What's Up Wednesday: Fussy Cutting

My friend Shelly has a wonderful new tutorial up on the Riley Blake Designs website.  The quilt is called Rollin' Along, and you can download it here.

Rollin' Along blocks

I had fun making a few of these blocks.  I decided to play around with some new fabric for the centers and use bright scraps for the spokes.

peace block

Actually, for some blocks the center was a scrap and the spokes were cut from some "new" fabric.  This one features peace signs (Michael Miller Peace) in the center and for the spokes I cut into my Moda Half Moon.

eyeglasses block

I love the orange spokes made with Carolyn Friedlander's metallic Botanics fabric and these cute glasses from Riley Blake Designs.

The center here is some Japanese fabric I purchased from City Quilter on my girls' trip to NYC.  Is it weird that I can remember that?!  The spokes are alternating scraps of some tone on tone green that I can't remember and leftover Technicolor from the {Hugs} Hexie Quilt.

What do you think? I believe the glasses block is my favorite....or maybe the sewing machine one....

 I may need to make a few more of these!

Bee Blocks

I've been caught up with my bee blocks for a while now.....just need to put them in the mail.

asterisk blocks

For do.Good Stitches, Erica requested asterisk blocks.  I have made these once before for our guild block lotto.  This is a fun block to make.  I like the larger size - 9.5" rather than 6".  I am doing better about cutting into my treasured fabrics.  Here I used some precious Hope Valley and Anna Maria Horner.  The black strips are from a quilt I made years ago for my oldest son.

spiderweb block

Cindy is doing a spider web quilt in solids with texty, low volume centers for our MCM Bee.  I think I could make these blocks in my sleep by now!  I already had the centers prepped for my blocks, and coming up with strips of solids was no problem.  I had to resist cutting into my "bolts" of solids when I have plenty in my scrap basket.  As a reminder, the spiderweb block tutorial can be found here.

churn dash block

Carla's block was put in the mail a while ago, but I neglected to post a picture.  She is continuing with her juicy fruit churn dash quilt and requested more blocks for that.  I love these little churn dashes put together in a bigger block.  She has the best tutorial for making these if you are interested in making some yourself.  

I am so happy to be a part of two wonderful bees.  What about you?  Do you participate in any online bees?  If so, what's your favorite block made so far?

Thanks for stopping by,

Mini Monday: Pencil Roll

How is it March already?  Hope you are enjoying St. Patrick's Day!  

colored pencil roll

I have a quick finish to share today.  This pencil roll (pattern from Pink Chalk Studio) makes a quick and easy gift.  

optional flap

stitching with Aurifil #5011

I used scraps of colorful fabric for the pencil dividers, Field Study by Anna Maria Horner in home dec weight for the exterior, natural linen for the pocket, and quilter's linen for the flap.  

all rolled up

Aurifil #5011 is the perfect color thread for stitching on linen and makes a nice stitch line on the exterior AMH fabric.  A button and ribbon are used for the closure.

Like I said....a fast and fun gift to whip up.  

Thanks for stopping by,