May Bee Blocks

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{Sew} Beautiful: Angela sent us a variety of blue scraps with the instructions to "make a block that feels like you." How fun! But it led to a miniature quilting identity crisis for me. After thinking it over the entire month, I finally realized that I will never come up with something that is classic "me," because "me" seems to be in a constant state of change and evolution. And of course, from a design perspective, that's a good thing. So, at least for today, I am hexagons. What will I be tomorrow? Your guess is as good as mine!But as I finished the block, I had a horrible sinking feeling that I've seen it somewhere before. This block definitely reminded me of something. But what? And then I realized ...That's right. It reminds me of Megan's {Sew} Modern Monday button. But that was a huge relief, because I actually designed Megan's button! So I'm only ripping off myself. Whew! Doesn't get more "me" than that, does it? Well, and it's kind of Megan too, but that's a bonus, because she's also in {Sew} Beautiful! It's like I planned it or something. : )One other thing I want to point out about this block: Angela requested that we throw in a few blue scraps from our own stashes (another fun aspect of the whole "me" thing). So I fussy-cut a little snail from my recently-acquired Prince Charming stash to use as the center of one of the smallest hexies. You can see him if you look closely at the upper-right. That little guy is now my favorite part of the block!Do. Good Stitches: More blue! This month, the Love Circle made blocks for a "Box of Crayons" quilt. We each took one color, and we could make any blocks we wanted as long as they were in our assigned colors—another fun bee concept. It could have been a bit tricky coming up with block designs that would look good in a single color, but the "plus" concept (on the left) leaped to mind immediately for me.And since I wanted my blocks to echo each other without being identical, I wanted another design that featured a plus sign. I didn't have to look any further than Badskirt Amy's cool x and plus scrappy quilt tutorial. I just upsized Amy's 8" block to 12.5" inches. (If you're curious about the math, you can find the dimensions I used here, in the comments.)String Me Along: Last but certainly not least, here's my drunk love block for Elizabeth. She asked us to make a block as large as we could manage, and mine is a gigantic 18.5." I love that she sent such a fun and dramatic mix of prints and solids. This is my third drunk love bee block so far this year, so it's obviously a popular design! And you know, I love these blocks as much as the next girl, but I am now hoping for a break from drunk love, at least for a little while. : )P.S. Thanks for all your well-wishes about the potty training! It's been an interesting few days around here. I think I must have said the words "Do you have to go potty" at least 15,000 times in the last five days. True story. Beyond that, I am not sayin' a word, because God help me if I jinx anything!

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Quilting Along Again

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Hexagon block pattern