Process in PINK - April Sew Modern Bee

I started by cutting up some of the fabrics I received from the Queen Bee with motifs on them.




I left the solid pink and some of the larger motifs for later. I thought they would look better left big, or I could use their more saturated surfaces to fill in the block.




This fabric with the birds on it worried me a little because it had an off-white background and the tile sashing would be white. My plan was to cut this fabric close to the birds to limit the white. And to put some of the dark pink right next to them.




I started making units of the small pieces to surround with the larger solid prints.





I also pieced the block from BOTH sides towards the middle. Even though I did look at Elizabeth's tutorial and understood the wisdom of her block construction {across, then up and down}. I like to do chain piecing and starting from both sides meant that I would always have something to sew next. It also meant I had a little trouble when it came to meeting up in the middle!



Here are more of the smaller units laid out. I'm trying to decide how big of pieces of the solid pink I need and where I should put them to make the entire block read 'pink'.



First two strips from the left complete. I really wanted to make the block in such a way that you couldn't tell where I joined the units. I had to give in to ease of construction in the end:)


You can see my construction woes beginning to pile up in this photo. I started doing some diagonal joining in the bottom right and then had to figure out how to make it fit with the middle.
I was also starting to run low on pinks from my bee partner and white. Luckily I had some white scraps from my Liberated Churn Dash quilt I could use.


Instead of trying to do a set in seam, I used my new seam ripper!
Tools are more fun to use when they're new:)


I found a piece of modern pink fabric in my stash {the only piece!} and cut it so a little butterfly/moth and some of the leaves made it into the block. I think it blends in nicely. I hadn't planned on using such a big piece, but again, it was easier:)


Then my last two units to add were too long. I wanted to keep that long, diagonal pink part in the bottom half, and the darker purple/pink bird at the bottom of the top half.
Did I mention my new seam ripper?


I turned the bottom unit and liked it! The little birds could still walk, too:)
Now I just needed to build up the top half to make it the same width as the bottom to keep the pink rectangle and the bird.



Ta-dah!
The block measures 16 inches high by 19.5 inches wide.


I really hope that Donna likes it! You can see the rainbow of blocks she'll be receiving from the other bee mates at our Sew Modern Bee flickr pool.




With Joy,

Sarah Vee