Amanda's chevron

I just realized that I posted pics of Amanda's chevron on my blog and Flickr, but forgot to post it here!  It was a fun challenge!
I originally intended the right side of the chevron to be fatter than the left, but had to decide on fat or curve, so I chose curve.  Hope you like it, Amanda!

my other blocks

jess's and amanda's blocks have been out of my hands for a while, but I never got to post them here. I had no hard plans for either, which made for interesting piecing.

Swooping Chevron

I wanted to make a swooping chevron, so I went with curves. All was going along swimmingly until that one curve...so I tried again, and again. Third time must be the charm, but honestly it's still a little wacky. I pressed the hell out of it. That's my go to solution when something doesn't go my way.
I hope it'll lay flat for you Amanda. And thank you for sending such a generous amount of fabric. I needed every inch. I appreciate being able to screw up and still be able to finish a block.
Next block is on the cutting table. I'm hoping it's it the mail before Rebekah's fabric arrives.

Chevron/Heart

The best part of the online quilt bee is working outside of your comfort zone. Making a block in these colours is definitely outside my comfort zone, as are all those solids.

This is Amanda's block. If you turn it upside down it vaguely resembles a heart. That is how I feel about this block. The size, the sparseness, the challenge in making it - all make me love it. I'm still not digging the colour. Then again, it isn't mine, so that's okay.

I hope Amanda hearts it too.

Robin's mod blocks

My block for Debbie... inspired by those butterfly roofs that were so popular with mid-century design. I always wondered about them. Living inside a house with a roof like this would mean the interior of the house had a low ceiling and thus made for a cozier space. As the house expanded outwards, the ceiling slopes upward thus creating an expansive feel. It must have been something to live in a space like this, but what did they do about the rain? Did it pond up there in that bend? Pardon me for allowing my mind to wander...

A second block, made to mimic the lines of the first:

For Amanda my chevron turned out to look like a symbol from the periodic table of elements... well maybe in another language.

Have a wonderful holiday season everybody! See you in January!

Amanda’s BFC (big flippin’ chevron)

Here is my chevron block for Amanda. This block is 20". It's huge, but I really like the size because she'll be able to make a whole quilt easily using just the blocks from the bee quilters. I should have thought of that when it was my turn. Oh well, next time...

At first this seemed like a super easy block, until I started trying to figure out how to actually put it together. I ended up needing to draw it to figure out where all the seams needed to go. I have a need to do the least amount of seams necessary. It's a disease.

Catching Up

Saturday was my catch up day and I finished these two blocks for Cheryl and Amanda.

First up is Cheryl's right angle block. I searched for right angle pictures in an image search and was inspired by this balcony image:

from here.

Here's my very literal translation into a block.

For Amanda's block, I started cutting prematurely and with no plan at all which resulted in one of the arms of the chevron being crazily pieced. Thanks for sending so much fabric! It was a lifesaver for me.

Jon was looking through the pictures on my camera and stated, without prompting, "Ooh, this is really cool! It looks very 1960's." He laughed when I told him the purpose of this bee.

And, here's the full on shot. I almost cropped out my thread catching sock, but left it in there because I'm sure you can all relate!

a chevron for m'lady

I hope it suits you!  20" is big!!!

minty chevrons - the plan!

I knew October was going to be hectic, so I always had my vacation as a backup plan in case I didn't have time to prep my fabrics to send out before that. So here I am - at the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, packing up little bits of fabric to send to you! Here is the plan... I've been looking at a little post-it note on my desk at work for about four months now. I think I drew it pretty soon after joining this bee, and I've been pondering it since!

I've loved all the research this bee has required. I keep finding that I'm particularly drawn to all the wonky geometric shapes from this period, especially little triangly arrow shapes. My plan starts there: I'm sending you 1/2 yard of a main solid color fabric (green or brown), a 5-inch wide strip for the chevron, and little strips of solid fabric (brown or green). I'm asking each person to make a 20-inch block with the chevron in the center. My hope is that the chevron will take up a goodly portion of the block (maybe 12-16 inches tall and wide?) and the rest can be filled with little blippy strips (minus signs?) or squares or hollow squares or even a teensy plus sign if you feel inspired... Here are the fabrics - lots of browns and greens (mint chocolate, maybe?).
Hopefully this isn't too prescriptive... wonky, curvy-I welcome it all. In fact, I was thinking those chevrons may look even more "atomic" if their bottoms were small and the tip of the arrow was fatter... feel free to play around and explore and have fun with it. Fingers crossed that I've sent enough fabric! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Housekeeping!

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Bee members, here are your month assignments!

July 2010  - Rossie
August 2010 - Jess
September 2010 - Cheryl
October 2010 - Amanda
November 2010 - Debbie

January 2011 - Rebekah
February 2011 - Robin
March 2011 - Lauren
April 2011 - Blair
May 2011 - Malka Yahaira
June 2011 - Jacquie

I do believe I have accommodated everyone's wishes.
If something comes up and you need to swap your month, that's fine; but please try to arrange it yourself and let me (Rossie) or Cheryl know if you need help.

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Flickr group

If you would like to share your blocks on flickr, I recommend posting them to this group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/quiltingbeeblocks/

That way they'll be seen by more people!  

The groups for individual bees don't seem to get much traffic, so we're not planning on setting one up.

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Blog button

As requested, here is a blog button

html code for above

<a href="http://midmodbee.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Mid Mod Quilt Bee" border="0" img="" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/4672802101_3d0bb05c58_b.jpg" width="200" /></a>


In Blogger, add these by going to the "layout" tab;   click "add gadget";choose "HTML/JavaScript" as the gadget type;  paste in code; save your changes!

To make the button bigger or smaller, change the "200" to a bigger or smaller number.

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Words of wisdom

Cheryl put this so well in her email that I asked her permission to post this for posterity:
"We have a phenomenally creative group of quilters, artists, authors, and designers. We are all fans of mid century modern design. We believe that we can come together to create some amazing quilts. These quilts will capture the spirit of the artists involved. They will also, hopefully, capture the essence of mid-century modern design.

"So, instead of sending out precise rules and pre-cut fabric, please share your inspiration and a pile of fabric. Let go and see what comes back to you. We can trust each other to produce quality blocks, so trust the process."

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Please post each block you make

When you post a block you made, please attach two labels: (1) your first name  (2) ______'s quilt <--- filling in the name of the person for whom the block is destined.

This will make it easier to search back through posts. 
I have added ALL of these labels to this post so that you can add them to future posts just by clicking on "show all"



and then select the relevant labels.

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Feel free to post about other mid-mod stuff here.
I'm loving the inspiration posts, and their comments. Keep them coming and please use the "inspiration" label! 

I have figured out how to get the byline up below the title of each post, hopefully this will help us know who is talking when. (I'll try to clean up the way it looks soon).

Also, if any members want me to add their email address to the list of those who get emailed each comment, shoot me an email.  (You can also subscribe to the comments by RSS, but I like the email method myself.)


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I'm beyond pumped to get started!
Thank you all!