January Bee Blocks + a Sew South charity block

Lots of blocks to share today.  I recently joined two bees in an effort to connect with more quilty folks, try out new blocks, and just sew more.  As of this month, I'm a member of the Stitch that Stash! bee and the Love Circle at do. Good Stitches, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

January blocks for Love Circle were Rocky Road to Kansas, requested by Deborah.  The tutorial and template can be found on at Fresh Lemons.  A very special thank you to Beth at Stash for kindly donating scraps for us to use for these fun blocks!  I had a lot of fun, but a teeny bit of trouble, with this block.  I am a relative newbie with paper piecing, but this block was are really nice introduction.  Very easy with a stunning result.

The trouble I had was when joining the four points together on one of the blocks.  The points wouldn't match correctly, and I'm not sure what I did wrong.  But it's not off too far, so hopefully it will get "quilted out". :)  I used Kona White for the background on both blocks since that was the only neutral I had on hand.

And then (a different) Deborah requested churn dash blocks in any color combo for January in the Stitch that Stash! bee.  I went a little out of my comfort zone with the color combos here, so I hope she likes them!  I normally don't go dark and bold like this.

For being such an easy, traditional block, I don't recall ever making a churn dash before!  They were quick to sew up and would make a pretty fast baby quilt I think.

The last block I'm sharing is for a collaborative charity quilt from attendees of the Sew South Retreat!  Jennifer arranged for a donation to the Ronald McDonald House in Charlotte, NC, and fittingly, we're making house blocks!  I haven't ever sewn a house block, and I've always thought little crooked houses were cute, so that's the style I chose.  Pardon the wrinkles in this photo!

I really enjoyed making these blocks this past week.  It felt good to get some charity sewing in and make some blocks I've never tried before (all of them!).  A nice start to the new year!