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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Rosey Little Bee Quilt Block

About 9 months ago, I joined a virtual quilting bee organized by Jennifer Smith of Rosey Little Things. Naturally, we are called Rosey Little Bee. We have been super busy making all kinds of blocks: wonky houses, pinwheels, crosses to name just a few.

I have known all year which fabric I wanted to use. It's call "Eyes Wide Shut" and I bought it about 5 years ago when I worked at a quilt shop. It reminds me of everything that is an Oklahoma summer: HEAT. There's a lovely combination of teal, plum, gold, lime, forest green, and of course, a reddish-orange.

At first, I wanted to make a spider web block. But I found the perfect block: Little Miss Shabby's scrapbusting block! It uses all these tiny 1.5" squares that you sew borders around and around. I chose it because I'm still looking for that "perfect" 1/4" seam allowance quilters use. The directions ask for a "scant" 1/4" seam: not sure exactly what that is, but I tried to make my seams as tiny as possible.

I'm planning to sew a border around all the squares so hopefully, I'll have a lap-size quilt. The virtual quilting bee world is so inspiring! It's AMAZING what these women can do. I'm glad that quilting has become an acceptable form of self expression. Right now, there appears to be a resurgence in traditional blocks with updated color.

Time for me to pull out my vintage quilting books!