Wip Wednesday - the block edition

So most of my progress at the moment comes in the form of blocks. I still have a couple of bigger projects on the go but they are waiting for some completely kidfree time to get stuck into them. Especially the XOXO quilt. That requires lots of patience to wrangle through the machine, which does not leave much patience over to deal with kidlets ;) So XOXO still looks like this:

Okay not quite. This is a recycled photo. I didn't leave the quilt set up at my sewing machine. But I wanted to prove that I had done some work on it! Oh I have given some further thought to quilting and even googled some quilting motifs to put in the centre of the diamonds. That almost counts as quilting, right?

In terms of actual sewing... I decided to get stuck into the May Craftsy blocks. I skipped April altogether - hexies + hand sewing = not for me. I had grand plans of doing other hexagon themed blocks but I didn't get around to it.

So May. Here's the Framed Log Cabin one. I quite like how this one turned out.

And the Wonky/Improv Log Cabin. I don't quite like how this one turned out.

All the fabrics are from Khristian A Howell's Moroccan Mirage line. I really love this fabric. Gorgeous prints, great colours and the fabric has a lovely feel to it. I don't think this scrappy block does it justice.

Here are all my blocks so far:

Fun and bright huh? I think that it would look good with some sashing though to separate the blocks out a bit.

I have also done the May blocks for the QCA Bee. Bev requested disappearing nine patches in any colours. I spent ages trying to decide on the right colours. Then I just picked two rainbow prints and matched fabrics to those central prints (which became the tiny squares in the finished blocks).

Don't I sound organised? All caught up on my May block committments! I'm really not as organised as it seems. But a couple of blocks here and there are manageable.

On the topic of blocks, April was my bee month. I chose the Diamond in Square block that I had done previously in Good Fortune. During the making of blocks, Shirley from QCA mentioned a better way to cut some of the triangles. And wouldn't you know it, a light bulb went off in my head. Shirley's method got rid of the bias edges on the triangles. The same bias edges that caused my Diamonds in Squares to turn into a wonky, wavy, nightmare. So here's hoping that when I sew these Bee blocks together, I have a lot less hassles.

Here are the blocks I have received so far. My hopes is to have a happy bright rainbow quilt that I can donate to Angels for the Forgotten - a charity who work with kids in crisis and foster care. They are always after special blankets, quilts and bags for the kids so if you're an Aussie who loves to do some charity sewing, pop over and check them out. Details on the sewing things can be found here. 

Unfortunately these blocks gave my fellow Hive members lots of hassles. I'm really not a perfectionist on points and perfectly matched seams but I don't think I conveyed that very well to the other girls. This block doesn't always line up perfectly and gave some of the girls some grief. So I feel really terrible about that (Sorrry girls!) and if I ever get game enough to join in another Bee, I will choose a tried and true block for my bee month. Lesson learned. :) Let's just say, I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Bev chose the Disappearing Nine Patch for May! ;)

Another project that's still just a block but has dreams of becoming something greater... My little attempt at paper piece pattern designing. I drew this up with my sister in mind but didn't tell her that in case she hated it. Fortunately, she loves it! So it's going to be incorporated into a design for her King Size quilt. You read right, King Size. That's how much I love my sister. So still need to get busy and do some mock ups for a quilt. Thinking it might look nice all white with just a stripe of these blocks towards the bottom. Any thoughts on layouts? I'm all ears/eyes.

So that's my progress currently. Feeling pretty good to have the May blocks done and it's only the second day of May! Now my big goal is to get the XOXO quilt finished within the next few weeks. Wish me luck. :)

Linking up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced :)