Bee blocking it

In this month's bee block round-up:

I made this Crown of Thorns block in June for Tiffany in the Stash Trad bee. She asked us to create an "explosion of color" in the outer HSTs, with the color from the inner ring carrying over into the fabric used in the outer HSTs. You can find the block pattern here, and go here to see the finished quilt top that Tiffany made with these blocks! It's so beautiful and colorful!Next up, I made two paper-pieced yellow and gray paper-pieced stars for Kati, who had July in both of my bees.

So here's my Stash Trad block for Kati, using my own fabric. The pattern is from the book 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars by Carol Doak. This is probably my all-time favorite paper-piecing book—all the stars in the book are done in very traditional fabrics, but if you can look past that, the patterns are, well, fabulous! This is the Pennsylvania star.

And here's my {Sew} Beautiful bee block for Kati, made with fabric she provided. This is also from 50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars. It's the New York star.

And finally, here's a bright, fun Swoon block that I made for Erin in the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild bee. Would you believe this is my first Swoon block? I love it in these super-bright colors!