The Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee: Month 5

 Welcome to another month of the Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee! Thank you everyone for sharing your blocks with me so far. They all look great. 

This month we have to make 3 different blocks. Double Star on Page 98, Dream on page 100 and Eight Point Star on page 102. 

Double Star Block. For this block I used my Diagonal Seam Tape to sew rather than drawing lines on the Fabric B and D squares. The pattern also suggests pressing everything open, but I decided to press the pieces on the Left Point one direction and the pieces on the Right Point I pressed in the alternate direction. This way all the seams nested nicely and I got nice points on both stars. 

When sewing the rows together I pressed the seams to Fabric A. 

Dream Block. This one was fun to make. I didn't do anything different from the pattern for this block. Because this block was made with so many different prints, I decided to use up some of the strips that I had cut off my Fat Quarters for previous blocks. I chain pieced my blocks to make it go a little quicker, so rather than make one at a time I did all four. I just stacked up all the same size pieces and laid them out as they should be in the block. 

You want to be sure that you don't pull the end of your seams one way or another on this block, but keep it at a nice 1/4" all the way through, and than give it a nice press. Don't move your iron around too much as you don't want those strips to stretch. 

Eight Point Star Block. This one is fairly quick to make, and we actually need to make 3 of them in total. I chose to use my Ultimate Flying Geese Ruler to make the points, so I followed the cutting instructions on the Ruler rather than the pattern. Once the geese were made I followed the pattern for the rest of the block. 

Have fun making your blocks, and please send me photos of them!

Kayla

Teacher Gifts

 The end of this school year is so close, only two weeks away in our house! Year end Teacher Gifts also must be ready to go soon too than. I thought tonight I would share some of my favorite items to make as Teacher and Bus Driver gifts.  

I love making the Wax and Wool Tote Bag as a gift. It is a pattern by Noodlehead and sews up really nicely! It also does not take very much fabric, and there is no hardware on it, though I do like to add a little "Handmade for Me" Label for a special touch. 

This year I made Pencil Pouches for my boys Teachers. This is a free tutorial by Noodlehead, and I have done a Video Tutorial of it is as well. You can find the video by scrolling back on our Facebook Page or by clicking here. I will likely fill the pencil pouches with a few little goodies for an added touch. You can find the Pattern here

Another favorite to make is lanyards and key fobs. These are fantastic for keeping keys together and easy to find. They are also super easy to make and take only little bits of fabric and a key fob hardware piece or a swivel hook. 

Is there anything that you like to make as gifts for Teachers?

Kayla

Garden Sampler BOM: Month 6

 We are already in June! Crazy to think how fast this year is going by. 

It being June means it is time to pull out those Block of the Month projects again. We are here again with the Garden Sampler block of the month to make the Dill block. 

In comparison to the previous couple blocks, this one seemed simple. All that is needed to be done in this block is a few flip and stitch corners. I didn't even have to adjust any of the cutting which is strange for me.  

The cut pieces labeled with my Alphabitties

To make my flip and stitch corners I used my Diagonal Seam Tape from Cluck Cluck Sew.

My components

The pieced petal unit.

For the petal unit, the only thing to watch out for, is to make sure you have all those flipped corners facing the right way, in order to get the proper look. I did double check the diagram as I did mine, to make sure I had the background and center triangles in the right corners.

My Block 6! 

I really do love the look of this block, even though I am really not a green person, I think it turned out well. IT was also refreshing to have a simple, straight forward block, as I sat down to make it last night quickly before I went to bed. 

Have you been keeping up? Do you like BOMs or would you prefer to just sit don and do a project start to finish? 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am hoping that the heat stays a bit longer, and that the wind stays away so that I can get some time in on the water and enjoy the new dock my fiance built. 

June Events

 June is right around the corner, and with it our 5th Anniversary!

First off I want to say Thank You on behalf of Esther, Carrie and myself for all your support and business over the past 5 years! We have had so much fun and look forward to the future. 

We had been planning to have some instore specials the first week of June as that is our actual Anniversary, but with restrictions lifting more all the time we have decided to wait until nearer the end of the month for the sales instead. So watch for more details on that in the next few weeks. 

We have our first few Tuesday Facebook Live Videos planned out. These take place live on our Facebook Page at 10:30am and we publish the videos when we are done filming so they stay on our page. 

June 1 we will be going over our PhD projects, as well as what we have planned for the remainder of the month. 

June 8 is Moda Stitch Pink Day and we will be doing blocks 16-20 

June 15 I will be doing a little "class" / "tutorial" on a baby panel quilt, showing how to square up a panel and how to add borders not only to panels but to all your projects. 

June 17-19 we are a Vendor at Virtual Quilt Canada. We have a booth set up, will be doing some demonstrations and having some show specials. This is the first time we are a vendor of a virtual event like this so we aren't sure what to expect but we are excited to be included. 

At the end of the month we will be having our instore 5th Anniversary Sale. 

We have more fabric arriving all the time and we have been busy putting together kits and samples for the shop. 

We are also spending time getting things ready for our Sidewalk Sale in July. 

Carrie will be here on Thursday with her Garden Sampler Blocks. 

Have a great week, 

Kayla 

New Fabric: May

 We have received so many boxes of new fabric in the last few weeks! Carrie was kept very busy entering all the new fabric into our computer system and putting it online, and I was busy finding homes in the shop for them! We have been sharing all the new collections on our Social Media Pages and I thought tonight I would share a few of them here. 

We have a few new collections from Moda in the shop

First up is Sunday Stroll by Bonnie and Camille. Esther and I both have a quilt on the go for this collection and the Moda Boxed Kit finally arrived this past Friday, and there is just 2 left. Esther's project uses the 10" Log Cabin Duo ruler from Creative Grids and she isn't using a pattern she is just making a bunch of blocks with the ruler and sewing them together. A fat 1/8th bundle would work really well if you want to do the same and we have a demo on our Facebook Page of how the ruler works. I will be making kits up of my project tomorrow, so watch for that. 

Sneak Peek of my project

Esther's Log Cabin Duo Blocks

Spring Brook by Corey Yoder is in the shop and we have sold lots of it already. Esther made this fun quilt with the fabric which is available as a kit, and we have the Moda Boxed Kit as well. 

Smoke and Rust by Lella Boutique is selling really quick. This collection of neutrals with a pop of rusty orange is a great collection if you need to make a quilt for an older boy or man. 

Illustrations by Alli K Design is a great collection made up of Black, Grey and White, and it comes with a really nice panel as well. My quilt from this is nearly finished (1 side of binding left) and kits are available. 

We have a couple new Batik collections in the shop from Robert Kaufman. 

These are the Modern Twist Batiks. I love the purple! 

And there is this Animal Safari inspired line called Serengeti. 

From Art Gallery we have a low volume collection called Soften The Volume. 

Also from Art Gallery and on the opposite side of the spectrum is Andina, which is bright and bold!

Velvet by Amy Sinibaldi for Art Gallery lies nicely in the middle of the first two, with pretty color but not so bold!

Lilliput by Sharon Holland is also available now. We have made several bags from this collection and just love it!

From Riley Blake we have just one new collection called Ava Rose and it is beautiful!

And we have a darling baby line called City Hoppers from Michael Miller available too and we made kits that utilize the panel and larger prints, but have not yet made the sample for it. 

As always there is more to see in the shop and on our website! Click here to visit our website. 

Have a great week. As next Monday is a holiday there will be no blog post and the shop will be closed. 

Kayla

The Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee: Month 4

 We are on Month 4 of our Bonnie and Camille Quilt Bee. I hope you are having fun making the blocks! Several of you have sent me pictures of your progress and I love seeing them so please keep sending them to me. There is also draw for a prize in a couple months for those that have been sewing along, so be sure to send me photos so I can add your names to that draw. 

I found this month's blocks to be quick and easy. We are making the Cross Stitch Block which can be found on page 96, and we have to make a total of 7 of them, and that is it for this month.

 I love how these blocks were constructed and than trimmed. So much easier than using triangles to make them sit on point! 

I went through my fabrics and chose several that I hadn't used much of yet for my 7 blocks. 

The cutting is quick and I followed the pattern for that. 

The construction is quick too. I chain pieced all my blocks to make it go even faster. 

For the trimming it is very helpful to have a 6 1/2" ruler for this block. 

It may seem odd but I trimmed my block with the wrong side facing up. Using an iron away pen I made marks where my two creases intersected and at the edge of the print and used those marks for trimming. I put the center of my ruler on the intersection dot and made sure the diagonal line matched up with the creases running through my block and the markings on the edge of the print, after checking that I had a quarter inch seam allowance left around the 8 points of my print, I trimmed around all 4 sides of the block. 

I did it wrong side up so that if the marking lines didn't go away completely it wouldn't be a problem. 

I love these blocks and how they are made and I am thinking I may have to make enough blocks for a twin size quilt for one of my boys.

I probably say it every month, but I am having a lot of fun making these blocks, and it is really hard to stop working on it when I have completed the work for the month. 

Please send me an email with your progress or post a photo in the comments of my photo on our Facebook Page.  

Have a great week, 

Kayla

Garden Sampler BOM: Month 5

 It is the beginning of May. That seems crazy, these months are flying by, and personally I hope they continue to do so. In my mind September can't come fast enough. 😂 I've been busy wedding planning, enjoying the warmer weather and off course doing a bit of waterskiing. With the warmer weather we have been having I'm sure everyone has been outside enjoying the weather, but it is time to pull out all of the block of the months and get those blocks done.

We are working on the fifth block of our Garden Sampler. This block was fun, and I tried a new technique which I would've avoided if it wasn't for this block. 

So for cutting I didn't like the way the pattern asked us to make the quarter square triangles, so I adjusted the cutting and rounded up to the nearest half inch. 

I then sewed 1/4" on either side of the center of my squares, cut, pressed, and put them on right sides together having a background triangle on each side. Then I sewed on either side of the center on both of these sets. 

I used my 4-in-1 HST tool to square these blocks. I pressed them open, then put the 2" marking through the center and trimmed, I then flipped my square, lined up all the 2" markings and trimmed again. 

To do the flip and stitch corners I didn't even use my Folded Corner Clipper, shocking I know. 

I lined my squares up on my rectangles and used my Diagonal seam tape, ensuring the corner of the squares followed the red line on the tape.

The petal component I constructed exactly as the pattern shows us, just make sure that quarter square triangle is flipped the right way when you begin. 

Since we have to start stitching 1/4" away from the edge of the center square to construct the block, I drew a line 1/4" away from the edge of all 4 sides, this helped me make sure I stopped at the right point.

These partial seams are the part where I normally would've looked at the pattern and put it away, but since it was just one block, and I need it for the quilt I figured I better try it, and it wasn't as scary as I thought.

My finished block is below, and I love how it turned out!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and if the weather is looking like they forecast I hope everyone makes it into their sewing rooms for a little bit. 

I think we plan on going suit shopping for my fiance and my dad for the wedding so that will be exciting for us. 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.