Spotted: A Rainbow of Spider & String Blocks

I am loving spiderweb and string blocks lately and thought how pretty they'd be in a rainbow color scheme ... how's this for a gorgeous source of inspiration?

(credit: flossyblossy)


(credit: give.it.a.go)


There's lots of tutorials for spiderweb blocks:
spiderweb blocks
spiderweb block - no paper
spiderweb block - paper pieced
spiderweb block - using selvages



(credit: Stitches&Scissors)


(credit: bellaandmolly)


(credit: staarlight)


And for string blocks as well:
block-o-strings tutorial
paper-pieced string block
string quilt block



(credit: Q_uilted T_hrifted)


(credit: asquared(w))


Do you have any other tutorials for these blocks you've used? Are you liking string and spiderweb blocks as much as I am?



(credit: Rachel-B)


(credit: Rachel-B)


(credit: knitterleigh)

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Pick Five Monday: Meghan's Orange and Aqua edition

This weeks Pick Five Monday was done by the awesome Meghan, the Thrifty Quilter.  Meghan is one of my favorite Flickr friends and I was excited she wanted to do a guest post.  I love her quilting style and I knew she'd have awesome picks -- which she did.  Here's what she had to say:


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My Flickr name is ThriftyQuilter, and I am the bee mama of the Bee in my Bonnett, which is actually my first VQB. I couldn't do it without all the helpful tips from the Quilting Bee Blocks blog, and of course all the wonderful ladies in the bee! I also blog at thriftyquilter.blogspot.com.


When I picked orange and aqua as my theme, I had no idea how many orange and aqua blocks would have Heather Ross print mixed in! Those little goldfish are just too cute to leave out, though...

(by LynetteRusselDesigns for the Fussy Cut Bee)

I love, love, love how much is going on in this block! I'm sure it was frustrating dealing with so many seams, but the final effect is very much worth it in my opinion. And the teeny fussy-cut in the center is just icing on the cake.

(by LilysQuilts for Busy Bees)

There are a lot of things I love about this block, the fussy-cut center, the thin black and white mini-borders around the nine small rectangles, the beautiful, bold colors... The longer I looked at it, though, the more I started to see the kind of off-kilter symmetry. The left and right rectangles on the middle row are the same print, only turned different directions; and the corners match diagonally.

(by BlueElephantStitches for the Three by Six Sampler Quilt Mini Bee)

I am having a love affair with flying geese, so I had to include this block. My favorite "goose" is the creatively cropped dog — his head is cut off, but his tail is still wagging!

(by JulieFrick for One Shiny Bee)

Talk about a scrapbuster! In the description on the photo page, Julie wrote that she was playing with the pieces she had left over and "this image came to mind of this one girl I had remaining, swimming in the ocean at sunset." I love how beautifully her inspiration came together with teeny scraps, and also her choice to cut it into a circle and appliqué it to a background square.

(by PatchworkDuck for Hip to Bee Square)

Orange and aqua just scream summertime — and little orange fishies swimming in clear blue water. I love the big, stirp-pieced fish with the teeny goldfish print background in the block on the left, and the octopus, mermaid and dolphins swimming under the sailboat in the block on the right — more Heather Ross!


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Thanks, Meghan!  Loved your picks!

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Featured: Charity Quilting Bees

The online community in general is such a giving group of people - and the Virtual Quilting Bee community is no exception.  Here's two Quilting Bee projects I've come across recently with a charity spin to them - both are awesome groups and both great opportunities for you to get involved in something that helps get a beautiful handmade quilt into the arms of someone very deserving.

Rachel (stitchedincolor on Flickr) started do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} when she wanted to make something beautiful and practical for children in need.  Her original group consists of quilters collaborating on quilts for the Wrap them in Love group, a charity providing quilts to children around the world.  Here's a little more about the bee in Rachel's words:

"do. Good Stitches is becoming a multi-circle group, with each sewing circle consisting of 10 members. Each circle will make quilts to benefit a specific charity. For example, my current bee members are group "love". Their quilts are being made for Wrap Them in Love. Two new circles are soon to launch: "peace" with quilts benefiting children in war-torn countries and "faith" with quilts benefiting a Christian orphanage in Africa. My goal is to keep adding groups! I welcome new stitchers and quilters to contact me about joining in or simply make a request to join from our Flickr group page. I am also looking for circle "hosts", who will lead these groups by keeping track of the quilting schedule. Charity suggestions welcome! Please let me know if you are passionate about getting involved, and would be interesting in hosting a circle."

She has lots more information about the group & how to get involved on the do. Good Stitches Flickr page, so make sure to visit them there.

Rainbow around the block is another charity bee collecting blocks to be made into quilts benefiting families in Middle Tennessee that lost their homes to the severe flooding this Spring.  Fabric designer Anna Maria Horner is the driving force behind this project, which is accepting 12.5"x12.5" unfinished blocks in a monochromatic color scheme in any patchwork style that you'd like.  What I love about this project as well is that Anna Maria had her kids color a quilt block on paper that she then turned into a quilt block tutorial for you!  So far she has Isabela's Argyle Quilt Block (.pdf) and Joseph's Square in a Square Block (.pdf) - both which are darling.  Here's a little more information from the Rainbow around the block website:

"Not everyone can be on the front lines of an effort like flood cleanup and rebuilding, but we believe that there is always a way to help. So many families lost their homes, cars, and all their belongings during the floods of May 2010 in Middle Tennessee. As they begin their rebuilding process, we hope to combine the efforts of generous quilters nationwide in order to make as many quilts as possible to distribute to families who are in need of new items for their homes. It is a simple mission, but its one that we hope will be far reaching and one that will give homemade comfort to as many people as possible."

They have both information on their blog as well as a great Flickr group showing the blocks made so far.

Both of these groups are doing great things and if you have any extra time or fabric, I know they'd love for you to get involved.  Tell them Quilting Bee Blocks sent you!

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Pick Five Monday: Shayla's Strip Tease edition

Today we have a Pick Five Monday brought to you by Shayla (flickr: sharpshayla | blog: Raggie Girls).  Just as a reminder Pick Five Monday is a feature here on Quilting Bee Blocks where I have a member of our Virtual Quilting Bee community "pick five" blocks from the group Flickr pool that they're loving.  It can be five blocks in a theme or just five random blocks they're loving this week.  If you want to do a Pick Five Monday for the blog, email me!  I'm always in need of guest posters.  This week Shayla had a terrific idea for a Pick Five Monday theme so I'll just let her take it away!

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About me: I admin Bee White Black and Sew Buzzy quilting bees. I participate in Moody Blues Bee, Scrap Happy and Bee Scrappy bees. I also participate in some swaps: S.T.U.D. (Swap Til You Drop), Doll Quilt Swap 9, Charming Mini Quilt Swap, Fabric Postcard Swap and Hoop Up! Stitch and Send Swap (embroidery).

Pick 5 Topic: Strip Tease (blocks made primarily with strips (or strings) of fabric)

Strips are such a simple thing but when combined right they give stunning effect.

(block made by tingtongandthings)

1.  The classic string block yields endless variation and is a great way to use up scraps. These have a solid center strip that is uniform in size and color throughout all the blocks which lends organization to the overall quilt and gives the eye a resting point while random sized strips allow the block the randomness of a scrap quilt. Coordinated prints keep the entire quilt from appearing visually busy and overdone but still gives the scrappy look that is so much a part of string quilts.

(block made by flossyblossy)

2. A spiderweb block is another great example of using strips. This block in particular grabs my attention not only with the gorgeous summery colors but also the fussy cut center. While most spiderweb blocks use a solid color center, this one takes it that step further, showing that a little extra planning and work can really set your design apart from the rest!

(block made by OhFransson)

3. This block just sums up the idea of a modern block--clean lines, bold graphics, well distinguished coloring. The simplicity of the lines combined with the random widths of the wedges add visual interest where straight even strips with such a simple color scheme would have been a bit of a yawn.

(block made by Miss Monny Quilts)

4. Working with strips doesn't mean you have to end up with a square shape. Who would have seen straight strips of fabric and thought hearts? Careful piecing, clean applique and just a touch of hand embroidery really makes this block memorable. I could see this block all sorts of places--quilts, pillows, wall hangings, placemats, fabric postcards...

(block made by Flaun)

5. This circle block combines the linear lines of the fabric strips with bold graphic patterns for a contemporary block with stunning effect.

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Thanks so much, Shayla!

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Featured Bee Member: Brioni of flossyblossy

It's time for another Featured Bee Member.  This week I talked to Brioni (flickr: flossyblossy |  blog: flossyblossy) and ohmygosh guys, if you haven't met her yet - get prepared to be blown away.  This girl does SO much in the Virtual Quilting Bee community.  I adore her blog, too, because I get to hear her say things like "poor bugger", "multi story car park" and "nip over" since she's from the UK.  What is it about us Americans being obsessed by all things English?!

Again I asked her some questions which she so graciously answered, and also sprinkled some of her bee blocks throughout. For some serious eye candy visit her Flickr set of all her bee blocks!

How did you first hear about and how long have you been involved in Virtual Quilting Bees?

I think the first one i became involved with was the Quilt Around the World Bee. It is a round robin involving 24 people scattered around the world – UK, US, Brazil, The Netherlands and Australia. I can’t even remember where i heard about it but it started in May last year. Finished quilts are arriving at their new homes as we speak and i think i have 2 blocks left to make. I have been involved in Virtual Bees since i found you lovely lot on Flickr just over a year ago!

What bees are you involved in?

I am involved in:
Quilt Around the World
Quilt Around the World - Christmas
The Euro Bee
Eurovision quilters
Busy Bees
Bee Addicted 3
A Spider Bee

Quilt Around the World finishes soon, and i have 3 finishing in September and one in December so that will lighten the load a bit. Well....that’s until i sign up for another couple - as i just can't resist.

Pick one of your most favourite blocks that you've made in the past for a bee - a block that you had a particularly hard time sending back to its owner because you loved it so much:

I think it has to be this one i made for Dallas for her month of Eurovision Quilters Bee :

The brief was to make a block to represent where you live or where you dream of living. This looks like the row of houses i live in (but obviously they are not multi-coloured!). This was a block that i knew instantly what i wanted to make and it came up exactly how i wanted it to.

What type of blocks / themes are you thinking about for your next turn in one of your bees?

Busy Bees is the only one that i haven’t had my month yet.
This bee is a real dream Bee and is full of really talented and inspirational people and i am trying to come up with something that is what i want, but without stifling everyone creativity. I am thinking about asking for mini houses but with a slight twist, but am also leaning towards circle trees. I have until September to decide so i suspect I’ll change my mind a few times.

Pick one block from the QBB Flickr group that you're loving at this moment and tell us why:

I can only choose 1????
If i can only choose 1 then i guess it is this one:

(block made by Sara for Buzz Cuts)

My current obsessions are both blocks made with tiny tiny pieces, and dots of any kind. This ticks all the boxes.
I am desperate to make a quilt like this but I am trying to be strong and resist until i get my WIP list down.

What takes up your time, outside of sewing?

Work! I work full time and that takes 9 ½ hours out of my day. If I then deduct sleeping time and time i need to eat, that only leaves about 2 ½ hours a day for sewing.
I do suck a bit of that time back though by taking the train to work and working on a hand stitched project, but it’s still never enough! I am counting on winning the lottery pretty soon so i can stay home and sew all day every day!

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Are you an active member in the Virtual Quilting Bee community and want me to feature you on Quilting Bee Blocks .com?  Email me - I'd love to hear from you! Don't be shy :]

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The Master List - updated

Get your diet Coke or other drink of choice ready and prepare to spend a lot of time surfing through some Bee goodness .... we've got a massive update today to the Master List of Virtual Quilting Bees!

Mid Mod Quilt Bee: Quilters using mid-century modernism as a touchstone as they create quilts together.

Bee Liberated: A bee with blocks to be based on the processes described in Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting and Liberated Quilting II

Bee Modern Too: The second round of a fabulous year of our Bee Modern Quilting Bee. We have some of the same members and some new members, but we have one thing in common. We all love "beeing" Modern Too.

Row 10: 10 quilters, 10 months, each making one row of a quilt each month.

Bee Germany: a virtual quilting bee with all members living in Germany.

Moody Blues Bee: A 16 month long block swap focusing on the wonderful color blue in all its many shades.

Putting the Bee in Christmas: A less than six-month six member bee all about Christmas fabrics!

do. Good Stitches {a charity bee}: a group of quilters working together to create something beautiful for children in need. (Watch for a special feature on this awesome bee later this week!)

Modern 12 Bee: a virtual quilting bee 12 modern quilters & fabric lovers, we will run 12 months at a time!

Sew Bee Wonky: Are you a little odd? Do you prefer life askew? No need to conform to straightness - Sew Bee Wonky!

Bee There or Bee Squares: A VQB revolving around squares - straight, or wonky.

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Featured: YOUR links to posts about Virtual Quilting Bees and Blocks!

Confession: I have hundreds of crafty/quilting/sewing blogs in my RSS reader. Yes, it's a little bit out of control, but there is just SO much inspiration out there! (You know what I'm talking about, right?!) One of my favorite type of posts to come across is the "My Quilt Blocks From This Month" post, where all you creative people are posting pictures of and talking about the beautiful quilt blocks you're making.

Here's a few examples of these Quilt Block Posts that have shown up in my reader recently:

Viv from Highway Cottage posted about her July blocks and also started on her Doll Quilt Swap 9 project.

Quilt Dad John did a round-up type post about all his blocks from April, May and June.

Emily from Creative Chicks posted about being in her first Virtual Quilting Bee, Bee Vintage, and having the first month of the bee as her month!

Donna from Kindred Crafters blogged about her process of picking and sewing a June block with a star.

Natalia from Piece N Quilt is in love with the blocks that others have been making her for her month in the Puting the Bee in Christmas bee.

And TraceyJay participated in a Friday Night Sew In and finished up some chubby star blocks for the Three by Six Sampler Mini Bee.

Have you blogged recently about bee blocks that YOU'VE been making?  Or maybe it's your month in a bee and the blocks have been rolling in.  Or have you completed a top with bee blocks, or even finished a QUILT?!  If it's a blog post that has to do with Virtual Quilting Bees in any way (doesn't matter if it's an old or new post), add your link to the MckLinky below to share it and then hop through some of the links to get inspired by fellow sewists!  Make sure to leave lots of comment love :]

I'll even be going through and picking some of my favorite posts to be highlighting here!  ;]

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Pick Five Monday: Lynne's Fresh Modern Bee edition

Lynne [Blog: Lily's Quilts, Flickr: Lily's Quilts photostream] was one of the first people that emailed me when I put the call out for guest posters for Pick Five Monday, and I love her for that! I was worried no one would want to guest post but she was so enthused about it - it made me so happy. :]  She's an active Virtual Quilting Bee member and is the Bee Mama to two bees: Fresh Modern & Fresh Modern 2. Here's her picks for this week - there's definitely some great blocks being made recently!

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I am constantly looking through the Quilting Bee Blocks flickr page, picking faves and adding them to quilt block galleries for future inspiration. I was going to choose some of my all time favourites from those galleries today but then it occurred to me that my current set of faves have been produced in our bee (Fresh Modern Bee) this month. We were asked by KarrieLyne (Freckled Whimsy) to produce half square triangles using Kona white and Moda Sweetwater Make Life. These are five of this month's blocks (and it was difficult to narrow it down to five):

Shelley (Elsie's Girl) made this block, adapted from Tacha's tutorial on her blog:

Janice (Sewgirly) turned HSTs into geese in this block with a renegade goose at the top:

I love the movement in Amy's (AllieKatMom's) block:

I will shamelessly include a block I designed for the bee which caused me much blood, sweat and seam ripping but I loved in the end. I posted a tutorial for this block on my blog and would love to see some more of these turning up on Flickr:

The piece de resistance for me this month was the block designed by Jessica (Quilthappie) which looks striking in thumbnail but also works well close-up. The maths must have been complicated but the block looks beautifully simple:

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Thanks so much for your Pick Five Monday guest post, Lynne! KarrieLyne is going to have an amazing quilt made with all these blocks!

I'm scheduling the next few months of Pick Five Monday's and need some more guest posters!  Do you want to do one for me?  Email me! :]

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Do you do Social Media?

Quilting Bee Blocks does!

Join us now on Facebook ... where currently a sad big fat ZERO people "like" us ... you guys will change that for me, right? :]

And follow us on Twitter (@beeblocks) where I've been linking to our newest blog posts and also retweeting some other tweets I come across talking about bee block, block tutorials or Virtual Quilting Bees. It's such a fun way to communicate and get to know people better in our community!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

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Found: new block tutorials

Anyone in need of a few new awesome block tutorials?! I've found some good ones recently:

Betty Ninja has a simple but striking cross quilt block tutorial, check out how she's done it in HOT pink:

Bitty Bird Quilts did a great tutorial on one of my favorite blocks - the whirligig.

I'm sure you've seen these blocks around - but if you haven't you MUST check out the two great tutorials that Little Miss Shabby has done - the Scrapbuster block and the Scrapbuster #2 block.  They're both so cool!

Heather put her touch on a spiderweb block tutorial that has tons of pictures and detailed notes -- just my kind of tut! :]

And Zonnah created this stunning wonky star ring block - and lucky for us she provided a very detailed tutorial!  Love it!






I've added these tutorials to the Block Tutorials page & am always on the lookout for more new ones to share. Have you seen any new ones recently? Send me an email with the link so I can feature them soon!

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Also, I'm getting ready to do a big update to the Master List of Virtual Quilting Bees.  Can you check it out and let me know if there's any you know of that aren't listed yet?

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Pick Five Monday: Sarah's fun & fussy cut neighborhood edition

This week's Pick Five Monday is done by Guest Poster Sarah! Sarah blogs at It's Quiet Now. What Do You Say? (how's that for a darling blog name?!) and is on Flickr as ItsQuietNow. She's a super busy Bee member: she belongs to Bee Vintage and is also the Bee Mama of QUILTING newBEEs, a group who's purpose is to learn new things about quilting (most of them are new quilters), encourage each other and have fun! How fun does that sound?!

Sarah made some awesome picks for this weeks blocks. Thanks so much, Sarah!

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I love neighborhood quilts with wonky houses, trees, clotheslines, and extra creative details. I'm in the process of making my own neighborhood quilt and it is fun to look at all the great house blocks that are in the Quilting Bee Blocks photo pool! It was hard to pick just five but here they are:

1. This block has great examples of fussy cut fabric. I love how the family is leaving in the car and the birds have taken over the house! (Made by sparklygreenknickers for Bee Addicted 3)

2. These three little houses look fantastic lined up under the night sky! The use of embroidery on the middle house for the number, "15" adds a special touch. (Made by Katy for The Quilt Around the World)

3. The sun on this block is so bright and cheery! And who wouldn't want a Katie Jump Rope print house?! (Made by mommymae for A Notion or Two)

4. A patchwork tree, owls, gnome, scrappy house, decorative stitching! Aah! What's not to love? There are too many great elements to pick a favorite on this block. (Made by PatchworkDuck for Hip to Bee Square.)

5. It's all in the details with this block: the elongated octagon window, garden gnomes, stitching on the tree trunk and roof, and especially the quilt hanging on the clothes line make this simply shaped house extra special! I love the green floral fabric that was used for the grass, too. (Made by Tina for Cottage Quilting Bee)

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Again, if you'd like to do a Pick Five Monday Guest Post, email me!  :]

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