Shoo fly in blue

Here's my block for Suzanna:



Even though I'd made a practice block, I didn't realize that the order in which one sews the sashing strips makes a difference in how they appear; my block has two adjoining short sides in blue and two long sides in black. Suzanna, if you want me to redo the block, please let me know.

I also have lots of fabric left and I'm tempted to make another one.


Practice block in batiks

--Claudia

Shoo-Fly a Go-Go!

Here's my block for Suzanna - I love all the jewel tones she sent and I had a hard time settling down on selecting my final choices for this block.  Inspired by Madeline, I think I'll make a second block with the fabric that didn't make it into this one.  It's a addictive block!  You can make it look so different through fabric choices!

Yesterday, my family and I went up to Ottawa to take my daughter to a meeting, and we had a nice visit with Suzanna and her husband, who used to be our neighbours until very recently.  It's the first time I've ever been able to hand over a bee block in person!  I was green with envy to see Suzanna's dedicated sewing room in their new house, plus her quilts that she has artfully placed around the house.  She showed me the spot she has picked out in the dining room to hang the quilt that we make for her in the Bee.  It's going to look fabulous!

Suzanna's Fun and Jaunty Block #2

Don't ask questions, let's just call it temporary amnesia.  Call it middle age hormonal loss.  Call it the first day of Spring joy.  I made another block for our March lady, Suzanna.

Happy National Quilting Day!

Hooray!  What a great day!  And to celebrate, here's a picture of the Block You Thought You'd Never See:  Jennifer's New York Beauty.  Yes, folks, that's right - we are finished at last!  What's that, you say?  This is March and that block was due in *cough, cough* February?  Yes, well, let's just draw a veil over that small detail.  Here's the block.  Jennifer, please say you subscribe to the "better late than never" school of philosophical thought.

Suzanna's Fun and Jaunty Block

Suzanna's Shoo-Fly block was so fun to make and her instructions were very clear and easy to follow.

I'll post it to you this week.  I hope you like it.  Your fabrics were really pretty together.

Happy Spring!

Suzanna made my heart smile!

You've chosen such perky little blocks for us to make!

Thanks for the comment about the dancing block.

That made my morning!

Here

is your block, my dear.  With some complimentary sunshine from corn country!

Hope you like it!

I will be making more of these and your plastic sheet is going to get used a lot!

Sending this out today with another package.

I've found the Vintage Marketplace and am participating in some swaps.

Love, love vintage bedsheets, fabric and pillowcases.

Have a great day!

Score!

One for the Gipper!

Suzanna's block in test form.

And a new favorite for me.

I just love the simplicity of the block and off set sashing is just way past cool.

These are my three test blocks from our bee.

I'm so glad I joined in and getting to try new things and sew for all of you has been so much fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tackle Today!

What I'm going to be working on today!

The dvd is from mother-in-love to borrow and browse on my computer.

She's such a sweetie.

Onto great things today in making my test block for Suzanna!

Amazing Use of New York Beauties

I just stumbled across this quilt on Flickr and had to share it with you all. It really struck me as so beautiful.

by flickr user Emma_Louise.

The New York Beauty blocks used, here, seem a bit easier than the ones many of us did for February. The smallest pieced curve looks to be bigger (at least bigger than what I pieced). That's where I had most of my troubles and it sounds like, from the comments, others did, too. I also absolutely love the detail in the corner of the block to form such an awesome center.

I think I could manage four more NYBeauty blocks to have something as stunning as this!

March blocks are in the mail

On Friday, March 5, I mailed the March fabric and instructions. Given how long it's taken family greeting cards to get to and from Florida, I imagine it'll be at least a week before anyone in the US receives their fabric.

This month we're going to make shoo fly blocks, then set them off kilter. The photo from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking was taken down due to concerns about copyright. (This wonderful book is out of print, but much of it is also covered in Liberated Quiltmaking II, published just last month.)

If you enlarge or zoom in on the image, you will see the variety of fabrics Gwen used. Our quilt will retain some of this spirit, although we're going to have a black background and jewel-toned shoo flies.

Each quilter will receive 5 coloured fabrics, plus black; no two packages are the same. You may use just 1 coloured fabric in your block, or more if you wish. The reason I sent so many fabrics was to (hopefully) include at least one fabric you'd like well enough to work with.

Most details are covered on the instruction sheet that's in your envelope. And although I tend to overexplain things (cuz few people seem to think like I do), I still managed to forget to include some things, so here goes:

Please sign the back of the block or pin your name onto it somewhere. Like Jennifer, I'll be making a suitable label identifying you all.

If you want to keep a strip or charm square from each of the leftover fabrics, feel free; otherwise please return any leftovers of 5” or larger.

If words on the instruction sheet look improperly spelled it's probably just Canadian spelling, except for "shoo fly", where I inexplicably added a hyphen all over the place.

When you get your package you may wonder why I included a flimsy, clear 8” square. I didn't want to assume that everyone had a large square ruler; after all, some folks might square up by using the lines on their cutting mat. The square I included will give you a window on your block, and you can line up an acrylic ruler to the edge of the square and trim. (My apologies to whomever is missing their square --I had one left over after stuffing the envelopes.)

Naturally, feel free to email or post any questions. I made one of these quilts as a baby gift for my neice 5 years ago and if I can find the photo I'll post it. It was fun and now I'm looking forward to having a dancing shoo fly quilt for myself. I hope you have fun with this block, too.
Suzanna