It's my turn to be the Queen Bee for StashBee Hive 7 in April. So I whipped up this tutorial for a modern pinwheel block. Check it out! I'd love to see a photo of your finished block!

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I am really enjoying my 2nd year in the Stash Bee and I hope you all are too. This month we are taking inspiration from the Quilty magazine Issue 5 from May/June 2013. I love this magazine but it's hard to find. For some reason the Deals near my house sometimes carries it and I think that's where I found this issue.


I was skimming through recently and saw that I had dog-eared this pattern. Anyone remember Jay McCarroll from Project Runway? Well, he quilts! And he designed this one! 

I made a few changes to the original pattern to make the block bigger (11" finished instead of 8 1/2").


The color scheme I have chosen is a sea of blues, teal, and aqua. Here's my fabric pull:

Materials
white or neutral background fabric
1 fat quarter of colored fabric

Cutting
4- 5" background squares
4- 3 1/2" x 9" strips of either blue, teal, aqua...

Directions
1. Lay out 4 background and 4 strips as shown below.


2. Sew one background square and one strip together. Then piece the remaining 3 the same way.



3. Sew the top 2 pieces together and then the bottom 2.


4. Finally, join the final 2 pieces together and press. I put a pin in the center to keep the seams matched up. Try to press all your seams to the dark side please!


5. Press your block. Then, carefully trim your block to 11".




And you're done! Hope you find this block nice and easy!
On Saturday I spent a few hours with the girls in our South FL Modern Quilt Guild sewing and working on projects. 

I added binding to a quilt that is still not done (pics later).

Then worked on my Negative Space Challenge blocks.  This is a challenge that our guild put together to help the members try a new technique, negative space. I made a bunch of "fabric" last year using the 15 minutes of play method. And then I turned the fabric into half square triangles. I have over 100 HSTs now. If only I could pick a design. Here are a few layouts that I was playing around with.

  Secondary pattern with white rectangles  in the mix.

Simple chevron.

Stripes.

There are endless possibilities with HSTs. I'll have to pick one soon and start piecing. Our contest is in July and it will be here before I know it!

It's November!! My birthday month celebration begins today! 🎉🎂

I absolutely love November, not just because of my birthday but also because it's time for Thanksgiving and the beginning of a whole lot of family time. 

And because it's my favorite month of the year, I want to invite any of my friends or blog readers to enjoy it with me! 

I'm offering $20 COLD HARD CASH back for anyone who gives essential oils a try and orders the Premium Starter Kit from me.  



If you've been wanting to try them, curious about these little bottles of amazingness, or just love a good deal, then you need to be a part of this!!

Here's the link to check out the Premium Starter Kits:


Who's ready to celebrate with me?
I've never been to a quilting workshop before, so this really set the bar high!

Tonya Ricucci of UnRuly Quilting led us through an improv round robin workshop today at the ultra cool General Provision. There were 14 of us (almost all members of the South Florida Modern Quilt Guild). We started by creating a block out of our own fabric, including a piece of our "signature fabric". I chose a deep green with gold crosses, which you will see hiding in the following pictures. We were given 20 minutes to cut, piece, and iron. Then, we swapped! This pattern continued 8 more times. Here are some of the blocks I made.

This block below was for Kate Yates (of Thread Everywhere) who started her block with strata. So I tried to continue with that theme. I think it turned out cool!

This was the only block that had black fabric in it and I really like that.

A block with mostly greens.

This is definitely a sherbet block. You can't really tell from the picture but this quilter's fabrics were all very saturated and bright colors. Very fresh and fun to work with.

My block made with Allison's fabric pieces. She gave me a piece of that groovy brown and cream fabric from Birch Fabrics Ipanema line! I immediately coveted it when I saw it in her basket. Thanks Allison! (Side note: her fabric pull was cohesive with Browns, oranges, cream, white, and blues. My signature fabric in green was the only fabric that stood out when her blocks were all together. That's the interesting part of a round robin- you're going to end up with other peoples' fabrics in your quilt. And you just have to go with it!)

My favorite block of the day! I wanted to keep it and not give it back to its owner. Oh well...

When the rotating was complete, this is what I received.

I'm going to have a fun time putting all the blocks together. I think I'll make a few more blocks and use scrap pieces to even out some of the sides. Overall, what an awesome experience! I would definitely do that again. 


What you are about to see is quite possibly the best DIY sushi I've ever had. Ok, it's the only DIY sushi I've ever had. But it was delicious! Stood up to any restaurant quality salmon roll around.


Don't say u didn't warn you!

My friend Val is a legit sushi chef. Well, she didn't go to culinary school but she watched 100's of hours of YouTube videos to perfect her craft. Then after months of inviting ourselves over, she made 8 rolls of sushi for dinner!

Here's what she did...

Spread delicious sushi rice on top of seaweed paper.

Turn that over so that the rice is on the bottom. Pipe a clean line of avocado.

Add 2 pieces of panko-breaded baked salmon.

And a thin piece of cucumber for crunch.

Now this is the hardest part...the rolling. 

And slice into 8 pieces. As Val said "Don't even bother if you don't have a super sharp knife." She does.

Why yes, that is homemade spicy mayo that she's drizzling. 

And then you eat!!


She made it look so easy! Thanks Val (and Josh) for having us over and letting us enjoy your delicious sushi! xoxo

Reading Sherri Lynn Wood's book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilter's is challenging me in a new way. She talks about approaching improvisational quilting with a "yes, and..." view. You have to affirm what's been done and add to it. 
This is hard! I'm trying not to plan too much or try to figure out the end result but just go with it.

This is what I have at the moment. 
Three pieced rows of blocks. I don't know where to go next and I have to be honest, it's kind of unnerving. Part of me likes a pattern and detailed steps that I can look ahead at. And part of me is trying to really embrace this improv technique and go with it.

One thing is for sure- it's fun! And different. And new. And scary lol

Let's see where this takes me.
I really enjoyed making these scrappy blocks for Pam this month. So sad, she lost her daughter in a car accident and she's making quilts for her two grandsons to remember the love of her daughter. Not only is this a touching story, the blocks feature my favorite colors orange and blue. I couldn't help but think of her while making these blocks.



Started out with a 14" square of gray fabric. Cut it in half on a diagonal. Then I pieced strips of scraps together. Sewed them into the square. Cut it in half again and sewed the next strip in. These were fun and easy!

I wonder what the Queen Bee will ask for next month...