I made some quilt blocks

In between trips out of town, I have been finishing my bee blocks for April. In the Modern Stitching Bee, Rebecca from Making Rebecca Lynn asked for x and + blocks in rich colours. I have not made these before, and I have to say that they are not as fussy as I expected.



It took longer to pick the fabrics than it did to make the blocks. I also learned that I truly need to organize my bins of scraps because I keep making scrappy blocks out of the folded pieces of fabric on my shelves instead.



For April in Always Bee Learning, Mary asked for Ogee blocks. As you know, I love sewing curves and in case you have not seen it, my video for sewing curves is here. As Mary had cut the "L" shapes exactly to the 1/2 inch required for these blocks, there was no room for error but once I got going it was not hard. When I make curves that are trimmed so that the curves touch at their centres like this, I generally cut the L shape wider and then trim it down after piecing the curve, so it was nice to see that I could manage it without that safety net too.



Debbie from A Quilter's Table sent her May fabric for Always Bee Learning early and asked for 13" x 7" half rectangle triangles, using the Modern Quilt Guild tutorial, which is here. I found these the hardest of the bee blocks I am showing you today. I checked my 1/4" seam, I measured and cut the fabrics perfectly (I thought at least) and I trimmed them ever so gingerly and carefully but in the end three of them are out by almost 1/8" on one side or the other.  I expect that Debbie can make them work, but I am going to practice this block some more to figure out how to get consistent sizes - I think making them a bit bigger and planning more trimming might be the ticket for me.



These last four blocks are for the Pack Patch Quilt Along. The pictures are deceptive, these blocks finish at 3" x 4" so the ones in the pictures are 4.5" x 3.5". Chase from quarter inch mark is giving inspiration for two of these tiny blocks a week and I could not resist. This first one is "my true colours".



This one is "favourite colours". I have to say that I love all the colours, but the day I made this one, these were my favourites.



This one is "April showers". We also had April snow here.



And this last one is "May flowers". It is not too late to join this QAL, the blocks take about 10 minutes to make and they are so cute.

I am back in town for a couple of weeks now, regular sewing and blogging should be possible again.

Best,

Leanne