last Monday evening. Our Stitched Studio Modern Bee had our May meeting in June because of the holiday. I received my blocks - oh so much fun! My choice for the block avoided piecing squares and triangles but did involve sewing a circle into a square. As many of you know I've become very, very interested in curve sewing. After relaying my colors of choice and that they could either strippy piece the circle, as in the pattern book, or fussy cut I let them loose. They also could follow the book's instructions, try a method I devised for my inabilities or a couple different videos on circle sewing could be used. Here are the results. The original pattern called for the center stripe to match the background, so it would bleed into the background. That requirement was also removed. While I only wore a uniform in school for 4 years, the sameness scarred me for life.....as you can tell.
oops! pardon Raggedy Ann's legs up there
The lighting in my sewing room has distorted some of the beautiful colors, but they will do wonderfully together. Teal, blue and bright white were the basic colors, the other instructions requested colors that would make a dull day bright. They all do this cheery function.
All types of methods were use:
The beautiful yellow block used the usual raw edge seam sewing. Perfect: no stretching or puckers.
This Busy Bee used raw edged applique by machine, again perfect!
See the slash marks? This method looks like it came from one of the videos. Again - perfect!
Traditional applique, by hand, was of course done by Caroll - my teacher and inspiration! I don't know if she used needle turn or freezer paper with starch...will have to ask.
Up close, this view shows the front view.
Below are the signature blocks we also give with our blocks. We had such a fun discussion about this pattern because of the challenge it presented. Matching the sig blocks with the large blocks is a quilter's version of Where's Waldo. The strippy blocks are clues to the worker Bee!
Thank you one and all. I love all of them and the diversity. Such a great challenge! After experimenting from my stash and shopping trip, here are the fabrics for the QAYG backs and connecting lattice.
The circles highlight my colors and the square, the green I love and the navy will connect and frame the squares.
I'm sure Stitched Studio is taking names for another hive to start. Contact the store at 616-570-0369. We meet at the store and we have a couple ladies come from the Middleville/Hastings area and I believe two come from the Portland/Lansing area. We are a very special group....start one of your own! Here is the store's
website. You can also follow us on Instagram at
#stitchedstudiogrmodernbee
If you are interested in learning the technique for machine sewing a circle into a block the internet obviously has many videos available. While I don't really want to be a commercial promoter,
Missouri Star Quilt Company has a plethora of tutorials to help us all, including sewing circles into a square.
Again, thanks to all my fellow Bees.
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