Hannah's Blocks for the KC Scrappy Bee

The KC Scrappy Bee is still going strong.  Tonight, we will turn in our 7th blocks to Hannah.  She requested  10" concentric square blocks using white, grey, light blue, and yellow. 

I couldn't find any yellow in my stash yesterday that I liked with the grey and the blue, so I skipped the yellow all together.  I think they turned out fresh & clean. 



Hannah gave us each a bit of the grey fabric.  The whites and blue are from my stash. 



I think I have to agree with Nikki, though... I'm not a seam-presser-opener.  :)

Jargon of the Week - Block

Dictionary.com defines block as:

–noun
1. a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more flat or approximately flat faces.
2. a hollow masonry building unit of cement, terra cotta, etc.: a wall made of concrete blocks.
3. one of a set of cube-shaped pieces of wood, plastic, or the like, used as a child's toy in building.
4. a mold or piece on which something is shaped or kept in shape: a hat block.
5. a piece of wood used in the art of making woodcuts or wood engravings.
6. Printing. the base on which a plate is mounted to make it type-high.
7. a projection left on a squared stone to provide a means of lifting it.
8. a short length of plank serving as a bridging, as between joists.
9. a stump or wooden structure on which a condemned person is beheaded: Mary Stuart went bravely to the block.
10. auction block.
11. Machinery. a part enclosing one or more freely rotating, grooved pulleys, about which ropes or chains pass to form a hoisting or hauling tackle.
12. an obstacle, obstruction, or hindrance: His stubbornness is a block to all my efforts.
13. the state or condition of being obstructed; blockage: The traffic block lasted several hours.
14. Pathology.
a. an obstruction, as of a nerve.
b. heart block.
15. Sports. a hindering of an opponent's actions.
16. a quantity, portion, or section taken as a unit or dealt with at one time: a large block of theater tickets.
17. a small section of a city, town, etc., enclosed by neighboring and intersecting streets: She lives on my block.
18. the length of one side of such a section: We walked two blocks over.
19. Chiefly British. a large building divided into separate apartments, offices, shops, etc.
20. a large number of bonds or shares of stock sold together as a single unit.
21. Computers.
a. a group of data stored as a unit on an external storage medium and handled as a unit by the computer for input or output: This file has 20 records per block.
b. a section of storage locations in a computer allocated to a particular set of instructions or data.
c. a group of consecutive machine words organized as a unit and guiding a particular computer operation, esp. with reference to input and output.
d. (on a flow chart) a symbol representing an operation, device, or instruction in a computer program.
22. Railroads. any of the short lengths into which a track is divided for signaling purposes.
23. Philately. a group of four or more unseparated stamps, not in a strip.
24. Slang. a person's head.
25. Glassmaking. a wooden or metal cup for blocking a gather.
26. an obstruction or stoppage in mental processes or speech, esp. when related to stress, emotional conflict, etc.
27. writer's block.
28. Geology.
a. any large, angular mass of solid rock.
b. fault block.
29. (in Canada) a wild or remote area of land that has not yet been surveyed: the Peace River block.
30. Automotive. cylinder block.
31. Falconry. a low perch to which a falcon is tethered outdoors.

–verb (used with object)
32. to obstruct (someone or something) by placing obstacles in the way (sometimes fol. by up): to block one's exit; to block up a passage.
33. to fit with blocks; mount on a block.
34. to shape or prepare on or with a block: to block a hat; to block a sweater.
35. to join (the ends of boards or the like) by fastening to a block of wood.
36. Theater.
a. Also, block out. to plan or work out the movement of performers in a play, pageant, etc.: Tomorrow we'll block act one.
b. to draw a floor plan on (a stage) in order to indicate placement of scenery, stage property, etc.
37. Pathology, Physiology. to stop the passage of impulses in (a nerve).
38. Computers. to group (contiguous data) together so as to allow to be read or written in a single operation.
39. Sports. to hinder or bar the actions or movements of (an opposing player), esp. legitimately.
40. Glassmaking.
a. to shape (a molten gather) in a wet cup of wood or metal.
b. to plunge a block of wood into (molten glass) to aid in refining the glass.
41. Metalworking. to give (a forging) a rough form before finishing.
42. Electronics. to apply a high negative bias to the grid of (a vacuum tube), for reducing the plate current to zero.

–verb (used without object)
43. to act so as to obstruct an opponent, as in football, hockey, and basketball: He doesn't get many baskets, but he sure can block.
44. Theater. to block a play, act, scene, stage, etc.: The director will block tomorrow.
45. to suffer a block.

—Verb phrases
46. block in or out, to sketch or outline roughly or generally, without details: She blocked out a color scheme for the interiors.
47. block out,
a. block (def. 36a).
b. Basketball. to box out.

—Idiom
48. put or go on the block, to offer or be offered for sale at auction: to put family heirlooms on the block.

Origin:
1275–1325; ME blok log, stump (< MF bloc) < MD blok; perh. akin to balk

Not one of those 48 different definitions of the word block explains the way a quilter uses the word.

In the quilting world, we use the term block to define a portion of a quilt. In a traditional quilt, it's the basic unit used to make the quilt top. Each block can be different or the same on a quilt top.

Completed row!

It's done. My row is ready to be sent off.



It's surprisingly difficult to photograph because of it's length. I figured out how to get it though! Please disregard the grilled cheese. I was making lunch when the idea of how to photograph it came to me.

I also redid the bottom part of my hot air balloon. I'm much happier with it.

Blocks #8 & 9

It's done. I've completed all the blocks.

Block #8 - Hot Air Balloon



I have decided to leave off the text from the film. It says State Fair Omaha on the balloon when the wizard takes off. I've decided that since this is just a representation, I don't need all the fine details.

Block #9 - Ruby Slipper



This one is a mirror image of the other slipper.

This is something I did in Photoshop. I used the images of each of the blocks and lined them up to see how the strip will look.

Block #7 - Ruby Slippers

I chose the witch fabric for the background, since when Dorothy first puts on the slippers, the wicked witch first appears. The blue is to represent her blue socks. I think the sparkly red is self explanatory. I was considering adding a bow to the toe that would be three dimensional.

Blocks #4, 5, & 6

Here's a few new blocks I did for the swap over the weekend.

Block #4 - The Basket


There is a basket in the beginning of the movie when Ms. Gulch takes Toto away on the back of her bike. Dorothy also carries a basket on her journey.

Block #5 - Kansas Tornado


This is the tornado that hits the Kansas farm. It's the point in the movie that turns from black and white to color.

Block #6 - Glinda's Magic Wand


This is the wand that Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, carries. I chose the pink splotchy fabric to represent Glinda's dress.

Block #2 - Kansas Farm House

Do you remember the beginning of the Wizard of Oz movie? Do you recall how it is filmed in black and white before the Technicolor kicks in?

Block #2 for the Row Robin Quilt Swap is my representation of Auntie Em & Uncle Henry's farm house in Kansas.



This image is the sketch I made prior to sewing my block.



Jason and I watched the movie over the weekend (which is an excellent movie if you haven't seen it recently) and I sketched a few more ideas during our viewing.

Here is an image I cartooned out of my strip. We'll see how close it ends up to this.



I also drew this block design. It's of the farm being hit by the tornado. I'm planning to paper piece it. We'll see how it turns out. I might decide to leave off the farm and just do the tornado. That would really simplify it.

Block #1 - Emerald City

I worked on my quilt blocks for the Wizard of Oz quilt over the weekend.

My first block is nearing completion. I still need to clean it up a bit (miscellaneous threads, etc.) and decide whether or not to leave the sign, but I like it.



I think the sign might be too big and too dark. It'll be easy to remove if that's what I decide since I appliqued it on. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?