Bee Hives 2016

I was new to hives last year and decided that this year I would join up with 2 hives again. When we got our monthly assignments I was excited to be near the beginning of the year but that meant I had to really get on things when it came to picking out blocks and colors. My first month as queen bee was going to be in February as a part of the Bee Hive blocks that were hosted by Alyce last year, so this at least narrowed down the blocks to choose from. 

I decided that this year's bee blocks will be making up a quilt will be for my husband (since the one that he has claimed was one of my first ones and it is looking a bit shabby in spots). I'm going with the Wanta Fanta block with modifications to make it more man friendly (cause there is a lot of white in most of the examples I have seen). 

He loves Purples, grey and white. So the first step to make this block more man friendly is to inverse the fabrics -- in your blocks the background pieces will be replaced with purples and the colored areas will be assorted low volume fabrics -- whites and grays with accents of black.

I pulled some fabrics out of my stash and scraps.

For this block I also tried to think of a way to make it scrappy and I wanted more interest. I came across this quilt online that uses similar shapes and I really liked the nine patch effect in the centers..  

This result can be achieved in the WF block by creating a 6.5 inch nine patch of 2.5 inch squares instead of using a solid 6.5 inch square. 

If you are not a fan of sewing the white corners on after making the 9 patch to create the snowball effect, this can be remedied by replacing the corners of your 9 patch with Half square triangle units. It's easy -- take a 3 inch square of purple and one of Low volume to create 2.5 inch HST units by drawing a line in the center and sewing 1/4 inch on either side. I like to use 3.25 inch squares and trim them down to ensure that my units are crisp. 

Careful fabric placement on the x units will result in the complete triangle effect on the points. I found using 4 different fabrics and marking my paper templates helped keep me keep track of which pieces were going to meet up together on the final block. 

Please remove paper before shipping, i don't feel that these blocks will shift as much as others I have made in the past.

Here is my completed test block and I am very eager to see the blocks that you all come up with. 

I'm glad that I am making it something slightly different than the tutorial initially called for but I know that my husband is going to greatly enjoy this quilt when it's all put together. 

I'll be queen in the Stash bee group in March and I haven't decided if I will have them make these block or if I'm going with the Arkansas snowflake (rainbow stars on low volume backgrounds) that have been floating in my mind for some time. The 5 inch paper pieced version goes together quickly and is scrap friendly. -- Here are a version I made for a hive mate last year and they turned out delightful. 

Happy Quilting everyone. 

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