Gridster Blocks: May

Rachel of The Life of Riley, on Instagram as @rachel_thelifeofriley, was queen of the Gridster Bee this month. She chose literal bee blocks using the Piece by Number Honey Bee Pattern resized to make a 10" block.

You can view Rachel's instructions at her instructional blog post. She requested realistic colors for the bees and a contrasting purple or blue background. My first block, shown below, was a bit too close in value for the brown and orchid background, so I made the block shown above in case it didn't pass quality inspection. I'm sending both blocks, and leaving it up to Rachel.

Thanks for visiting!

Public Service Announcement May 2017

In case you may have missed some of the wonderful quilting-related happenings in the blogosphere, I've got you covered. Disclaimer: I'm a complete enabler when it comes to quilting supply and instruction acquisition when there's a great deal to be had. Furthermore, as reigning queen of UFOs, I'm highly likely to egg you on to start a brand spankin' new project. I won't even show a bit of remorse either. That said, here are some awesome opportunities.
Fat Quarter Shop is having a sale on e-mailed gift certificates (aka instant gratification). I highly recommend scoring one for yourself, whether you're a mother or not (I know, I'm shameless!), and applying it to a Sew Sampler subscription.

I do love Craftsy classes, especially when they're on sale, which brings me to the current sale.

If you're looking for a project (or even if you aren't),  Moda has a super-adorable Be My Neighbor Quilt with free patterns. (Images were pulled from the linked sites.)

 Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland have an epic event going with prizes and great patterns called the Sewcial Bee Sampler.

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild has a captivating Stars Galore BOM, which you can check out on Instagram. It's free too!

 If you appreciate flowers and butterflies, check out the Dandy Drive Quilt Along.

 Cora's Quilts is hosting a mystery quilt along called Gathering.

Alison at Little Bunny Quilts is hosting Christine's Kitchen Quilt Along with a free downloadable pattern on Craftsy. There will be a grand finale with prizes in June.

If all that doesn't keep you busy, kick back with Angela Walters and The Midnight Quilt Show, which I mentioned in a previous post.
That's all for now. I have three kids asleep and can't help but feel I should take advantage of this rarity to catch up on some rest too.

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Snowflake Shimmer

I finished my Snowflake Shimmer Quilt Along top a bit ago, but took a little longer to decide on free-motion designs and complete the quilting. The quilt along and pattern was offered for free from Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. I made some modifications so I would have a checkerboard background and a toddler bed-size finish.

You can see the difference quilting made by comparing with my previous post.

The fabrics are a gray Kaufman Kona, a silver on white Fairy Frost by Michael Miller, Act It Out in Pink by Sara Jane for Michael Miller, and a gray flower print from Bella by Lotta Jansdotter.

In the stars, I did some dot-to-dot ruler work, which I filled in with a different design in each pink star.

In the gray squares, I quilted a combination of swirls, pebbles, and paisleys. Using a combination of designs makes the quilting less tedious and provides more options to avoid getting stuck in awkward spaces.

I marked out lines using a water soluble pen in the white sections before filling in the columns with ribbon candy.

That's one more project I can tick off the list. Honestly it won't make a dent in the UFO pile, but my daughter will be happy she can actually use it now.

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Wonderland Quilt: A Close-Up Look

I'm back with some close-up details from my Wonderland quilt finish, as promised in my previous post.

To represent the caterpillar, I added hookah blocks. The top portion is composed of machine appliquéd bias tube I flipped using a Dritz Quick Turn. The bottom was partially curved piecing, and partially traditional piecing. I employed some serious fussy cutting.

The white rabbit was paper-pieced and quilted with a fur-like free-motion design.

A cake slice, liquid vial, and key were also paper pieced.

You can see one of the many prints I used from Cotton + Steel's Wonderland collection in the paper-pieced hat.

A paper-pieced tea pot and traditionally pieced cup with an appliquéd bias strip handle were added to the sampler.

The roses are improvisational pieced, while my flamingo was paper pieced. I chose free-motion designs to add a touch of realism.

The card suits, with the exception of the paper-pieced diamond, are all raw edge appliqué fused with Steam-a-Seam II Lite, machine appliquéd with a decorative stitch.

The Cheshire cat is a combination of curved piecing, paper-piecing, and machine appliqué. I used a black fabric marker and strategic fabric placement to make the stripes appear continuous.

I hope you enjoyed my closer look. See you soon!
I'm linking up with:

Free Motion Maverick