WiP Wednesday

Nothing big to show today but I did finish a couple of 4x5 bee blocks off. First, the one I made for myself as a practice block:

And then, there is the one for my hive mate who asked for purple and red on Kona Ash:

Of late, I have been interested in making what are often considered as fairly traditional quilt blocks out of modern fabrics. I think it works, and the look is completely different. My bee blocks pictured above are from Eleanor Burns' Underground Railroad Sampler book and the block, which has several names according to Eleanor, is Dutchman's Puzzle. Her method for constructing the block is excellent. I originally bought the book thinking I would make the quilt out of Civil War repro fabrics but, alas, my tastes have changed and I hate the idea of letting the book go to waste. I might have to keep experimenting.

Another traditional type block I really like is the Churn Dash. It occurred to me, a few weeks back, that my substantial collection of charm packs might sew up quite nicely into churn dash blocks. Especially when I have two of each, which I received as a member of Pink Chalk Fabric's Charming Monthly Solids Club last year. I am at a place where I want to make larger quilts and charm packs don't necessarily lend themselves the best to those types of endeavour; however, the are working out very nicely in these blocks. I figure that a club shipment (two charm packs and six fat eights of solid) plus some solid background from my stash should make me about thirty blocks total. A 4 x 5 setting should give me a nice sized quilt. So then I decided to set a goal to make one block per day. Even if things were really busy, I could treat myself to enough sewing time to get one churn dash block sewn. Halfway through the month, I am still on target, and this is what I have to show for my efforts:

The fabric is Domestic Bliss and it was the first monthly shipment I received!

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced today!

e.