Stacked Windmill quilt

I really love this book!

I made most of the blocks for the quilting bee I was in a couple of years ago.

I finally finished my quilt, it's machine quilted and bound.

Every block has the same theme, but each one is different.

I love the slate grey, I think it frames the blocks really well.

Each post has a different black and white print.

I love the little mustaches on this one!

Notice the beautiful all over swirl that my quilter/friend Cindy Paulson used when she machine quilted it.

The background is a Free Spirit purple with drops of yellow and white.

I used a different purple for the binding and I love how it contrasts against the slate and the purple back!

I made this quilt as a gift, but am going to have a very difficult time parting with it...

Modern Instate - December & January

I finished up my Modern Instatebee, Hive 11 membership.

It was a great experience, I was sent 10 beautiful blocks and made 11 blocks every month for others.

(One of the ladies dropped out of the bee after she received all of her blocks, which was disappointing)

December's block was the Stacked Windmill, it was the most popular block.

The hive member chose red, aqua and gray, with Kona white for the background.

January's block was Trellis Crossroads, this is the first one I made.

There are 30 blocks in the quilt, so the hive member said that she would love 2 blocks if we had the time.  

She has 4 young children and works full-time as a teacher.

I thought that anyone with that work load and who is also a member of a quilting bee, and is very nice (Ha ha!) deserves at least 2 blocks!!!

She didn't want any reds, pinks or browns, and loves purple.

It was a little difficult not choosing any reds or pinks since they seem to be the colors I have the most of, and I don't have much purple, but I did my best :)

These blocks look really great together, with their bright, happy colors!

I loved this book, I highly recommend having it in your library.

They sell it at Joann's, need I say more?

Stacked Windmills

As you may have read on my blog before, I joined a virtual quilting bee through Instagram.

This is the book that the bee is based on, each member in the hive can choose any of the 13 quilts when it's their month.

My month was October and I chose the Stacked Windmill block.

This block is made from charm packs and each block is sewn in a really different way, by stitching all around two 5" blocks and then cutting and pressing them :)

I wanted the center to be pink, the background to be a black or grey text fabric and the rest of the block to be yellow and gray.

All of the hive members are superbly awesome except one.

She dropped out after she received all of her bee blocks, the second month, oh well....

I already knew this, so I just made an extra block, easy peasy!

This is a look at all of the blocks I received on "happy" mail days :)

I think they look fantastic together, with all of their varying shades of pink, yellow and gray.  

Can you believe that not one single hive member used the same text fabric?

I've always wanted to use text fabric as a background and I used this opportunity to do so.

This isn't necessarily the order that the blocks will be sewn, either.

I think I want to sash the blocks with a light to medium gray, and I'm not sure about the border yet.

I won't be able to sew these blocks together until the new year.

Christmas planning awaits!

I have included all 12 blocks if you're interested in looking at them.

I think it's fun to look at all the varying designs of fabric that everyone used.

I can hardly wait to finish this quilt, I have loved the process and the kindness, generosity and friendships of the other hive members.

Modern Instate - November

This is the book that our modern instabee chooses their blocks from.

Ziggy Stardust is the name of this month's block.

It's unusual, isn't it?

A whole quilt of these blocks, I think they are placed horizontally and vertically.

I wanted to find a photo to show you, but when I googled Ziggy Stardust, photos of David Bowie came up!!!

Ha ha!!!

Only one two more months for this quilting bee and then it will be over.

Modern Instabee - October

It's my month in our Modern Instabee quilting bee!

I chose the Stacked Windmill block.

I wanted the center block to be pink, the others to be yellow and gray and I wanted the background to be in a black and white text print.

I didn't want to be too specific, because I wanted to enjoy each member's freedom of creativity.

Two women have dropped out of the bee, so I made 2 blocks myself.

I received Kate's block (Nashville, Tennessee) and am so excited!

Isn't it pretty?

She also made me a signature block to sew onto the back of the quilt along with the others.

This is Jansen's block (Fairfax, Virginia), I love the cute little bumblebee in the center, which made me realize that I posted this photo upside down, oops!

I can see the word "Sew" in the text print :)

Ellen (Tampa, Florida) sent me this cute block :)

One of my daughters just moved to Tampa!

Don't they look great together?
Mine are the top 2, and the bottom 3 are from my "hive" friends :)

I'll show you the rest of the blocks as I receive them :)

Modern Instabee - September

I really love this book, it's well layed out and easy to follow.

The quilt patterns are divided into beginner, confident beginner and intermediate.

The blocks are easy and pretty quick which is great for a quilting bee.

This month, our hive member Kate, chose a block named "Bluebell's Cabin", and requested 2 blocks.

See the fabric strip with the bee and the honeycomb?

Kate sent everyone 2 strips of the honeycomb fabric.

To some she sent the blue and green combo and to others she sent a pink and purple combo.

We were to choose the rest of our fabrics to match those colors.

She also sent us all the center blocks, so I chose the background strips to match.

Here's my second block, each one is 12 l/2" unfinished. 

I also made a little signature block.

It's my turn next month, I can hardly wait!

Kate is using these blocks to make a quilt for her young daughter.

Modern Instabee - August

It's time for me to make August's block.

Ellen has chosen the Triple Star, it seems to be the most popular block in our hive.

About 2 months ago, Ellen mailed all the hive members the little center block you see below with the bumble bee.

She said she wants to make her little daughter a quilt for her bed, and that we needed to use bright, happy colors to match the square.

These are the colors I chose :)

Here's the first block.

Here's the second one.

Here's the triple star.

Do you notice how I messed up? Aaaaaggghhhh!!!!

I thought very seriously about leaving it, but I just couldn't.

I had to take off the entire outer star, and re sew the half square triangles together.

How did it happen?

I tried chain piecing instead of laying the pieces out each time I sewed them to make sure they were in the right order.