(It's Black and) White and Red All Over!

So hey, it's me! And I'm crazy excited about this quilt I'm about to show you. It's black and white and red all over... except it's only black and white on one side and red and white on the other.

I made it especially for a local red and white quilt show that is happening in my area, that is being modeled after the big old show that had in NYC some years ago.  The local show was only announced about two months ago, and while that might not be a short deadline to make a little something, it also didn't leave ample time for pondering and wandering and procrastinating.

So I got busy on pinterest and came across this lovely post about an old vintage red and white quilt and I knew immediately that I wanted to model my quilt after it.

I could tell the blocks were a simple snowball and 9-patch, but couldn't find a pattern, so I just worked out the dimensions, did some calculations and got to work. Within a solid weekend (isn) of sewing at my mom's house, I had the top pieced.

(Oh dang, my finger is there on the screen, too. Good blogger.)

And because I loved the orange peel quilting on the antique I had my mind SET on getting orange peel on this quilt. A little googling and I came across the super talented and fabulous Jessica Toye's quilting blog. (If you want something custom quilted, CHOOSE Jessica! She's fabulous to work with!)

After a few emails back and forth we had a plan! And I was more than thrilled to send it to her. And BOY did she work some custom quilting magic.... She took my orange peel idea and made it even more fabulous. (Seriously, go check out the detail pics in her post about my quilt!) I'm so very pleased with it.

And honestly, because of the quilting and the awesome Britten Numbers fabric, I like the back as much as the front.

 (I lifted this picture from Jessica...)

This quilt will be on display for several weeks in May (if you're local and want to see it, contact me and I'll send you the info) and then it's coming back to live at my house. Woohoo!

Details:
Dimensions:
Pattern: Snowball and 9-patch
Fabric: Sandy Gervais (Flirt-related?) solid for the red, Not sure about the white...
Backing: IKEA Britten Numbers
Moda: White jelly roll strips for the binding
Finished: Easter Sunday

P.S. This is my first actual QUILT to finish this year! So...go me! (hashtag "it's April, nothing to brag about")

Modern Insta Bee & February and March Bee Blocks

One thing I haven't mentioned on le blog, is that I joined an Instagram Bee {the #moderninstabee} with 12 new friends. Each month, one queen bee gets to choose her color and block options and I get to try out new fabric combinations, use scraps, and have fun sewing with women from all over North America. Pretty cool, huh? If you're on IG, I'm in Hive 3... and you can see what my hive is up to my checking out #instabee2014hive3

We are using this awesome book called Modern Bee by Lindsay Conner. There's a baker's dozen of pretty cool quilts in this book! Get yourself one!

And so far, I've gotten two months finished and shipped off!


Emily (@elephantgrace) chose this cool lattice for her for February block. She asked for bright scrappy colors with a white background!

And for March, another Emily (@emilykimlee), chose this cool triple star and she requested yellow for the bitty star, aqua-y blues for the middle star, and greys for the biggest star. Due to some traveling and not LOVING stars, I totally procrastinated making this block. Right until the very end, but once I got to the sewing HSTs into 8 pointed stars, I started having fun and ended up LOVING this block!

I'll keep posting these every few months, so you can see all the wonderful bee quilts being made!

Katie