Tag Archives: bee blocks

Improv “Hope” Blocks • 2 Comments

sarah • November 28, 2022

In May, E. A. asked us to make two-color blocks that contained the word "hope."

For my first block I chose Kona Cerise and green to make some skinny strip letters. My skinny strips finish at 1/8" wide. I created boxy letters improvisationally, but aimed for the letters to all be about the same height. The letters are about 6 1/2" tall and the block finished at about 12" x 10".

In my second block I chose a much lower contrast color combination with dark purple and dark grey. I improv cut all the pieces for my letters in a variety of chunky styles.

Here are my finished blocks and here's a peek at the full quilt.

Improv Confetti Bee Blocks • 2 Comments

sarah • November 26, 2022

In April, Isabelle asked us to make confetti inspired pieces for her. She gave us tons of flexibility in what we made for her. "Please create blocks that are abstract, and feature small pieces (1”-ish) within the design. The percentage of small piecing that makes up the block is less important than the impact of the small pieces used in the overall design of the block. Negative space, strip piecing, curved piecing, geometric design – anything goes."

I pulled out my smallest solid scraps, including some pieced bits. Do you see the legs from my "watch me grow" block for Carole? I just started pairing them up with other pieces that had similar lengths.

Then I chain pieced and repeated the process. At this point, I looked for fun combinations and let the fabric inspire me.

In this set, I focused on a limited palette and made small improv 4-patch units then joined them all with the same dark purple fabric.

The finished piece is about 10" x 8" (and not rectangular).

In this section (about 5" x 7") I focused on the pattern in the geometry as I pieced it.

And in this section (about 5" x 7") I used additional teal "negative space" and repeated the element of the strips from those teal and plum sections that were leftover from blocks I made for Carole.

Since I had been working in green solids a lot around that time, I included a section of green scrappy slab. And some of my smallest sections stayed small.

Here's the whole pile of blocks and bits that I sent to Isabelle. I enjoyed the freedom to create whatever I felt like in the moment and look forward to seeing how Isabelle puts together this puzzle with all the pieces from the ten members of the bee!

Grandmother’s Fan Meets Modern Improv Bee Blocks

sarah • October 5, 2022

In September Elizabeth chose this happy color palette and the traditional inspiration of the Grandmother's Fan quilt block with some guidelines for us to use improv piecing to modernize the block.

I had such fun creating these blocks for Elizabeth. The best part of improv is that the leftover bits that don't fit into one block became the sourdough starter for me to begin the next block. The second best part is that you can't tell where I made "mistakes" cause it's improv and I just rolled with it!