April & May Bee Blocks

I never posted my April bee blocks, and that's partly because they fit so well with May's blocks.  Several of us in Bee Inspired are also in Stash Bee.  Irene, who I met in February, was Queen of Stash Bee in April and Queen of Bee Inspired in May.  I knew she planned on asking for the same block in both bees, so I made 2 in April.

Irene's Blocks

Irene asked for a block she designed: a 9-patch in a 9-patch in a 9-patch.  The smallest 9-patch starts with 1" squares.  Tiny!  I didn't love working with pieces that small.  She asked for soft grays. I didn't have much that fit what she wanted, so I had to visit my LQS.  What a tragedy!

the tiny 9-patches, with a quarter for size reference

Velda was Queen of Bee Inspired for April and she asked for a fun crow block--she's making a murder of crows.  (I had no idea that the name for multiple crows was murder!)  We were each asked to make 4 fun crows but not sew them together.  She also had us wait to post pictures, as she created quizzes about each set of birds as she received them, to see if we could guess who made which birds.  It's been a lot of fun.

Velda's Murder of Crows

She mostly wanted scrappy backgrounds, but said that one could have the same fabric for the entire crow.  I used a light bird print because I thought it was funny--it's the bird on the lower left.

Kimberly is the Queen in Stash Bee for May.  She asked for  bright 9-patches in a single color with a white center.  She said anything goes as far as fabric, and that novelty prints were okay.  And the finished quilt will be a kid's charity donation.  Novelty fabrics are my favorites so I went right to my scrap drawer of 3 1/2" squares to see what colors I had a lot of.  I had almost everything I needed right there, I only needed to cut my white squares and one aqua looking square. 

Kimberly's bright 9-patches

I also did one hive crash for May.  Jan in another hive chose a cat block that is a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial for her block.  I've been thinking that this block might make a good choice for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I jumped at the chance to test it out for myself. I liked the block and it was nice and easy, so I may have a cat quilt in my future.

Jan's Cats

I meant to do the cats facing different ways, but I can be directionally challenged.  By the time I figured out what I would need to do to make the cat face the other direction, I had already made that step and did them all the same.  What I need to remember is to make the ear/head unit first.  The tutorial has you make the body unit first, but once you do you are locked in. If you do the face/ear unit first, you can decide later how you want your cats to be.




I mentioned that I met Irene in February.  She is the one who had an extra bed at her accommodation for Quilt Con and invited me to join her and her companions.  Here we are at breakfast one morning. 

I'm on the far left and Irene is in the light blue shirt.  Her friends are Sana (between us) and Flora (far right).  The four of us totally clicked and had a great time!  I'm hoping Irene & I can get together again; we only live about 3 hours apart.