b.i.p.

Bees in Progress...

As I mentioned before, I got a great pile of Vintage Sheets and then lucked out and found a Vintage Sheet quilt bee to join right away. It is a bit of a challenge since I usually don't work with either pastels or florals! And there isn't a lot of value contrast with these vintage sheets. But I'm loving all the soft, spring blocks everyone is making.

I'm nearly late finishing the March string block.

But way on top of the April pinwheel - we needed to use the blue/green floral and soft yellow solid - but free reign after that. If you click on over to the flickr group, in Jane's instructions she has a FUN gallery of crazy pinwheels. I can't resist a wonky log-cabinish block, so that's how I went.

Use my stash year : week 13

I was good again this week and didn't buy anything. I've also made some progress on my friend's quilt. Just needs the binding done now.


But it's spring break and I think the sun may actually be out this week. Glad I only have the hand work left to do!

Busted: 3.361

Purchased: 0

Net YTD: (8.782)

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!

Thank You Notes

This box of extra, formal thank you cards from our weeding has been sitting around for ages. They get used once in a great while. So I made some better with a glue stick and scraps.

After sticking a nice group of fabrics, I stitched them down. I only needed four today, but decided to keep going and make a bunch. Might as well since I was trashing the needle already.

I REALLY REALLY need to get on my bee blocks now. I've been playing travel agent full time for a few days. We have a trip to Maui and Kauai coming up and we need daily plans.

The Day After

I took the camera, but didn't take any pictures. I didn't think to carry it around with me and I missed the best part for film.

My picnic quilt was in the silent auction. If you've never been to one, all the different packages are displayed with a sheet of paper in front. The first bidder puts down their number and bid, then the next person can choose to outbid by adding onto the next line and so on. There is a set end time, very exciting with 1 minute countdown. You stake out your favorite package and guard against being outbid. Just like ebay, only live. If you didn't have to see those people ever again I suppose you could wrestle the pen out of the outbidder's hand.

Anyway, after much action through the night, my quilt came down to a family from my class and the preschool director. The director set her husband to the task of winning the quilt. They swapped bids for the last 45 seconds or so. He ended up winning, the experienced husband had written his bid slowly, so as to take up the last seconds. We all had a good laugh at the end. She then asked to be added to my list of custom quilt orders.

Several moms asked if I could just make a custom quilt.....I said I had business cards already and was thinking about it. So I quickly ended up with 4 lined up. I just love taking a pile like this and turning it into something beautiful. If I could support my fabric habit, all the better!

And on that note, I've been sewing on already recorded-cut fabric. But I didn't buy any either. So my stash is even for the week!

Finished quilt to celebrate Quilt Day!

A name usually comes to me for my quilts, but this final auction donation came down to the last minute. Kind of like being ready to leave the hospital and not having a name for your child. So at 11:00 the night before I had to hand it over I was stitching on my label!

I asked my husband for some desperate last minute help with the name. He spread the quilt out and said - how about 'Rainbow'. Um , no. This is not for a 10yr old girl. But without any other ideas coming I went for the translator and ended up with 'quilt' and 'rainbow' in french and I liked how they looked. So I present (certainly not grammatically correct)

'Couette Arc-en-Ceil' a 67"x67" picnic quilt.

I used Home Dec Ikea fabric for the back to hold up to rough and damp ground a bit.

Attached ties make for a nice, tidy roll.

And of course some of my favorite, sunny, happy fabrics. The auction is tonight. It's going to be in a silent package with tickets to Ravinia - they do wonderful, summer outdoor concerts. I'll actually be there so I'll update tomorrow with how it went. I did have a terrible dream last night and nobody wanted it - they all wanted a Holly Hobby hand tied quilt!

When I handed the quilt over at preschool yesterday, the other moms and the director loved it, so hopefully others will, too! We need to get more people to see cool, modern quilts - my public service project for National Quilt Day today!

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!

Finally!

We're outside without coats! And Becket thought a game of hopscotch was in order.

I survived the weekend - a tad damp, and there were mouse droppings involved. But Kenton is officially a 'Scout' now and I finished the binding on the fourth and final auction quilt. Pictures to come soon!

Use my stash year : week 11

I'm off to camp Friday and Saturday nights with my newest boy scout.  It's their first official camp out and they learn how to pitch the tents and use knives and cook for themselves.  It's supposed to be low 40s, raining, and 40mph gusty winds.  Should be interesting!  

I'll post my week's stash report now, as I may not be functional on Sunday.

So I told you I reshopped my birthday money - it was used up on these three fabrics.

A bunch of wonderful, original Heather Ross Mushrooms.

 

And some Flea Market Fancy that was being sold to benefit patients with cervical cancer.  A full yard of each.

 

FMF from 2RedHens

 Busted: 1.319

Purchased: 3.444

Net YTD: (12.143)

Ready to Sash

I finished all the blocks and have a plan. The sashing has started!

Use my stash Year : week 10

After all the testing and drama with the Spoonflower fabrics, I ended up having them all refunded. So that fabric came back out of my stash. (I did reshop with my birthday money - it will be in next week's stash report I expect.)

And just a tad of fabric came in from Kerri's etsy shop - I had to have a couple pieces for a special quilt I started this weekend.

Today a friend of mine is having a mastectomy and will be starting chemo soon. (I just got an email and her surgery has gone very well this morning.) I wanted to make something fun and sunny. I think there will be days where she's very tired and feeling down and thought a happy quilt could be nice.

I'm having a great time making fun blocks! And I'm having a good stash week.

Busted: 9.701

Purchased: 2

Net YTD: (10.018)

Almost Done!

I'm almost done with all my auction quilts!  I quilted this one last night in record time I think.  It's 68" square and it only took me 3 hours to stipple the whole thing.  I don't think I've ever finished that quickly.

I'm loving the back - IKEA home dec weight to stand up to picnic use.

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!

Use My Stash Year : week 9 (and some science)

My birthday money impulse buy arrived this week - four yards of Heather Ross Spoonflower fun! The mailman came just as I was heading out the door for preschool drop off. I totally opened it as I drove along at the stop lights - talk about distracted driving. But I couldn't wait.

I ordered the quilting weight cotton and really like it - it's just like Kona solids. I actually prefer sewing with that over the poplin her prints usually are on. The poplin feels nicer, but my stitches aren't as even and it tends to pull at the seams more. Any thoughts on why I have issues with it? I've tried lots of stuff to fix it and can't. So the Kona type weave makes me happy.

All the prints are on a little larger scale than the originals - here's a side by side. Oh, and I did all these on my scanner. Love that! No messing with it in photoshop for flash and color correction. They come out perfect the first time. Wish I had a flatbed as large as my quilts!!

I made a little pot holder as a test. Included her selvage, isn't it cute! And the Wildwood is a nearly perfect match for the pink and yellows in these prints. It was going to be a whirlygiggle but I cut one wrong and I didn't want to cut again. So just some random piecing and a first try at random line quilting.

I'm doing a little test on washability. So far here's one iteration done. I'll do 10 (as Kerri was thinking) or until I'm sick of it. I hand washed it in lukewarm, I hate having my hands in cold water, and then tumble dried. I was happy that there wasn't a bit of bleeding at all. A tiny bit of fading on the plum background...we'll see how it holds up over more washings. I'm posting the progression in my flickr account if you're interested in the results.

I finished my testing for now - report here: flickr link

I got all that new stuff, but since I sent out my bee fabric this month I have a good number on the busted line!

Busted: 9.389

Purchased: 4

Net YTD: (17.719)

TWO More Finished Auction Quilts

My birthday Olympic sewing helped with the final push to get these two auction donations done. This first one is "Peace Puzzle" 54"x54"

The preschool planned and provided the children's artwork on the white muslin. I just had to make them into a quilt in any way I wanted. I think the whirlygiggles are like puzzle pieces and love making them, so that was an easy decision!

The quilting was fun. I decided to free motion outline the puzzles on both the inside and outside edge. Stipple of course everywhere else.

It's so cool the way it ended up looking on the back!

I LOVE LOVE the second one that I named "Stepping Stones to God" 54"x60". Hugely influenced by Hop on Spot and the mini I did for the advent table.

The words on the front are the title the teacher gave their project. I tried a few things, but ended up liking them free motion edge appliqued the best. Plus, you don't have to turn your quilt a million times in and out to go around all the letters!

I cut out their little feet from the squares to make them look like they were walking on stepping stones. I had to wet down a few areas to remove washable marks for centering and realized that the writing and gold glitter paint are NOT washable. They'll come right off! Luckily I didn't really damage any of their feet, but this is certainly not a washable quilt. Good thing I didn't toss it in to get all crinkly!

I loved the contrast of the diagonal lines with the striped circles on my advent mini, so I went with that again. Before making the sandwich, I used invisible thread to sew around all the circles to keep them well attached. I used a walking foot for all the lines and did it while watching the Olympics, as it was horribly boring. I really enjoy the free motion!

I can't wait to see how both of these do at auction.

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!

Use My Stash Year : week 8 (and a tip!)

With my fun Birthday/Olympic sewing, I got two more auction quilts done. Hopefully it won't be so grey out tomorrow for some pictures.

My stash in this week includes several solids I got from the Fabric Shack. I thought - hey, they should put the color name on the edge - and finally realized I could do it myself!

I kept the handy little photo checkout sheet they give you for an online purchase. They are pretty color accurate.Then I matched up my pieces with the printout. Also having a couple different cut sizes helped, too! Then I used my water soluble pen to write the colors name on an edge. It seems like a pretty good plan.

Busted: 4.444
Purchased: 8.26
Net YTD: (23.108) so that's two weeks in a row of MORE stash....oooops!

Ticker Tape auction note - the auction was last night and a friend that went updated me. The quilt went for $400.

Gnomes for Me!

That birthday money came just in time!

Click Heather's picture to go to her site and buy some yourself - I just placed my order!

Awesome Stuff (can't think of a better title)

Last night's Olympics rocked - Shaun White is awesome - and this commercial just added to it! One of the best I've seen in a long time. I somehow missed it during the super bowl.

Old Spice's blurb is even awesome: We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.

...edit....I took out the embed, as it seems to be bringing a lot of comment spam!...

I did make a bee block last night. Thought I better get Heather's wonky log cabin out before Victoria's fabrics show up. I love how it turned out.

I ate leftover birthday cake, too. A good night all around.