The Honey Pot Bee: October

I’m late, I’m late, for an obviously very important date! You’ll have to forgive me as I get back onto my regularly blogging schedule. Normally, I would have The Honey Pot Bee post up on the first of the month, but as you know I’ve been gallivanting around the U.S. Now, if you’d like to send me hate mail, please do so. It will be returned to sender, but do what ya like! I hope you have spent the past week catching up on some other neglected quilt projects, or going back and filling in some of the blocks you’ve missed throughout the year. If you’re like me, you have one or two you still need to make happen. Shimmy shimmy coco pops!

So here we are, three weeks left in October, and I’m about to rock your world with two block choices! If you like Halloween, and you’ve got the decor in full effect, you’re gonna love this one:

Image by Elizabeth Hartman. www.ohfransson.com

Hi!  I’m Angela, I am @stitchyscientist over on IG and I blog at Stitchy Scientist. As you might have guessed, I am a scientist. A full on test tubes and beakers type of scientist!  Somewhere along the way, I discovered that quilting is as satisfying as bench work is. So now that I have little kids, I experiment with fabric instead of chemicals. 

When Molli asked what month I wanted to be Queen Bee, I chose October because I LOVE Halloween. Love it. Almost everything I have made for myself is Halloween themed. I realize that not everyone has the same obsession with this particular holiday, which actually made choosing a block a bit tricky. Maybe you don’t want a vampire or ghost stuck in the middle of your Honey Pot Bee quilt! Oh, what to do. The solution is the Barn Bat Block!  This tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman is based on an older block (you can read about it in her tutorial).  I know, I know, how does a bat block solve the problem?  If you make the block in non-halloween fabrics, it looks more like an interesting design rather than Halloween-styled bats. You could also cut it in half right down the middle and have two skinny blocks to fill in odd spaces in your quilt. I do hope you try it! The block has a very interesting construction process that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is rather large, but by leaving off a few rows or columns, you can make it nearly any size you like! 

Barn Bat Block

#barnbatblock

#thehoneypotbee

Blog: Stitchy Scientist

IG: @stitchyscientist

I personally love Angela’s idea about keeping the bats split down the middle to use as a wild border or gap filler. I’ve still got to make this block, so I might keep it that way until I start piecing the quilt together. Now, let’s move from bats to geese!

Kelly from Jeli Quilts is a self-confessed goose-a-holic! I’ve known her for a few years and she can foundation paper piece flying geese into submission like a dominatrix with a cat o’ nine tails! Make sure you check out her Instagram feed to see all the spectacular rainbow work she does on the regular. Kelly says her block was inspired by this cushion she made a few years ago and of course her freakish obsession with flying geese! For her tester version, (pictured above), Kelly broke out her Alison Glass stash and paired it up with some Essex yarn-dyed linen in black. Ahem, can someone make me cut into my Alison Glass collection too, please?

I know we’ve done some foundation paper piecing this year already, but in case you’re just joining in, Kelly has provided a free downloadable tutorial on her FPP process. Thanks Kelly!

Go West Block

#gowestblock

#thehoneypotbee

Blog: Jeli Quilts

IG: @jeliquilts

Okay, everyone, let’s do this! Time to get our babushka’s back on track and sew like nobody’s watching! Remember to tag your makes with #thehoneypotbee and the respective block name so everyone can find them. We want to see! If you need me, I’ll be in my studio fretting about which fabrics to use first!