Modern Irish Bee 2016 Round 1

Welcome to 2016 Modern Irish Bee!

Apologies for the delay to those who have signed up for 2016 for the late start. As quite a few people are taking a break from Bee's this year, we have re-formatted our Bee to suit a smaller group and are trying out a Round Robin format.

In a Round Robin Bee, each hive member makes a block and passes it to the next person who then adds to the block e.g. purple makes a block (round 1) and sends to red who adds a bit (round 2) and sends to green who adds a bit (Round 3) and so on until eventually, on the last round the quilt top gets back to purple who finishes it up into a quilt.  At each turn the hive mate is working on a different quilt that keeps growing with each round e.g. while red is working on purples block from round 1, green is working on reds round 1 block and black is working on greens.   Clear as mud?  Don't worry it will explain itself in the doing!

Sarah's quilt from Happiness exhibition

Quite often round robin quilts are medallion quilts with a square centre block surrounded by borders but they don't have to be!

Liz's quilt from Happiness exhibition

We are working with a block maximum 18" finished on the longest size to keep the rounds reasonable as they will get bigger as we go along.  Your block doesn't have to be square but can be if you want to!

used with permission from Serena @ Sew Giving

This block below arrived to Serena with the middle arrow as a long rectangular block.  She kept the arrow idea but split the ones she made and added to top and bottom only and then sent it on its way to the next person.

used with permission from Serena@  Sew Giving

Try to be kind with the size of the starting block having sides 12.5, 15.5, 16.5 or 18.5 including seam allowance.  This will allow the next person to add to it easily by keeping the maths simple.  The block can be any design, applique or pieced and can be any fabric from your stash.  The more colours used in the first block, the easier it is for the next person to pull inspiration from it and choose fabrics to compliment the quilt block. 

Carla's first round block used with permission from Granny Maud's Girl

We will be doing 6 rounds and maybe 7 depending on the resulting size of the quilt. The intention is that each person ends up with a quilt top measuring 60-70" so perfect for a lap quilt. The quilt can be made bigger by adding to it again if desired. The intention is to finish up around the end of September just in time for a Christmas quilt a long we have planned so mark your diaries for that coming up!

To keep us on track, Fluffy Sheep Quilting is sponsoring our bee and offering a prize. To be in with the chance of winning the prize you must complete your round on time and add a photo to our link up which will be in the next Modern Irish Bee post in February!

We will be using our Facebook group Modern Irish Bee to share ideas, brainstorm fabric choices and post progress. Members of Modern Quilters Ireland are welcome to join our bee group and quilt a long with us and join in the conversation!

For now, Modern Irish Bee 2016 hive members please make your first block for your quilt and have it completed to send to the next person on the list (I'll be sending this by email along with addresses shortly!). Please post to your nominated hive mate by 19th February and link up a photo on the linky party which will be open for 1 week up to the 26th. The draw for the prize will be awarded on our leap day this year February 29th!

If you have not signed up for the bee please feel free to quilt a long with us on your own quilt top, made in rounds, this year and join us on Facebook and Instagram #modernirishbee #modernquiltersireland and here on Flickr!

-Ruth