The Honey Pot Bee: January

Okay, let’s do this! It’s time to kick off The Honey Pot Bee with the first official blocks for January. Are you ready? Can you even handle it?! I certainly can not, so it’s time to just let all the cats out of the proverbial bag! As I’ve described before, each month there will be two queens and/or kings (Royals) who each propose a block for the The Honey Pot Bee to make.  These block tutorials may be of their own design, or something amazing they’ve just wanted to try out from someone else. Now remember, you’re making these blocks for yourself, so you can choose which and how many to make. January’s Royal team consists of Angie from Gnome Angel, and the most fabulous person I know: moi!

First, let’s hear what Angie had to say about her January selection:

Hello! Hello! I’m Angie and I write over at GnomeAngel.com. I’m so honoured to be the first of an incredible line up of Queens as part of The Honey Pot Bee. It’s summer here in Australia and at this time of year the strawberries are plentiful. I’ve been crushing on strawberry quilts for awhile now so The Honey Pot Bee provided the perfect opportunity for me to make myself my own summer quilt. 

I’ve been crushing hard on the strawberries that Bec from Skyberries has been making and so I decided to use her tutorial and add my own touch to it. I’ve upscaled Bec’s original block to make a strawberry block that finishes at 17.5” x 24.5”. This means you can really show off your prints and pull together a quilt top in no time. I’m making a quilt top using 9 blocks in a 3 x 3 grid. 

I’ve provided all the details on how to upsize the blocks, the fabrics I’m using and my tips and tricks for making the blocks quickly. You can find them here. At the end of the month I’ll be showing you the finished quilt top and giving you the details on what you need to complete your own super sized strawberry quilt (if you want to make one of course).

If you’re planning to use The Honey Pot Bee to make a sampler quilt then I’d recommend you use the measurements in Bec’s tutorial to get a smaller sized strawberry. I can’t wait to see the blocks you make and I hope you enjoy this little patchwork piece of summer from Australia with love. 

Angie made her super-sized blocks with Karen Lewis Blueberry Park for Robert Kaufman partnered with Robert Kaufman Essex Linen. See more at GnomeAngel.com.

Skyberries’s Strawberry Block – 7.5″ x 10.5″

Gnome Angel’s Strawberry Block – 17.5″ x 24.5″

This is normally the part where I’d introduce the next member of the Royal family, but since that’s me, we can skip that part! When thinking about the block I wanted to choose, I decided to go back to my very first quilt bee in 2012, and the very first quilt block I ever made. I know this is the first quilt bee for a lot of you out there, so if I managed this quilt block in my sewing youth, I know you can too!

The very first quilt block I ever made! Starflower Block using a tutorial at EllisonLane.com.

This is the Starflower Block from a tutorial by Ellison Lane. There are so many options with these blocks. The Starflower Quilt Block tutorial shows how to make two blocks at once with virtually zero fabric wastage. Or you can save the extra HSTs and throw them elsewhere in your quilt, or make a simple pinwheel from them. Remember, this is your quilt, and The Honey Pot Bee is all about what you want to do! So do whatever you damn well please! (Now, isn’t that a refreshing thing to hear?!)

Ellison Lane’s Starflower Block – 12.5″ x 12.5″