I used Neptune on one of my first quilts and loved it. Poor Becket has a mod Bento Box in Neptune that's been sitting in pieces for ages.

It reminds me of Hawaii - and the honu that I love. So it's fitting that the first thing I make when I FINALLY turn my machine on since we left for Hawaii more than a month ago - is a Neptune block for Julie.

It was a wonderful way to get back into the groove!

...the early bird...

...I didn't mean to be so early with my July blocks...

(and Julie has hers done already?!?!??)

it's just that July

is 

such a busy month

It's summer in Cali

Summer International Quilt Festival

and all that

BUT

 so many of you were kind enough to help me select a color scheme

so many of you were so fond of this color scheme

so I thot I'd share

(after all, I did cut all of the strips for twelve peeps)

You're just going to have to visit again some time in August

to see the finished quilt

Thanks to Denyse Schmidt's quilt for inspiration

and thanks to all of you for your input

it's nice to know I can rely on you

all of you

natalie.

More Neptune Love

At the risk of sounding rather unoriginal, Julie I loved working with this Neptune!

 

S0 darn pretty. This quilt is going to be amazing.

 

And yes, the blocks are square. They only look like parallelograms.

measure twice, cut once. or not.

Here you go, Julie! I adore this fabric line. The colors are so pretty together. Oh, and the Kona crush fabric? I totally love it. So soft and cushy. I might have to get some for the sashing in my 9-patch quilt.

I made the bottom block (with the seahorses) first, and near the end of the process, I trimmed a bit to square it up and ended up making the block 1/8" too short! So I trimmed some more and added another strip. Now you would think that wouldn't happen again, right? Well, it didn't, not exactly. What I did though was cut the very last strip 1/4" too narrow. Sigh. I didn't want to chop and add this time, so I unpicked it and remade the strip in a wide enough width.

I can't wait to see all the blocks together, it's going to be so gorgeous!

co-simpatico

I didn't get what all the neptune fuss was about, until I started putting these blocks together for Julie. I love how the fabrics contrast each other, really helping one another to shine. It's a co-simpatico relationship!

And now I've ordered a few neptune prints of my own!

I hope you love them Julie......

Ok... I'm in love!

My first impression of this fabric... I admit, it's not exactly my style. Although, after cutting, arranging, sewing and seeing my creations...

Well... I don't want to send them back!
You won't miss these, will you Julie?

July is Natalie's Month

I'm just so excited it's my month!!

I will keep the tealturqgreygreen for another day - after all, it's all cut and ready to sew!!

Thanks to Julie, once again, for this inspiration.

Or Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

Or quiltville.com

Or Quilt-it

There are a lot of different techniques out there - this one is foundation pieced, flip and sew.

Your toolbox - rotary cutter/mat, square ruler, basic grey thread & loaded bobbins, scissors, straight pins, iron 

 oh, and patience.

In your package - special beyond the reef foundation paper, strips and extra fabric - I hope enough fabric...

I suppose the key to the accurate points is placement of the first grey piece - centered on the foundation paper.

So, step one, center grey on center of paper and secure (I sunk a straight pin in the grey)

Trim your strips to a length that covers the paper, starting a pile of smaller pieces to use on the points.

With scant 1/4" seam, sew first strip to grey, right sides together.  

That's it, I think, for accuracy.  That, and getting that first fabric all nice and centered.

At this point, I am a chain stitchin' kinda girl.

It's right sides together, check strip length and trim, sew.

strip, trim, sew...strip, trim, sew.

My favorite part of a project.

the fabric, the machine, the tools

the peaceful rhythm

See, I forgot a step - finger press, or for me, I use a wooden ceramics tool

to flip those strips over and get them nice and flat, ready for the next strip.

Repeat peaceful sewing of strips until paper foundation is covered.

Trim block to paper - I used a large square ruler to be sure things were - ahem - square.

Leaving foundation paper intact, sew two 'half square triangles' together.

I used those pins to line up the points - you all have your own technique. 

And that's why you're making these blocks, not me!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Miscellaneous

Make one, make two, either way I'm a happy girl.

Siggy block...how about a 4-6" 'Stella's Punch Drunk Love"?

Add fabric? Denyse Schmidt, just a strip or two to personalize it, if you like.

Embellishments, stitching, stuff?  No thanks - next time.

Finally, if there are strips left, please make an Ami Simms Priority Quilt for auction.

If you don't have time for this part, just return unused/unwanted fabric with the block; thanks.

NEXT

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

Summer International Quilt Festival

July 23-25

Hey, wait a minute...

that's right around the corner!!!

Girlfriends...the tool for getting your points to match!!

I can't get my points to match.

And since next month - July - is my month

I thought you could help?

(sorry folks, this post is all about me)

I would never ever in a million years make these blocks for myself.

But I fell in love with Julie's new spider-whatcha-call-it quilt.

And being a part of a bee means that one month a year, you get someone

to sew with on the project of your choice.

Actually 11 other someones.

I love Denyse Schmidt fabrics.

And thanks to Audrie I have a collection of the new Denyse Schmidt fabrics

Grey is my new black.

Grey/aqua/teal/acidgreen is my favorite.

I'd love to have 12-1/2" blocks, but I think I would like to have you practice

my sharp piecing

on some specialty product I am developing.

(shhh, it's a secret...)

Which means 7-1/2" blocks for now.

Now, all I have to do is decide between teal, grey, green

and

Denyse Schmidt

Whaddya say?  Please weigh in...the fabric'll be sitting in your in box, so I figure you should have a say.

Truly, the key to sharp piecing and getting your points to match?

GIRLFRIENDS

natalie.

A tulip for Penny.

This is what I get for being so smug last month about keeping up.

Penny, I'm sorry I'm so behind this month! This guys is on his way.

I hope you will love your flower - it was a pleasure to make it.

Another quilt I can't wait to see.

Rebekah's Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt

Thank you all so much for contributing to this quilt!

It was so much fun to see how my pile of scraps from old projects were turned into these beautiful blocks.

The colors and patterns are wild and crazy, and while I could have added sashing between to tone things down, I decided to sew each block directly together for a true patchwork look. This quilt is a birthday present for a hippie and color loving person and I know that she'll love the craziness of it.

I started with the 20 blocks that you all sent me and then I added five blocks of my own to make it a square quilt. The final size is about 55" x 55."

Thank you all so much for contributing to this quilt! I know that my cousin will have lots of fun examining each of the fabrics in this (she's going to school for fashion design). Now I'm just catching a few more peeks at this before I have to wrap it up and give it away.

To Julie with love...

These are not my colors.

This is not my fabric.

It's hard to work with OPF sometimes.

I know, you've heard me say, it's such a treat to work with OPF.

But.

Now you all know I love Julie.

She's one of my peeps.  She is a great help in the booth at beyond the reef.

She is a fabulous quilter, designer, she has a great 'style' of her own too.

So.

I just gotta go with this project - in I go...

I cut the fabric - well most of it.

I start sewing.

I have to cut more fabric.

.....daaaang.....

These blocks are looking pretty great!

(the colors, you guys - not the blocks, well, the blocks are coming along too)

But, daang, Julie!!!

These are coming together!!!

So I decide to keep sewing.

Then I think - wait.

"Punch Drunk Love"

Hmmmmm.

Now I'm not sayin' anything here - not promoting the use of any distraction while using heavy machinery...

But I just couldn't stop sewing!!!

I did a partial punchdrunklovewithpiecedcenterblock

just because at this point

I'm lovin' this project - I'm lovin' the tulapink fabrics

I'm thinking,

Yep.

this Julie knows her stuff!!

Thanks for letting me out of my box.

Out of my comfort zone.

Again.

Natalie.

Blocks For Julie

I loved putting these blocks together... definitely the style I feel most comfortable with :)

I left the centre of the block pretty large because I couldn't bear to cut it any smaller. Love that submarine.

I seem to like doing the right angle blue lines. Oops. I only realised this after the fact!

I fussy cut the turtle print because Angela had been talking about turtles after her Hawaiian trip so I had turtles on the brain :)

The siggy block is about 5.25" square and fairly simple, in keeping with the other two blocks. (I promise the sides are all straight... I don't know why that right side looks so wonky.)

Julie, I had fun doing these, and working with Neptune was a joy :) Plus I really liked that Kona Crush! So squishy! Hope you like the blocks!!

-- Audrie

drunk love for julie.

Here they are Julie!

I loved working with these fabrics, the colors are great and will be gorgeous for a bedroom! I am sorry that I didn't completely follow the directions; it was only when I went looking for signature block directions that I noticed your request for simple and clean blocks. I hope these aren't too busy! And if they are, I kindly ask some of you who haven't started your blocks yet to maybe tone it down. :) I guess I was trying to cram all of those pretty little bits in each block.

I put them in the mail today, so you should get them by the weekend!

Thanks for sending such fun fabrics!

Julie's Blocks

Julie gave me my first chance to work with Tula Pink fabrics. It's only fitting that Julie is my first introduction to Tula Pink, right? I think she may have a new Tula Pink convert here in Michigan now! My favorite fabrics of the bunch are the green hexagons and the cute little anchors. Jon likes the navy wave fabric because it reminds him of a Hokusai painting.



I made this block first and started to freak out a little that I wouldn't have enough fabric to make two blocks.



Then, I discovered a giant piece of white fabric folded up nicely under some other prints (whew, thanks Julie!), and I was able to make another block too.



Here's all three blocks together, including my siggy block made with leftover bitty scraps. These are going in the mail tomorrow, Julie.

Penny's Block

Tulips are my absolute favorite flower! It's a shame they don't last longer. I was so excited when Penny first showed this block on her blog and happy to have the chance to make a block for her in the bee.



I think the center section is my favorite part of the flower. It looks a lot like popsicle colors to me, which is perfect for these hot summer days.



Sorry it's so late, Penny! June appeared out of nowhere around here. It's going in the mail first thing tomorrow.

tulip time.

I had a great time putting this tulip together for Penny. I love this style of piecing, thanks ladies for turning me on to it! Between the long weekend, travel and thunderstorms I had to wait until the sun was bright enough for a photo shoot. Thanks for your patience, Penny!

I'm certain this quilt will be a show-stopper when it's all put together. All of the blocks I've seen so far have been gorgeous! Thanks for sending such pretty fabrics to play with Penny! I'll get this in the mail today or tomorrow :)