Bhavani, the Sunny Bee

(DQ Bhavani is Queen Sunny Bee for September 2012)

I am new to quilting, I made my first ever quilt about a month ago, and then I made another one about a week ago. Being new I am not very ambitious in terms of complicated effects and all. During this short time I have also realised that I will never be a 'traditional' block creating quilter. Seems like too much work, when you can just buy awesome prints. But thats me, lazy and easy, modern quilter :).

The Sunny Bee theme resonated with me, and my representation of  'sunny' is yellow, happiness, energy, strength and beauty. The sunflower is more than any other flower because it has purpose. It follows the sun through the day and waits for sunrise every morning. Much like following your dream in life and being sunny, no matter what. 

So here is my Sunny bee block. Simple, no overlapping effects.. just blocks next to each other layed out and sewed together in squares. I like the idea of applique quilts, the possibilities seem immense.

Here is my version of the flower block, called the sunflower block. Once I have all the 20 blocks I intend to add some of my own to this and make a quilt of size 60 by 96 inches.

I will follow a simple color combination technique of mixing 'hot' and 'cold' colors next to each other. So there goes friends....

Sunflower Applique Block for the Sunny Bee September 2012:

 For September 2102 Sunny Bee I want to work with this flower block which I call the sunflower.  The centre is a circle and it has eight petals each which are appliqued to the background fabric.  Following are the instructions.

Fabric Selection:

White background measuring 14 by 14 inches

9 pieces of atleast 3by 5 inches rectangle for the petals and one centre.

Petals are to be made in the same color with varying prints, shades etc. Example Bee 1 will make a red sunflower with yellow circle( which could be plain or printed) white background ( Plain) and 8 petals in varying shades of red, prints etc, but red being the primary color in these petals. Bee2 will make a blue sunflower with a yellow center, white background and blue petals. So on.

Colors that I can think of are: Red, blue, green, Yellow( Yellow Petals and yellow centre), black, Purple, brown, grey, pink. So if we are running out of colors we will have to repeat the color and have two bees make one color

Needless to say all the fabric has to be pure cotton.

Measurements and cutting instructions:

Cut out the white background measuring 14 by 14 inches square.

Centre will be perfect circle measuring 2 3/4 inches in diameter.

Petals will be of the shape below measuring 4 1/2 inch in length and about 2 inches at the thickest part.

Tracing and cutting instructions:

Cut out the background white square.

Take the yellow piece of 3 by 3 ( Atleast, could be bigger depending on your comfort level) mark the circle with diameter 2 3/4 inches and cut out.

For the petals you can make a template on a sheet of paper with the measurements given above and draw out the design as shown above. Cut the paper out and use as a template. Place the paper template on each petal piece measuring 3 by 5 inches and cut out each piece.

Assembly:         

Fold your background fabric in half in twice. Finger press the fold so you can see the folds for placement of your petals and know where the center of the block is. Place the center of your circle on the centre of the background and pin.

Pin or glue baste two petals opposite each other on one of the folds.
Baste 3 petals evenly spaced on each side between the first two petals.

Applique each of the petals and then the centre with the machine satin stitch, use matching thread or contrast as per choice.

Cut out the background for a 12 1/2 by 12 1/2 inch block and send it to me!

Bhavani