Brass Ring Bee Cross Stitch

Next up on my work table is a fun project using a new basic fabric called Bee Cross Stitch designed by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet for Riley Blake Designs. I had fun selecting this palette from the collection’s wide variety of colours and low volumes. ⁣I chose Taffy, Plum, Peacock, Jade, Daisy, Autumn, and Pebble.

Can I just say how spectacular this range of fabric is? Look at the luscious rainbow of quilty goodness! Not to mention the co-ordinating   l o w   v o l u m e  options. If you’re looking to match to the Riley Blake Confetti Cotton solids, they’re a perfect match! 

I based this quilt on my Tsuro Quilt that I designed in October 2020. Rather than using the multiple modular blocks from that quilt, I decided to make this one using only a single repeated block. Rotating the block in different directions I played with the layout until I came up with a fun new design.

On the left is my Tsuro Quilt. Highlighted is the block I used in this quilt.
I got to work cutting out all my pattern pieces. Shown below are all the pieces of my lighter coloured fabrics. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the darker coloured pieces, but basically the darker colours are all the iron-shaped pieces you can see in the layout above. Also not pictured is the background pieces. I used Confetti Cottons in the Le Creme colour, which is a nice warm white. 
Once I cut out all my pieces, I plopped down in front of the TV and set at pinning all my pieces. Some people can sew curves without using pins. I am not one of those people. I use allllll the pins. 

I built each block piece by piece, adding one curved piece at a time. Many quilters are afraid of sewing curves, and I totally get that, but I must say that by going slowly and taking some time to practice, they’re really not that hard. And I think there’s nothing more satisfying than pressing a curved seam flat and standing back to admire it.

One block down, 15 to go!

Here’s the second block. I love how the darker colours create a “transparency” effect where the curves come together.

For my background fabric, I used Riley Blake Designs’ Confetti Cottons in “Le Creme” which is a perfect match for the Bee Cross Stitch Pebble colour (shown below).

Once I finished piecing all my blocks, I decided a simple 3″ grid for the quilting would be a nice contrast to all the curves. Here I have my quilt sandwich all pin-basted and marked up with my Hera marker, ready for quilting. I like to put on headphones and a good podcast or Audible book to help make the tedious work of quilting go by faster.

Binding! I know it’s not the most glamourous step but hey, it means I’m almost finished. I machine stitched the binding to the front… 

and hand-stitched it to the back. Here’s a closeup of my binding (in Jade) and the backing I used, Pebble.

Bee Cross Stitch Quilt

And tada! Here’s my full finished quilt. I just love how the curved blocks play with each other and create movement.

And here are some close-ups…

And the obligatory cat on quilt photo.

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