangles and strips, so I started off making a few flying geese and cutting up the purple text into strips, and then it all just kinda flowed and happened. I also wanted to make sure there was lots of negative space for Gemma to have fun quilting! And why yes, that’s a magical sideways hanging quilt row.

March’s Queen Wombat, Jane, asked for Smiggle blocks – everyone using the same pattern but in different colours. For those outside of Australia, Smiggle is a stationery store that sells colour-grouped stationery. As in, a whole wall of pink stationery, and of blue, and green, etc. You can see Jane’s Smiggle Pinterest board for a good idea of what the stores are like! I snatched up Pink, having just gotten and thus inspired by my pink colour bundle from Sew Lux Fabric. This was such a fun block for which to choose the fabrics! I decided to get a little coordinating and use the same prints a couple of times to draw it all together – just like a line of stationery!

As for the BOM aspect? Well, I’m woefully behind on the Modern Blocks QAL, but I have started catch up, with a few remaining blocks now cut and ready to piece.