Spelling Bee - Progress 7

It's been a while since I updated you on the progress of my Spelling Bee blocks.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  Firstly, I've been pretty busy with other things, but secondly, when I did have time to give to Spelling Bee, I spent a lot of it cutting!

The result is that I only have these to show you - 

I love the fabric combinations in these O, I and parentheses blocks.  This quilt is perfect for playing with fabric combinations.

It's ok that I only managed to make 4 blocks recently, because I have another 7 or 8 blocks in little ziplock bags ready to be stitched together.  Hoping to open a few of those fabric packages this weekend ;-)

Spelling Bee - Progress 6

 

I have a car and an F now for my Spelling Bee quilt.  Was hoping to stitch up the Bee too, but I didn't get as much time as I thought I would at the machine.  Next time ...

Spelling Bee - Progress 5

 

I managed a few more blocks for my Spelling Bee quilt in March.  

And these ones too.  

I have a few of the little picture blocks cut out for my next stitching session - very cute!

Spelling Bee - Progress 3

Late in 2019 I made a start on Lori Holt's Spelling Bee Quilt.  At that time I published Progress 1 and Progress 2 posts and as you can see there's been a bit of a lull until this Progress 3 post!  2020 with all it's cancelled plans and nonsense got in the way somewhat and then I was distracted by the Kindred Spirits QAL, but it's lovely to be ready to pick this one up again.

Happily, I discovered that I had already cut the fabrics for M and W back in 2019 so these were a nice little easy return to piecing.

Then I cut and pieced the U and the hashtag.  Must say, it's very satisfying to choose fabrics and to work on these.  

I do hope to be able to make regular progress now with the Spelling Bee blocks, but to be honest, the cutting is intense with so many tiny pieces, so it will be slow and steady to win this race.

Spelling Bee Quilt - progress 2

 I have a little more progress in my Spelling Bee block making to share.

C and D are the final letters of the quilt's first row.  It is fun to piece together the paired fabrics I chose for the lettering on this quilt.  Most of the coloured prints will be Lori Holt fabric or from other Riley Blake co-ordinating ranges that were part of my stash (and leftover from my Happy Days BOM quilt making).

The low volume backgrounds will all be from stash, though a few are from Lori Holt's collections too. The small piecing makes this quilt a great scrap buster, but there is sometimes the challenge of working out if your scrappy pieces will actually stretch to all the teeny cuts required for each block.  

Speaking of teeny cuts, I avoided some insane ones in this fabulous typewriter block pattern. Lori's instructions are for 32 squares to make up that 4" x 2" keyboard panel.  Yes, 32!!!  Don't forget this block is just 6.5' square as you see it there.  Basically, I couldn't face them, so luckily I had this perfect and amazing typewriter keyboard print (that I am always so afraid to use in case I run out) to use instead.  Job done, and no insane 32 squares.  Hats off to those of you who obeyed the rules on this one.  I'm also rather pleased with the typewritten script fabric I found in my stash  - just the job for the typewriter paper part of this block.

I am very fond of this typewriter block.  When I was a little girl I received a beautiful typewriter as a Christmas present one year and I absolutely loved it!  It was my dream present - always fancied myself becoming writer of some sorts ;-)

So, that's all the blocks now for the first row of my Spelling Bee quilt.  I need to get on now and cut more for row 2!

Spelling Bee Quilt - progress 1

It has been hard to resist starting to stitch the blocks for the Spelling Bee Quilt since I prepped some of them.  I said I would just do A and then get back to cutting, but well ...

B happened too, of course.

Then I thought I'd just have a stab at the sewing machine block because it's so cute, and here I am

with the blocks for the first half of the quilt's top row.  

Truth is, the little sewing machine block is a whole other ball game, in terms of stitching, from the letters.  Remember it's 6.5" square with ALL those pieces!! If you look closely at the block pic, you'll see I lost some of the corners that are supposed to shape the sewing machine control knobs.  It's bothering me, but I cannot decide if I can bring myself to unpick and restitch them.  The control-freak-perfection-aiming part of me very much wants to fix it.  The exhausted mother of CT wonders if it will "do".  

I'll think about it ...

When I realised that the piecing for this quilt is so small and sectional, I thought it would be a really good candidate for sewing up some leaders and enders alongside the actual blocks.  As I need to remove a stitched section from under my needle, I can just pop in a leader/ender pair to avoid thread wastage and keep the machine from gathering up at the start of the next bits of sewing.  I've pulled out my 2.5" squares box and am going to make nine patches (for an eventual scrappy Irish Chain, I think) as I sew. It'll be like a bonus project taking shape alongside!

A, B, C

A    is for Awesome quilt by Lori Holt.

B    is for Beginning another project.

C    is for CT who "needs" this quilt ;-) even though she may not get it until she's 15!

Yes, I'm rifling my fabric boxes again for something new.  This is all my Lori Holt prints and similarly coloured/styled Riley Blake prints that were left over from my Happy Days BOM quilt.  Um, no, that quilt is not finished yet :-o  I've added a mix of low volumes to have a scrappier feel to the quilt background and to keep working at reducing my stash.  So the plan is to use mostly these fabrics, but I will dip into my general stash for greys and other bits I might need as this quilt progresses.

No sewing yet, but I made a start cutting. I did wonder at my sanity as I cut squares that were 1.5", 1" and even 0.75" in size! This is all of the cutting for the first row blocks, the sashings and the low volume inner scallop borders. There is still such a lot to cut, but I already know this will be a VERY long term project and that's ok.  I plan to enjoy this one - it's such a beautiful design and I know CT will love it - eventually!!