Three Very Different Blocks

One of the pleasures of joining online quilting bees and contributing to charity or gift quilts is stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new.  Whether it is a new technique, block pattern or even just a color combination , it can be fun to discover something that I may not have otherwise ever attempted.
 I think a lot of us tend to get stuck in the comfort zone, don't we?  

These three blocks are all very different and were equally enjoyable...

This one is for the Newbee Quilters bee at Threadbias.com.  Our queen bee for the month gave us the pattern, awesome tutorial here, and asked us to use green and purple with white.  I can't say that green and purple are two colors that I would ever put together, but, you know what?  I really like it!!  I am a huge fan of Sandi Hendersen's Henna Garden prints, and this one is a lovely shade of green. I think that the muted tone of the purple complements it nicely.

This block is for a quilt for a friend who has a new baby.  The quilter wanted an improv quilt using greens and blues and a background of Kona in parchment.  Now, this is the second block I made because the first one wasn't improv at all.  I don't really do improv very well, and I made a block with a pre-planned layout and nice straight lines.  Needless to say, it looked very different from the other blocks that were being posted online.  So I went back to the drawing board and decided to make a letter block using the first letter of the baby's name.  Then I started piecing scraps together. I didn't measure or care if the seams were straight.  Then I cut the pieces into the shapes to make the letter and pieced them together.  It was about as improv as I get, and it was liberating!!  I am looking forward to seeing this quilt all done.

And this is my February block for The Sugar Block Club, hosted by Amy at StitcheryDitcheryDock.  This was the first time I did paper piecing and I am in love!!  It is messy, but so much fun.  The precise piecing and seam matching definitely appeals to my sensibilities!!

So, there you have it.  Three blocks that all got me to do something new or different, and I loved every minute of it!  If you haven't joined an online bee, I encourage you to do so.  You can google it to see what is available or search on Flickr.  

I am linking up with Amanda at CrazyMomQuilts and Sarah, here;

Hope you all have a great weekend,

Tessa Marie