bee friends

Precut fabrics getting ready to be sent out.

As august is my month of the Eurovision Quilters, I am posting a recipe for the "bee friends" block.

The block is inspired by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston's book Collaborative Quilting (Garden party Ladies on page 80).

The bee members will all receive precuts from me. If you would like to join us in making this block, please feel free to cut out:

from background fabric ( I used Kona Sky):

3" * 10" (sky strip) , 2" * 10" (head strip) , 1.5" * 5" (arm strip) , 10" * 10" (dress and legs)

from skin fabric: (I used a fabric from "The roaring '20s and Beyond" line by Betsey Telford)

2" * 2" (head) , 1.5" * 5"(arms) , 1.25" * 6" and 1.25" * 6"(two legs)

from dress fabric: (I used Denyse Schmidt's line Katie Jump Rope and Sandi Klop Wee play)

1.5" * 7.5" (arms) , 6.5" * 7.5" (skirt)

These measures include seam allowance of 1/4 inch and allows for a bit of individual customizing of the blocks. Please read through the post before you start sewing.

Here is the picture of the fabric pieces:

We are making the top part first:

The sky strip (3" * 10") is ready to assemble.

Take the head sky strip (2" * 10") and cut it in two. ( 2" * 5"). Sew the skin fabric to the sky. See picture.

Then we're designing the arm strip. Cut the sky fabric and skin fabric in two and sew them together into 1.5 strip segments.

Then it is time to make your first design decision. How long arms do you want?

I cut my skin fabric into 1" wide. Then I cut my dress fabric down to 7". These three pieces were then sewn together into the arm strip.

All the seams are ironed open. Next sew the three strips together. Iron the seams open. The top of the block is now finished!

Then it's time to make your second design decision. How tall do you want the dress to be?

Center the dress on top of the sky square along the top edge. Move those legs away and make a straight cut. I decided to make my dress 6" tall and made my cut:

Next is your third design decision. What angle to make the legs?

You may choose to make them vertical. That's fine. I made mine angular. Pointing the ruler from the head I found an angle well inside of the skirt width and made two different cuts in the leg strip (4"). See picture below for reference.

Next step is to take the two 1.25" skin fabrics and sew these 5 pieces together into an strip as straight as possible. Press the seams open. (We will square up this strip later.)

It's time for the fourth design decision. How wide is her dress?

Here you have two options. The smart way or the "easy" way.

The smart way:

Take your sky strip (same height as the skirt) and make a vertical cut it in the middle. Put these two background pieces down with an 2" open space between them. Put your dress on top.

The "easy" way:

Center the skirt fabric on top of the sky fabric.

Find an angle that will start at the armpit and end well outside of her legs. Make the right and left cut with different angles if you wish.

Sew together your two sky fabric and the skirt as straight as possible. Press the seams open. (We will square this strip up later on. ) If you chose the smart way, your strip will be wide enough.

If you chose the "easy" way, it will involve an extra step. You take the sky piece that was cut out from underneath her skirt. Divide it in the middle with a vertical cut and add to the two sides of the sky strip to make this wide enough. See picture underneath for reference:

Next, on to your fifth design decision: What angle to choose for the hemline of the skirt, where the skirt meets the legs?

If you go for a straight line. Just straighten up the two edges and sew together.

If you want another angle, like me:

Make sure the leg strip overlaps the skirt strip. Make an angle that is within the double layers. (See picture below.) Cut.

Remove cut offs and sew together these strips. Press the seams open.

Almost there! Just straighten up the arm and skirt with your ruler and sew the top part to the bottom part. I folded mine to make sure the wider bottom part was centered to the top. Sew together. Press seams open.

Time to square up the block. Mine measures 10" * 13". The measures will vary a bit. That's ok! I would like some blocks to be longer, some shorter, and some more narrow, too. Variations make these girls into individuals. You may want to let them resemble your shape: tall, short, slim, wide?

The last step is to sign the block.

I used a plate and a chalk pen to mark a half-circle between the hands (inspired by the Katie Jump Rope fabric from Denyse Schmidt) Please use a permanent marker and write your name above the head of the girl.

That's it!

Sorry for the long post. Hope it is clear and not too confusing. I did my best!

If you wish, please make a test block before you use the precut fabric I sent out. The test block is great as a reference block for you to keep. (This is just a suggestion, you don't have to if you don't want to.)

I am planning to assemble these "bee friends" blocks into a lap or a wall quilt. The full layout is not decided yet. I do have some ideas, and I plan to post about the progress...

; )

Hope you'll enjoy piecing and individualizing these blocks! Feel free to link to this post. And please send me a picture or a link if you decide try them out. I would love to see different versions...

Tutorial spiderweb

As my first blogversary is coming up this month, it is time to get creative. I would like this to be a little gift to all of you who would like to try my take on the old Spiderweb. It is a celebration of the web, and sharing. So I would like to share with you how I make my scrappy Spiderweb blocks. Please read through the entire tutorial before you start. I will try to answer any questions you might have. Please post your questions as comments to this post.

step 1: Your first important design decision, choosing a fabric for the base. This will be the stars, or the background of the spiderweb patter. I chose a solid white: Kona White. You might chose different.

step 2: I cut my base into squares of 12.5"x12.5". Then I make two cuts on the diagonals and end up with 4 triangles. The longest side of each is 12.5". These 4 triangles will later form one block.

step 3: Now I mark each triangle. I fold the long side in half, and make a mark (using a pencil) 1/4" away from the edge along the fold. Then I measure 6" from the 45 degree angled corners and mark with the pencil. The triangle will now have tree marks. Take your ruler. You will draw a line with your pencil 1/4" from the two marks (the 6" mark and the middle of the 12.5" mark.) The line will be on the 45 degree angle corner side of the marks. Repeat with the other side. These two lines will be hidden in your finished blocks.

step 4: Find some scraps for your strips. This is your second important design decision. Decide on what color scheme you will be using for your strips. Again, there is many options. I have restricted mine to using mostly scraps from designers like Heather Ross, Denyse Schmith, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett. Feel free to choose otherwise. This will be an important decision in the design of your quilt.

Assemble your scraps. I cut them into strings of different width; minimum 1.0" - maximum 2.0". You might like smaller and/ or wider. I advise you to sew a few blocks before you cut into all of your scraps. The length of a useful strips is 5". You may precut a few or just use your scissors as you go.

step 5: The fun starts!!!! Take your first triangle, aka base triangle. Choose a strip from your selection. Put the strip right sides together on your base triangle along the line you have marked. Make sure the strip covers the base triangle. Sew with an 1/4 " foot along the side so that the seam is crossing two of the tree marks you made on your base triangle. (Important: The line you marked will line up with the edge of your first strip when you use a 1/4" foot.)

step 6: Fold over your strip and make sure it is covering the base triangle. Choose your next strip ( I prefer some contrast in colors) and position it right sides together, on the first strip. Make sure it covers the edges of the base triangle. Important!!! Fold back your base triangle before sewing the sides of your strips together. You are not supposed to sew the 2. strip onto the base triangle, only the 1. From now, you use the base triangle as guide to make sure your strips are long enough to cover the base triangle. Keep adding strips until you have covered your base triangle.

step 7: Choose your first strip for the other side of the base triangle. As in step 5, sew this to the base. Go on like step 6 until you have covered the base triangle. Your base is supposed to look something like this:

step 8: Press with your iron(I use steam) and turn your base. Be careful to press and not stretch. It will look a bit like this:

Now, using the base triangle (white fabric) as a guide, I cut the edges:

Then I cut away the excess base triangle, one side at a time:

step 9: After making 4 of these triangles I sew them together to form a block;

Tip: Be careful not to stretch the triangles out of shape before they are sewn into blocks. I think is important to chose a sturdy fabric as the base.

Happy sewing, folks ...