February TwitterB

And we have come full circle. I finished up my last TwitterB blocks last weekend while I spent a precious 5 days at home in Madison. These ones are going out to Angie from Stitching by Starlight. She chose blocks from Elizabeth's Paintbox quilt, using the Fresh Tints palette from Design Seeds.

The block is a square in a square. It should be a pretty easy block. But first thing's first. The the idea of the Paintbox quilt is to pair solids and prints in a monochromatic palette. And I received a fat quarter of Kona Grapemist.

Source

Problem - I literally had nothing that would work with this color. I have a ton of blue and no purple, but this color is somewhere right between blue and purple and the actual cotton swatch is between a bright and a pastel. So, I took one of my rare trips to an actual bricks and mortar quilt store with my fat quarter in hand. I only found one print that really worked - it is from the beautiful Good Fortune line and because Angie preferred different fabrics, I pulled out a blue from my stash that is not quite right, but I think will get lost in the quilt once it's all together and be ok (fingers crossed!).

Here's second thing... And I cannot emphasize this enough... Read.The.Directions.

And then read them again.

Don't say, 'oh, it's a square in a square with skinny and wide strips, simple.' Because, you'd be wrong. For whatever reason, Elizabeth doesn't have you cut the sides to the exact size of each piece, instead you construct the block and cut down each ring as you go. This caused me to make blocks that were an inch too big the first time.

So, I took them apart.

Then, I put them back together. But, I swapped the placement of the skinny strips and the wide strips, so the center squares weren't in the center. Blerg. The blocks give the illusion that the square is off-centered - but don't fall prey to that illusion!

So, I took them apart again.

To recap: remember to always read the directions.

And don't try to rush your bee blocks when you're under stress :)

But now the TwitterB has come to a close. I learned a lot! I had the chance to work with different fabrics and try blocks that I hadn't before. It was a great exercise to think about fabrics and colors in different ways. For instance, the first set of blocks I ever made - another Oh Fransson block - I did incorrectly; they're supposed to be scrappy, with each strip being a different fabric. Oops. But I also made some that I'm very happy with.

Let's recap the last year in TwitterB-land!

1. March TwitterB Block 2, 2. March TwitterB Block 1, 3. April TwitterB, 4. April TwitterB, 5. May TwitterB, 6. June Twitter B block 1, 7. June TwitterB block #2, 8. July TwitterB Blocks, 9. August Twitter B - Block 1, 10. August Twitter B - Block 2, 11. TwitterB-September, 12. TwitterB-September, 13. October TwitterB, 14. November TwitterB, 15. December TwitterB, 16. Jan/Feb TwitterB

I've already started on the next bee - the Bee a {modern} Swapper. It's a six month bee with honeycombs of six quilters. We trade off making blocks from our stash for a queen bee with optional swapping months involving homemade items like pincushions and hot pads. My month isn't till January, but I'm excited to be a part of this bee!