January Bee Blocks

Wait, it's January 23, and I'm already posting my bee blocks for the month? That's got to be a record! This month's blocks were a lot of fun, and all over the map stylistically, which was nice.

First, the girls from the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild have started a new local bee that I'm taking part in. Rebecca, who blogs at Pieces and Cream, was up first. She asked for the "Envy" block, designed by Angela in the 99 Modern Blocks book, and gave us fabric from one of my all-time favorite lines, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow. This block is such a great example of simple but powerful modern design. It has fantastic movement to it, and repeated throughout a quilt, I expect it will be stunning! It does however involve the dreaded Y-seams, which I used in my Mod Times quilt. Y-seams aren't complicated, exactly, but I do find it difficult to keep them straight and un-wonky-ish. In fact, one of the brown strips in this block is kind of making my eye twitch right now. Other than that, I love this block and hopefully Rebecca can work with it!

For the Sew Beautiful bee, Cherie asked us for this Carpenter Star block in bright, springtime colors. She drafted this block herself to be intentionally Swoon-like, and while I love Swoon, I think I might love Cherie's version even more! Yes, there are a lot of HSTs involved, but it makes a huge 18" finished block, so just like Swoon, you don't have to make a ton of blocks for a good-sized finished quilt.

For Stash Trad, Lynne asked for her beautiful LynneBobSquarePants block (tutorial here). This block has been on my to-do list forever, so I was happy to finally get a crack at it—and for Lynne herself. When you compare this block to Cherie's Carpenter Star, you can see how endless the possibilities are with HSTs. They're such a fun and versatile unit in quilting—if you haven't yet learned how to make them (and make them well), it is absolutely worth the time to do it!

Last but not at all least, Bree of My Crafty Crap asked for this fun Polaroid block for the String Me Along bee. I have to say, of all the blocks I've made for other people in the last year, this is the one I've been most tempted to keep for myself. : ) (Don't worry Bree, it'll be in the mail tomorrow!) This block was designed by Corey of Little Miss Shabby (here's Corey's original block), and Bree wrote up a tutorial for creating it, which you can find here.  Can't wait to see how this quilt comes together for Bree!