Our house is dark today.  Storm clouds have been sitting in the sky all morning long, trying to decide to rain.  I placed some finished bee blocks on the brightest part of our table to snap a photograph earlier.



A photograph of fabric photographs.  These polaroid blocks are my choice for the Love circle of do. Good Stitches this April.  It's not my genius idea - it's Corey's of Little Miss Shabby.  My friend Jacey is putting together a similar quilt...

quilt in progress by Jaceycraft

which I fell in love with.  The Love circle makes quilts for children in need through Wrap Them in Love.  What child could resist cute little fussy cut images?  Plus, all that gray sashing will make for a quilt that's not easily stained.



I decided to pack as many polaroids as possible into my 12.5" block, with a layout like Corey's. The polaroids start as a 2.5" square fussy cut image.  Then the top and sides are framed with thin, white pieces cut 1" wide and the bottom section is cut 1.5" wide.  Last of all I added gray sashing of random widths on all four sides and squared up to 4.5" square with the polaroid tipped as I squared.  The (9) 4.5" square blocks make up a 12.5" 9-block setting.  Easy enough, but LOTS of seams.

If I were making another set, I'd probably cut the thin white sashing only 3/4" wide, cause I'd like it to be thinner.



The best part was choosing the fussy cut images!  Actually, I totally struggled with that.  Maybe most of my stash is more geometric than photographic?  But, in the end I love what emerged.  That goldfish-in-a-jar scrap is something I won long ago from Sew Katie Did.  Then there are two gray Woodlands prints here, some green Meet the Gang clippings, old Tufted Tweets chairs, Laurie's new bunny, hopscotch, acorns... and it just goes on.

I used a variety of grays in hopes of creating some blocks that will merge well with random grays from others in my circle.  The darkest gray you see here is Kona Charcoal.  The medium tone is Kona Coal and the lightest gray I'm using is Kona Medium Gray.  I bet some of my circle mates will use Kona Ash too, which is even lighter.  

Coincidentally, Marmalade Fabrics has just introduced Monthly Gem Bundles of Kona based on birthstones.  April is their first bundle and being "diamonds" has all of these grays, plus a few more neutrals.  If you've wanted to build your solids stash, a 1/2 yard gem bundle each month might be a nice, gradual way of getting there.  I reach for my solids near every week.  But, yeah, I may be a Kona addict.

Looking forward to collecting blocks from the rest of my circle to share with you soon!