Tag Archives: bee blocks

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I love an opportunity to play and my monthly improv bee blocks always offer me that chance.

In May, Ellyn selected a happy palette of colors for us to play with. Her theme was Shine. She shared this quote along with her prompt:

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present."

--Frances Bacon

Together with the theme of Shine, Ellyn asked us to use a variety of saturated sunshiny colors (inspiration list below) with a little Kona Lagoon (a turquoise which she provided) in each block.

Oranges: Tangerine, Kumquat, Orange, Orangeade
Cool Pinks: Bright pink, Candy pink, Sassy Pink, Bubblegum, Carnation, Peony,
Pink
Warm Yellows: Papaya, Sunny, Duckling, Corn Yellow, Canary

Pretty early on I knew I wanted to do something with radiating lines. Then I decided on a ring made of radiating lines. Here's the process on my first block:

My first step was to sew together wedges to make an approximate circle of fabric. I wasn't planning to use the center so I didn't concern myself with everything coming together neatly in the middle. I pressed my seams open (my general preference).

Using templates (not shown) I cut a hole out of the center of my pieced wedges and a coordinating piece of yellow to fill in the hole. Due to the bulk of the pieced seems I pressed this seam to the center. (You'll see that below.)

My next step was to use my template to cut the outer edge of my ring. I drew my templates on the dull side of freezer paper so I could iron the shiny side in place in order to cut my fabric.

You can see above that I cut with 1/4" seam allowance around that template piece. The marks you see were registration marks I transferred to my fabric on both pieces to use for lining things up and pinning in place.

Here's a quick peek of the back at this point. One thing you might notice here is that there are two lines on stitching on that first seam around the center yellow piece. This is because I did a stay stitch on the inner edge of the ring, 1/8" from the edge, before attaching it onto the yellow. I was worried since the ring was the concave edge for the next seam. When sewing curves together the concave piece gets stretched a bit. This stay stitch meant I didn't pop the seams in the ring. The important part of the stay stitch was across the seams, so on the wider strips of fabric I broke the thread so I could do the necessary stretch while sewing that seam.

My final step was to attach the background yellow and trim the block to about a 12 1/2" square.

The second block that I made for Ellyn is composed of improv quarter circle blocks with filler pieces to bring the block up to 12 1/2" square.

I hope you have a sunshiny day!

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Instead of two larger blocks, Ellyn asked us to make a pile of mini blocks in clear, bright colors for her August prompt. I chose three of the four colors that she assigned us, based on what was plentiful in my fabric stash. She asked for oranges, blues, aquas, and yellows. I didn't have enough variety in true blues, so I stuck with the other three. "Piecing can be any improv technique you like... anything goes!" A true opportunity to play!

The first thing I did was pull fabrics, anything from a small scrap up to yardage. I started with all my smallest bits as I began piecing.

I'm a chain piecer whenever possible. I like to pair up a bunch of fabrics and then line them up at the machine to sew many seams in one go.

Sometimes I have a plan for what will go on after the current seam. In the case of the block above, the right edge is the seam I'm about to put through the machine (top view on the left, bottom view on the right). I have pinned on the next two pieces I'm adding on to this triangular center to keep the pieces together. This helps me stay organized, even when I am working on many blocks at once. After I sew the seam on the right edge, I'll unpin my extra pieces at the ironing board to press my seam and then this block goes back in the queue to attach one of the light orange pieces next.

Ta da! I made Ellyn twenty 4 1/2 inch blocks. That orange triangle block from below is in the bottom left corner.

This is one of my favorites. Often the piecing in random improv blocks is dictated by the shape of my scraps and I love seeing what happens.

The best part of a prompt like this for me is that the finished units all look cohesive, but if you look closely you can see the personality of each maker in the design decisions they made in their piecing.

Ellyn has already put together her quilt top!

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Our July prompt for Quilts Unscripted Bee was from E.A. She asked us to make two 13" blocks, one in solids and one in blenders. We could choose any color combination for each block and piece in any style of improv. We were asked to ideally use the two colors equally in each block. And we were encouraged to consider choosing our high school's colors for one of the two blocks.

I went with maroon and grey for the solids, maroon being the school color of my high school. My fabric choices were Kona Garnet and Kona Iron (I think). For this block I started with two rectangles of fabric approximately the same time. I sewed them together, then trimmed pieces off, leaving the remaining parts approximately equal areas. I sewed the opposite fabric onto each side and repeated, cutting and moving pieces around always keeping an eye on staying about 50/50 with each color.

For my second block, I chose purple and teal blenders from my stash. I made a bunch of improv 4-patch units in varying sizes and then arranged them to puzzle together into an oversized square, purposefully avoiding a full checkerboard layout specifically because the units were different sizes. I added a little bonus teal to fill out to square.

This was a fun opportunity to play since we had free rein on style of piecing. E.A. also asked for a signature block for each block (since she intended to make one quilt from the solids and one quilt from the blenders). I included a bit of my scrap fabric in each signature block.