Believe Circle March Bee Blocks

This month's quilt is being hosted by Robin from Ormond Beach Quilts. She wanted something really masculine and asked for these simple yet striking black and white blocks.

They come from a quilt posted on the Moda Bake Shop called the Gift Box Quilt. The Moda Bake Shop is a great resource for charity quilt ideas.

One thing I like about our quilt circle is that we tend to have good balance between simple and challenging blocks. This is a month where I appreciated the simple.

I like the way the addition of a wider strip in the middle of this quarter log cabin block makes it suddenly more modern. The color combination adds to the modern look as well.

I cannot wait to see how this quilt turns out.

Spell It With Moda - Be The Good

Spring has definitely sprung here in the sunny southern United States. The forsythia in the backdrop have already started greening up. Hopefully, there will be yellow flowers for a few more days.

Did you figure what it said before today's post? If not, the secret is out now. And it was great fun playing hang man with you. If you have been following along, you might notice that I completely changed out the BE THE GOOD. I wanted it to stand apart and it just wasn't when I was using a color for the background and a light for the letter.

I wasn't a big fan of mixing up the background colors either. This is much more consistent and not nearly as distracting. The filler blocks, which I'm calling confetti blocks, turned out good, too. They are simple half square triangles arranged in different ways. I have a tutorial for the Confetti Blocks over at the Moda Bake Shop so please go check it out and leave a comment, too, if you'd like to.

Now it's time to start thinking about how to quilt this. I have been pondering it while piecing it and can tell I am going to overthink it if I'm not careful. Right now, I'm considering horizontal lines, some straight, some wavy, thinking it might sort of imitate a piece of lined notebook paper. We will see.

The fabric collection used for this project is Flow by Zen Chic. It should be arriving in shops this month.

Remember, if you'd like to make something of your own, the letters are available individually on Moda's Pinterest Board.

Or, if you want a quick resource with everything in one place, check out the Spell It With Fabric booklet available at many local quilt shops and online stores. I did a quick Google search and found some great resources for purchasing the booklet.

Linking up with Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Five Generation Quilt Finish

How exciting to see this quilt finished and hung. We visited my mom this weekend, partly to deliver this quilt and get it hung for her. I think she was a little nervous about adding such a bold statement to her room but once it was up, she seemed to like it a lot. I certainly do.

Mom decided to go with classic black for the binding and I think it frames the quilt quite nicely. I really love this quilt. If you missed the work in progress posts, this quilt has generations of history. My great grandmother hand pieced the blocks. This is actually only a third of the blocks she made. My mom has two sisters who also have a set of blocks. My grandmother took care of the blocks for her daughters. The daughters did not receive them until after my grandmother passed away.

My mom machine pieced them on my grandmother's treadle sewing machine last fall. I finished it up with some simple machine quilting and binding. That covers four generations. I am hoping my daughter will create a label for this treasure so that five generations will be involved. I am going to ask her to do that as a mother's day present for both me and my mom.

This quilt came together much faster than I expected. Mom and I made a good team in creating this memory of my grandmother and great grandmother. I am thankful to be a part of this little piece of family history.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Spell It With Moda - What Does It Say?

The post for filler blocks went up over on the Moda Bake Shop last Saturday. Some solutions to the puzzle were posted so the secret is out. Here is where we are this week. I won't post the answer officially until next time. A V, a D, and a G have been added. It's a bit hard to see up on the design wall so here it is hangman style.

B  ___  ___  I  ___  V  E

T H  ___  R  E

I  S       G  O  ___  D

___  N       T H E

W  O  R  L  ___

These letters have been guessed and either there aren't any or all that are available have been guessed:
 H, R, S, T, M, B, W, V

Let's take a closer look at the fabric used in this week's letters. The fabric collection is Flow by Zen Chic. It should be available at your local quilt shop or favorite online shop this month.

First we have a V.

V up close.

A D with a pretty blue background.

Letter D up close.

A very psychedelic letter G. I'm still not sure the letters that have color in the background are staying. The contrast is a little more subtle that I wanted, but I have decided to keep going until all the letters are complete, and then decide.

Here is letter G up close.

Remember, if you'd like to make something of your own, the letters are available individually on Moda's Pinterest Board.

Or, if you want a quick resource with everything in one place, check out the Spell It With Fabric booklet available at many local quilt shops and online stores. I did a quick Google search and found some great resources for purchasing the booklet.

I just got back from doing some work travel this week which is why this is a little later than usual getting posted. The next post about this project will be to reveal a finished quilt top. Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, and played. I have had a great time with this project.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts. Also linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Cardinal Blocks - Five More

And then there were fifteen cardinal blocks. I have a group of projects I'm circling through now, and it is fun to see each one making small strides of progress. This week, these cardinals needed some attention.

The patterns are from the Moda Sampler Block Shuffle. There are thirty patterns in all so that means I'm half way through. I seem to making these in batches of five. Some of the fabrics from my initial pull for this project are getting low so I will be going back through the stash again soon to see if I can find a few more good fabrics to join the project.

Here is the very first block in the series. It was designed by Pat Sloan. Originally, I was going through the patterns, picking and choosing the ones I wanted to make.

Then I decided I was spending to much time choosing so I put them all back in number order and swore I would just make them in order. This is block three in the series. It was designed by Sandy Gervais.

This is block eleven. It is designed by Brenda Riddle Designs. It has a bit of a psychedelic vibe to it. Did you notice the big jump from block three to block eleven? Well, maybe I am making them in a selective, sort of numerical order. There are a couple of applique ones that I wasn't quite ready to make so I skipped those and I suppose I was simply being picky about the ones I wanted to make.

This is block thirteen. It is designed by Bunny Hill Designs. All the blocks in the series are great.

And the last block for this time is block twenty-two. It is designed by Basicgrey.

Now that there are fifteen blocks made I am starting to contemplate a layout for them. I am happy with the way the colors are dispersed through the blocks. They aren't too heavy in any one color. And I still can't get enough of those cardinals.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoop Whoop over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Spell It With Moda - A Growing Project

I had to move this project to the wall this week. It outgrew the table once I started sewing the blocks into rows. Do you know what it says yet? I think some of you figured it out last week and the letters added this week help a lot. The additions are B, O, and W. To help see what it says, here it is in more hangman style:

B  ___  ___  I  ___  ___  E

T H  ___  R  E

I  S       ___  O  ___  ___

___  N       T H E

W  O  R  L  ___

These letters have been guessed and either there aren't any or all that are available have been guessed:
 H, R, S, T, M, B, W

The tutorial for the filler blocks is not up yet over at the Moda Bake Shop. All of the participating quilters will have posts for their filler blocks. The schedule is still being worked out and I will let you know when mine is up.

Let's take a closer look at the fabric used in this week's letters. The fabric collection is Flow by Zen Chic. It should be available at your local quilt shop or favorite online shop in March.

First we have a W.

W up close.

A blue O. I know I have said it in previous weeks, but I really like the colors in this fabric collection. They are so cheerful.

O up close.

And last for this week, letter B, which is one of those reversed letters with the color in the background.

And a close up of letter B, using my favorite print from the group.

Remember, if you'd like to make something of your own, the letters are available individually on Moda's Pinterest Board.

Or, if you want a quick resource with everything in one place, check out the Spell It With Fabric booklet available at many local quilt shops and online stores. I did a quick Google search and found some great resources for purchasing the booklet.

So... do you want to guess letters, or are you ready to solve the puzzle? I am up for either. Thanks to everyone who has played along. This has been lots of fun and helped me pace myself through this project.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.