Modern Stitching Bee - a finish

Last year I was part of the Modern Stitching Bee with some truly lovely Bees and some fun blocks being set every month.  In July, my Queen Bee request was to have the other Bees make "That block" blocks for me a la Mary's tutorial (but re-sized a bit to finish at 12.5" square).  The blocks are a fantastic way to use up your scrappy leftover strips of fabric, and those of your Bee mates too!

A little like a spider's web block, "that block" uses lots of scrappy strips added around a centre (usually a solid).  In my experience of both blocks, however, the "that block" is the one I most prefer to make.  It definitely did not feel as difficult to construct as a spider's web block, and I also have a personal preference for the secondary pattern being a diamond, rather than the web effect.  Everybody will feel differently, but I at least hope that my Bee mates didn't hate me for setting this block.

They did me proud sending in all their blocks in the colour scheme I had requested (pretty much scrappy, bright and summery).  In fact, I loved it so much after I had it all laid out on my living room floor that in spite of having resolved only to piece it into a top until after the baby arrives, I just couldn't wait to finish it.




Now, as you can see it is a fully fledged quilt!  I chose to quilt in wavy lines mainly because I was impatient to get on and because the straight line design options I was mulling over would take me through those seams where many layers of fabric had come together and I feared that might get a bit bumpy instead of staying straight.

Have to say, I really love the waves and am pleased that I just went for them.  Finished off with a scrappy binding I already know this quilt will be much used in my home.  I love that it is such a happy quilt.  I love that my Bee friends contributed to it.  I love that it has such a greater scrappy variety in the fabrics than I could have achieved by myself.  I love that it looks just like I hoped it would way back when I was choosing my block to set in MSB.  And, I love that it is finished and snuggle worthy!

I am linking up this scrappy strippy quilt with Leanne and Nicky today for Scraptastic Tuesday even if the scraps used were not all my own.  BTW two of the pretty blocks in my quilt were contributed by Leanne herself!

Lastly, I want to reiterate my thanks to the lovely Modern Stitching Bees for making me such a beautiful set of blocks and for including many precious fabrics in there.  Thank you all so much!!