The Queen Bee Says

June is my month to be Queen Bee in our Mid-Century Modern Bee. I have to say that I struggled to find just the right block to ask my 12 bee mates to make for me. Thus far in our hive, five of them have had us sewing wonderful, bright, modern blocks that I love! Each of them is going to have a beautiful finished quilt.

For my turn, my frugal German heritage has been fighting for control, demanding that I be prudent and reduce the number of projects on my UFO list! So, instead of asking for a dozen new blocks that I could make into yet another new quilt, I'm asking them to help me finish a UFO.

The UFO I selected is from the Blogger's BOM Quilt Along that ran from September 2011 to September 2012. I blogged about these finished blocks (two made each month) and there they've been waiting ever since.

I'm setting each 8" block into a square or an on-point diamond that's made from Kona White or Kona Ash. "Strawberry Fizz and Lime Pop," the name I've given this quilt, should tell you a lot about the other colors. I'm asking my bee mates to sew blocks with the same two solids and color prints too.

Here's the block they'll make. Unfinished, it measures 9-1/2" wide by 12-1/2" long.

I found the original design here, called Stacked Bricks, but I've modified it for my needs since I want a rectangle-shaped block with Kona White on one side of a print, and Kona Ash on the other.

After cutting a bunch of 1-1/2"-wide strips of the two solids, and 12 different lime and strawberry-colored prints, I sat down at my sewing machine to sew various lengths together. I used the handy tape measurer on my Gidget II sewing table, to cut all the sewn strips between 10-1/2" and 11" long.

I pressed open the seam allowances and then arranged the prints, making sure solid white was on one side and solid ash was on the other.

After sewing them together (by the way, in between sewing strips together, I pieced leaders and enders and put together three 16-patch blocks!) I pressed seam allowances all one direction.

Allowing at least 1/2" of a solid on each end of a print, I trimmed it from this...

...to this - 9-1/2".

Here's a picture of the Stacked Bricks block as a border alongside a Blogger's BOM block I've sewn onto a setting of Kona White. I'm not yet sure if I'll place the border blocks with the gray to the outside...  

...or the white to the outside. Some of the setting blocks will have Kona Ash backgrounds too.

In any case, I'm just as pleased as can be that my Mid-Century Modern Bee-ers are helping me toward a finish! Thank you! Linda