AusMod Bee Blocks for Kirsten and Julie

Another long pause between blogging!  Lots going on here, mostly trying to keep up with deadlines and surviving the winter illnesses. 

I thought I would post today some bee blocks made recently for the Australian AusMod Bee that has been running since January of this year.  

First up, we had Kirsten, who by the way instigated this bee one day last year when she had commented to me that she was looking to find an Australian bee, so it was decided that instead of looking, we would create one!  For her month she chose to do the Anna Maria Horner feather blocks.  We all had the templates from making similar blocks for Lorena, so it was quite fun to revisit making these block now that we had some experience with it. 

Next, we had Julie, who sent us scraps of fabric with the instruction to make 12" finished star blocks of our choice!  Ooolala!  Choices!  So, I have to admit now, that for purely selfish reasons, I decided to make blocks that involved cutting half square triangles.  Why, you ask?  Because I now own a Sizzix cutting machine!  Yeehaw!  I don't have very many dies yet, but I did have the one to make these blocks (top 2 photos).  The machine cut my triangles out with dog ears already cut and so it was a simple matter of matching triangles and sewing.  No need to trim back, which has previously been my preferred method of making half square triangles.  I also need to add here that I was extremely skeptical about using the cutting machine to make triangles as I don't like working with bias edges.  However, with dogears precut, it really is an ideal way to sew them.  I am still testing the Sizzix's capabilities and I will let you know how I go.  These blocks were a ton of fun to make!