Fantastic Quilt Voyage Traveling Bee Part I

Happy Wednesday! As I mentioned when I posted about Amanda's Buffy Quilt, for the past year and a half I've been a part of a traveling quilt bee. Our bee is called Fantastic Quilt Voyage, and you can see the blocks we've been making in the hashtag #fantasticquiltvoyage on Instagram. We each started our own quilt, and then it is passed along to each member and they add to it. Today I want to share some of the contributions I've made to member quilts so far!

Above is the start to my quilt. My theme was "make do", and all of these were orphaned blocks from my stash. I asked members to take the same type of approach and make something that suited their fancy, in cool colors. Here is the pinterest board for my quilt.


The first quilt that I worked on was Natalie's. The theme of Natalie's quilt was nature, but not necessarily a realistic interpretation. She asked for improvisational patchwork and sent a really fun and cheerful bunch of fabrics. The scrappy bear paw block above was her quilt start! You can see her Pinterest board for her quilt here.


This is the block I made for Natalie's quilt! I decided to do some pine trees for my contribution. I drew up the wonky geese block paper piecing templates in Illustrator, which was an easy way to make sure they were plenty improv-looking. Sort of a funny way about doing it, but it worked for me! I used lots of different low volume pieces she sent to piece together my little forest of trees.


The next quilt I worked on was Sara's. Sara sent lots of Kawaii (cute!) prints, which I was really excited to work with. She was going for a busy sampler feel. These were the blocks for her quilt when it got to me! Lots of little blocks with black and white to calm down the mix of prints. You can see the Pinterest board for her quilt here.


I made three small blocks for Sara's quilt! The start block is the final star in my Shining Stars Sampler Pattern. It was fun using lots of different prints for the background. I really wanted to use that cute penguin fabric, and I love a good disappearing nine-patch. Finally I made a simple block from Tula Pink's City Sampler Book.


Up next was Ara Jane's quilt. For Ara Jane's quilt, she wanted it to be urban and city-inspired, again without being too literal. Inspiration was drawn from maps, city views, architecture, linearity. These were the blocks that came to me! You can see the Pinterest board for her quilt here.


I was really inspired by this pin from her board. It reminded me of the Haphazard Chevron Pillow pattern from Christina and Diane's book, Quilting Happiness. I used the technique to make this block. It was really fun, and I love how it turned out! I pieced together some of the trimmings for the little block.


The next quilt I worked on was Melinda's. Melinda wanted a strip quilt in warm colors, with other small patchwork elements or blocks mixed in. This was the collection of blocks made by the time the quilt made it to me! Lots of different interpretations! You can see the Pinterest board for her quilt here.


Here is the block I made for Melinda's quilt! I forgot to take a photo of it, but Jacey was kind enough to snap this photo while the quilt was at her house! I first made a bit of strip fabric using small strips. Then I used that fabric to cut squares and make a few half-square triangles. These became the center cog in my block. I then framed it out with more strips! I loved working with these colors.

That's it for the first half of the quilts, I'll share the rest later this year!

Happy Quilting!