Last Bee Blocks of 2010

I still have my Vintage Bee and a new Bee starting up this month, but two of my bees ended in December.

These are the last of those blocks.

Stephanie asked for squares, filled with other squares - however we wanted to do that.  I LOVE this block.  Wasn't too sure what it was going to become as I started it, and got more excited about it as it grew.  Kind of cool - she's going to piece our signature block on the back with a variety of fabric strips that were sent out.  I had fun signing my name to this one, can you see the letters in the bubbles at the right?

 Amy was looking for a couple different sizes of Drunk Love inspired blocks.

 

In Bee Beautiful, we had decided to do signature blocks for each other every month.   Stephanie sent that extra piece of fabric, and Amy asked that we sign one of our blocks wherever we wanted.  I liked adding my name around a leaf at the top left.

Finally, Nettie sent some of the most fabulous scraps you could ever find, and asked for bright, log cabin houses.  Lots of visitors have stopped by the cat's house - bears, birds, and a friend in a VW.  It looked like the cat was pulling on his riding boots, so I filled the house with more horse riding gear.

That really was two fabulous groups of quilters!  I enjoyed all the blocks both to and from my bees last year.

Rainbow of Happiness

A fun rainbow block for Bee Beautiful - Vicki sent us a pile of 2" squares, asked us to add a few of our own. I had to send it back quickly, before I kept it myself.

When downloading my pictures, I realized I hadn't looked at the ones I took during Becket's first day of preschool this year.

The first thing he did was draw a Star Wars battle on the big chalkboard.
{They're wonderful, old chalkboards. Original to the old, one room schoolhouse building the preschool lives in}

(I just noticed that I spelled 'their' wrong in the photo - but now I have to make all new photoshop layers and stuff because I flattened and closed the file. Totally annoying...I don't have time to fix it.)

Then he spent a bunch of time at the paint easels. This year they have pallets and extra brushes available to them.

His teacher showed how he could mix his own, custom paint colors. The teacher said he's there every day now! His favorite color to mix is green.

I have a rainbow pile waiting in vintage sheets. Ready to become a QAYG block. I think this will be my block for the Vintage Bee I'm in.


But I have to clean and stuff - bunch of family is arriving for the weekend, and we'll be having a 2yr old birthday party for my nephew.

Lots to do!

Bee Fun

We're starting to get a routine going - hurray! It even includes exercising for myself. I'm starting to jiggle where I shouldn't. Next week Becket starts his school, so it will only get better.

For now, I wanted to make sure I finished up August's bee blocks.

Terri has us in the mood for fall with her string blocks.

And Erica had perfect timing when she asked for quilt as you go blocks. Her fabrics were so wonderful and I had been wanting to try out Penny's QAYG blocks for some time. It went quite well, but after only one block I had huge dust bunnies inside my machine.

Heather is hosting a second round quilt along for these blocks and as always, put a fun and funky twist on the whole thing. She mentioned backing each with muslin for some free motion fun. I think I'll try that if I go free motion or not, just to help keep down the crazy dust bunnies. I hate it when my machine goes cruuunch-gronck-schkkkkah.

And look at my pretty - PURPLE - flower. I can't believe I made a purple one, but it had to be done and I actually like it. That's one of the best things about quilting with friends. They make you step outside you favorite colors or blocks and try something fun!


Here's a little note for any of you out there that are pediatricians. Saying "This isn't anything to worry about, Mom. We'll just have the specialist check it out as a precaution." DOES NOT HELP. Moms will still spend all the days until said visit worrying, and perhaps an entire day before with a horrible head ache and on the verge of vomiting.

Thankfully it really was nothing, and the specialist said 'totally normal' after about two seconds.

Neptune

Julie sent her most favorite Neptune for us in Bee-Beautiful.
I understand the Neptune love - I used it for one of my first quilts.

Those damask turtles are some of my favorite parts of it, so they got featured!
Julie is going to have a fabulous quilt.

We've been doing lots of summery things. Including the zoo.

I loved the chalk set up in the children's area for them to sketch the animals and flowers!

I have also emptied the dishwasher two times a day every day. Boys generate lots of dishes when they're home!

I'm getting twitchy.....

I haven't posted on my stash use lately. Mainly because there isn't much to say - good or bad. I haven't bought a single thing for a couple of weeks. {This will change once Tuffted Tweets is available - I'm thinking the whole FQ set is in order}

Anyway, I've only used about 2 yards because I've been making lots of bee blocks in my available time. Bee fabric in/out doesn't count either way.

First there's Jacquie's cool red crosses.

I just finished Penny's pretty, scrappy, huge tulip.

And I made two more cross blocks for my vintage bee.

Finally, I'm almost done with Flying Geese for Amy in these wonderful solids. I have a flying geese phobia, and she said we could make our geese in any shape - even wonky if we wanted, so I took the liberty of drawing up a big paper-pieced block 'o geese.

The last row will have to wait, as it seems I'm missing something. Oh, it's my machine!

My machine was taken to the shop. It skips more stitches than it makes. I'm hoping that it only needs a tune-up and will be back quickly.

Good thing I took up hexagons!

Ownage!

Ownage: Exclaimed loudly by teen boys when they have won some random competition or beaten a hard game level.

{It's pretty annoying, but I like it better than the last six months when everything that was really good was 'beast'. That's, like, totally annoying - gag me with a spoon. We never had lame sayings when we were teens. :) }

I must admit that I yelled 'ownage' in my head when I finished the first of two blocks for Audrie. It was like I completed the super hard mario kart Rainbow Bridge. Several of our fellow Bee Beautiful mates had little love for this block. Being totally late and having heard all the comments so far, I was a bit intimidated when I started.

They went together fairly well! I was thinking it over, and I think I figured out why the several bias edges and bulky joins weren't too bad for me. I always press open seams, pin a good amount, and don't pay attention to fabric grain when cutting my pieces. I must be used to dealing with wonky bias issues since I often cut my pieces based on how I want the print to lay, rather than along the grain lines.

No matter how many times the seam ripper had to be used though, everybody agrees that Audrie is going to have an amazing quilt in the end, and we all love her! So it's all good.
(I swiped her group photo here)

Today

I made a few hexagons this past weekend - it was super busy at that tournament! I'm already hooked.


I've been testing out methods and materials, I'll have to post on that later this week. Today I'm finally starting my April bee blocks - eek! And I hate being late for anything.


But I did start one other little project today. Sun Tea. Yumm!

Others are Working!

I'm still spending a bunch of time online everyday, trying to decide what we'll do while in Hawaii. So most of my free sewing time has been used up. But others have been sewing for me!

I have most of my bee blocks back and tossed them out on the floor together for the first time. I love them! I planned on sashing them all up to about 18-20" square in Kona Snow, but now I'm thinking perhaps a gray?

Look, even the little signature blocks are awesome together! Thanks everyone!

Bees

I'm finally getting to my bee blocks this month!

First I made Victoria's flying geese block. Talk about a challenge! That's a lot of precision piecing needed there - thank goodness she sent all the bits pre-cut. The geese corners are only 1.75" I can't wait to see the riot of color when all the blocks are back to her!

For bee beautiful we are making a charity quilt along with our own. So here's my three fun stars to join the rest!

In honor of the Lost

Dear postal worker - these are worth millions and millions of dollars.  Please don't toss 'em!

On suggestion of Laurel in my comments, I looked into a postal Lost and Found. I didn't find anything online so I called their 1-800 number.   A tip, if you keep saying 'customer service' over and over even when it isn't a choice,  they will kick you from the machine and finally hand you over to a person.

 

Anyway, all items found outside of their packing are sent to Atlanta.  Then somebody looks them over and decides if they are worth more than $10.  If not, they destroy the item.  If so, then they put it on some shelf and try to find the owner.  The lady took all my info and I have an official case number.  They are supposed to call in 2 business days either way.  

I may not get my blocks back, but that was a very interesting process.  And these little blocks didn't die in vain, as it seems many of you will be using lots more tape now!

Look away if you can....

Some the the amazing BeeBeautiful blocks made for me were sent last week.  

But this is what I found in my mail box!  The glue just came unstuck, and there was a horrible red stamp on the front saying it arrived at the local post office open and empty.  My poor little bee blocks, laying in a gutter, I can hardly stand it.  At least she had photos of them on flickr before they met their fate, so I could try to recreate them.  Because they were so good!

Here's a happy picture after that terror....I finished sashing the quilt for my friend.  It's looking amazing!

My First Bee Blocks!

I'm still here - mostly I've been doing terrible things to little gnomes. In case you've missed some of it, here's the link with most of the info. Other bits are around my photo stream. But that link includes Spoonflower's response. They're working hard to figure out what's going on.

Too bad these won't survive after a few more washings - they were so cute

I have to post these awesome blocks from Rebekah! They are the first bee blocks that somebody has made for me. I love them!

My Bee Month

I just finished up the fun string Bee Beautiful block for Rachel. And now it's my month!

I got most of my fabrics during the pre-Christmas shopping spree at the Fabric Shack. And they have been patiently waiting to be all cut up. Hop on over later today to see what these little packages will become!

Log Cabins for Rebekah

I love mail - especially fabric mail! A nice little package arrive this weekend with a pile of amazing scraps from Rebekah.

I was asked to join a super cool bee by Julie and Audrie .... Bee Beautiful. Click that button on the right, and you can follow all the block-making and chatting on our group blog.

Anyway, Rebekah wanted log cabins, and I'm quite proud of making some cool looking blocks without adding any white within the logs! I so wanted to add a strip or two, but after looking over her blog and flickr noticed that she doesn't seem to use much white. Take a look at the other blocks the group has made. She's going to have a fabulous quilt!

Fabric Binge

I hope everybody has been enjoying their Christmas fun! Things have been crazy here with all the boys' new things being played with simultaneously in all corners of the house!

one FQ of each Hope Valley print they had

I have started playing with my favorite new things, too. While visiting my inlaws, I was able to make a trip to the Fabric Shack. They have so much online, but actually carting around bolts is much more fun!

random fun from their $2.98/yd scrap pile

It was funny, a mother and daughter arrived at the same time I did. They usually order online, too. Between the three of us, I think we tore the whole place apart, pulling huge piles of bolts from nearly every shelf. Oh, and a young girl was with her mother - they had a Figgy Pudding layer cake and Amanda Jean's latest Moda Bake Shop pattern in hand, choosing Kona solids. Love it!

FQs from their bins are only $1.98 each!

I actually had a fairly good plan going in. I have committed myself to making FOUR auction donation quilts due mid February through mid March. I sketched and quilty mathed them all so I had fabric amounts ready to select. I'll share more about their plans and construction as I go nuts trying to get them all done in time.

This group will be kind of a ticker tape that 83 fifth graders will create. Luckily the place was pretty much empty, so the nice woman cutting my stuff didn't seem to mind my big piles. She was kind enough to humor me and put each pile into separate bags so I could keep them all straight!

Two quilts will be made for a local church preschool. The teacher had the children paint on muslin squares. Both will be kind of scrappy, using a good amount of Nicey Jane, Moda's 1974 and some Park Slope(they had a big pile of both in their clearance loft!), and a few other cool prints.

I picked up some Joel Dewberry HomeDec weight I had preordered for the back of the finial quilt, which will be like the picnic whirlygiggle I made earlier this year.

Finally, I picked out a big pile for my first Bee quilt. My month isn't until March, but thought it would be fun to shop ahead! I was going to do aqua/tangerine but could only find two good oranges. Then I looked over that Nicey Jande and 1974 I had gathered earlier, and decided I loved those blue, green and grays (is it 'grey' or 'gray'? I can never remember!) Toss in a few Kona solids, and I think it'll be awesome!