~ Save the Bees ~ Block 4 ~ GIVEAWAY ~

Hello Sweet Friends!  Today I'm BUZZING with excitement, I can't wait to share my cute Block 4 of the FREE Save the Bees BOM by Jacquelynne Steves.  If this is the first you've heard of this BOM you can find all the details over at Jacquelynne's blog by CLICKING HERE.

The block for this month is the adorable bumble bee block in the bottom right corner of the image above.  I've been using the blocks to make small wall hangings for my mini quilts wall using only scraps from my Lakehouse Drygoods scrap bin.  Well I'm still working from those scraps but I'm adding other fabrics also.  With Jacquelynne's BOM's she always has several options for making the blocks.  Embroidery, applique or a plain block to showcase your favorite fabric.   She also encourages creativity and making the quilt your own. With each block I've tried to do something a little different.  Fussy cutting, different applique method or color placements.

So I wanted to keep the creativity going with Block 4.   Meet Baby Buzzy!

This sweet little wall hanging uses the directions from the pattern for a plain fabric block.  Then I added Baby Buzzy.  The idea came from these yellow and black 1" x 3" scraps.   

Card stock was used for my templates and a light box to trace my shapes.  A little bit of basting spray on the back of the template after is was cut held it in place while I cut the fabric.

The basting spray held my template in place while cutting and folding over the edges with starch and and iron.

The light box was used again to trace the face onto Buzzy.  He was so cute I had to make 2!  A little tip for turned edge applique:  Use applique basting glue or washable school glue to hold the pieces together before adding them to the background fabric.  I used washable school glue, just a few tiny drops and then I held them in place for about 20 seconds.  No iron is needed, unless you don't want to wait 20 seconds.

As with my previous blocks in this BOM gray thread and a small machine blanket stitch was used to hold the applique in place.  The antenna, face and flight lines were also machine stitches.

These two little Bug-gers look like they are having a good time collecting honey in Lakehouse Garden.

I'm sure you noticed the print out for Buzzy in the pictures above.   It's my FREE gift to you for visiting and following along in the fun.  Download and print it by clicking here. 

Don't forget to share your Save the Bees blocks once they are finished.  You can do that in the SewQuilty Facebook Group.  

If your posting on your own Facebook feed or other social media sites, Make sure to use #SaveTheBeesQuilt and #SaveTheBeesBOM.

This months Giveaway is sponsored by Olfa.  I only use Olfa rotary cutters. The first one I bought is still in use today even though I own 6.  What can I say...I love the new colors!  In the last year they have came out with new cutting mat colors.....SO CUTE!  Hop on over to Olfa  to view all their awesome products.   The image below shows what you COULD win.  Prizes may vary for each winner.  

Make sure you visit all the blogs participating in this blog hop for more chances to win.  

The Crafty Quilter

Podunk Pretties  

The Quilting Nook

The Sewing Loft

Flamingo Toes

Kathy's Quilts

Freemotion by the River

A Quilting Life

The rules for the giveaway are simple

1. One prize per person per month.

2.  If you are the winner you will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

3. Enter by the end of the day Sunday, November 11, 2018.

4. A winner will be chosen at Random.

5. All you need to is click the little blue button below at the bottom of this post.  It looks like this but smaller. Add your name and email address, leave all other fields blank. Then click submit.

Leaving a comment in the comments section of this post will not enter you in the giveaway but you can still comment!

 I use this method for the contest so I have a way to contact everyone who enters.  In the past winners could not be contacted.  This ensures you're entered and that your email is not out there for everyone to see.  Only I can see the email address.  I do not share them with anyone or use them for anything other than to contact you if you win.

Thank you for stopping by my little spot in Podunk....Good Luck!

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~ Block One ~ Save the Bees ~ GIVEAWAY

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***

 Yeah!  It's finally here!  The first block of the Save the Bee's Free Block of the month.  If your just hearing of this block of the month and would like to join in the fun, you can find all the details by CLICKING HERE.  After joining in the fun and getting your first free block you can share your creations in the Sew Quilty Friends Facebook Group.

As soon as I heard the theme of this years BOM I knew it was for me.  My husband is a beekeeper and I've said for years a bee quilt was on my bucket list of quilts to make.

Instead of  making the blocks into a quilt I decided to use the blocks to make wall hangings for the studio.  

In true Lea Anne style these blocks will be made with Lakehouse Drygoods fabrics.  Over the years I've collected a fairly large stash of the discontinued fabrics.  In the block 1 pattern it called for adding stitches to each petal.  By fussy cutting the hearts on the outer petals and the stripes on the inner petals I gave the petals the whimsical look without doing any stitching.   

In order to get my hearts to fit inside each petal the patter had to be altered just a tiny bit.  The image below shows how I made two templates from the original pattern.  The templates were made from 3 layers of freezer paper.  For more information about how to make freezer paper templates CLICK HERE

Normally I would use the freezer paper templates for turned edge applique.  But these blocks will be made using raw edge applique so the templates made tracing onto Heat N Bond Lite a little bit easier.  They also were used to trace the shape around the hearts before cutting them out of the fabric.

In the original pattern all the petals are not uniform.  So my flower head ended up a little larger than the pattern.  It's not noticeable until I layer the pattern on top of my block.  Below shows the difference in size.

For the half square triangles in the border of the block I decided to use some scrap flippy corners left over from another quilt.  You can see the quilt here.  The blue basket sets beside my sewing machine.  When making a quilt with Flippy corners I sew an extra diagonal line to make a bonus HST.  No scraps!  See how to make the bonus HST's here. 

They needed a little trimming down. 

A true quarter inch binding was made for the the binding.  I like the look of a smaller binding on a small quilt.  However I did have a bit of trouble getting it to the right size.  You can read about it here and download an print a free double fold binding chart.

The backing fabric is a scrap from a previous project.  

I love how this little wall hanging turned out using nothing but scraps! OOPS...the background fabric was a new fat quarter.

Another alteration to the pattern was using a striped fabric for the Bee body instead of  the little bitty applique or stitching the stripes.

All machine stitching, no hand work at all except for sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.

I think the whimsical flower is my favorite part of this block.  

So let's get to the fun stuff...The GIVEAWAYS!  Each blogger in the blog hop will be giving away a copy of The Splendid Sampler book courtesy of Martingale.

  Make sure you visit each featured blog for more chances to win.  The list bloggers below.

The Crafty Quilter

Podunk Pretties you are here

The Quilting Nook

The Sewing Loft

Flamingo Toes

Kathy's Quilts

Freemotion by the River

A Quilting Life

To enter for the giveaway here at Podunk Pretties follow the directions below.  Giveaway will end 8/12/2018

~ Lea Anne ~

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~ Save the Bee's ~ My Fabric Pull ~

Hi quilty friends!  It's almost time!  Are you ready?  Have you signed up?  Have you pulled your fabric?  Well I've been as busy as a little bee in the Podunk Studio.  Jacquelynne Steves has designed the cutest little Free BOM called Save the Bees.  This one hits close to home for me, Mr. Podunk is a bee keeper!  It's going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see everyone's creations! You need to sign up so you'll never miss a free block.  They'll be sent right to your email every month.  Just CLICK RIGHT HERE TO SIGN UP.

So here's my pull.  I'll be working from my treasured Lakehouse DryGoods scraps once again.   These two little boxes may not look like much but they have made several quilts in the past 3 or 4 years.  No scrap is left behind, every little bitty piece is saved.  They come in quite handy when its time to do applique.  

The really good stuff is in the plastic baggies.  To get the fabric requirements for this quilt click here.  There's  tons of  Save the Bee's color inspiration if you click here.  But remember you still need to sign up to receive the blocks by email.

The 3 baggies of scraps are sorted by size.  

1.  2" or larger but not a FQ

2. Smaller than 2" wide 

3.  Itty bitty scraps but no smaller than a dime.  Yes that's right if I can place a dime on it I save it for itsy bitsy applique.  You can see one of my projects using them here.

The plan is to not to use any fabric out to the boxes unless there's nothing that suits my fancy in the bags.  There's lots of good stuff in the boxes but these smaller scraps need to find a home in a quilt.

As a featured blog hop participant for the Save the Bee's BOM we are given the same freedom as you to step outside the box and play with the pattern.  All we are required to do is make the blocks, then we can set them however we like.  So this year I've chosen to make mine into wall hangings for my mini quilts wall.  The fabric below is my pull for background fabrics.  Not all will make it into the quilt.   

 After about 30 minutes of fabric play here's what I've decided for block one.  I can't wait to show you the finished little cutie on August 6th.   So who's with me?  Are you going to join the fun?  So you're still not convinced.  Well if you fly on over to Jacquelynne's blog you can see the finished quilt layout.  It's ADORABLE!  Click here to be amazed.   Oh....I almost forgot to tell you, there's prizes every month.  You'll definitely want to be a part of that!  So if you don't follow me or Jacquelynnes Blog you might want to, lots of great stuff.  You don't need to make the quilt to win great prizes.  There's several follow me options on the right hand side of my blog.

~  Lea Anne ~

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