Mute Mouse

I've lost something but not sure where to find it again.

I realize I've been mute and haven't even answered comments from some of you lovely people from my last few blog posts.  I'm sure I'll be back again with joy - but not sure when.

I have been enjoying the moments I get to sew!

I've finished all but one of my February commitments - whoo hooo!

I haven't taken photos of them all but here are the last few that I haven't blogged about.

Aqua and Orange

The lovely Queen Bee heidigoneaussie (she blogs here) provided the greatest scraps. 

 

I wanted to keep these for myself. . but I made these instead.

I even sent them to her. . pfft.

I had to include this cute mer-girl in here.  There wasn't a ton I could do with the cut of fabric so I improvised.

Aqua and Red Bee

The second lovely Queen Bee, guiltyquilter,  asked for a flying geese.  I made her a block in the first round of this bee back in August blogged about here. 

 

This time round I used starch and these points are sharp baby sharp.

~~~

Hope everyone is grand.  Rest assured I'll be back, but it may take me a bit to get out of my funk.  Keep up with what I'm doing over at my flickr account. Or find a group of us that talk over on twitter.

Story of my first pin cushion

Do ya ever have something that just moves you to almost tears?  Well I get a bit of that with my interactions I have through my on-line bee's, reading the many crafty bloggers, and my tweeps.

I'm in an interesting bee run by Staci (she blogs over here) She runs a tight ship and is helpful when something goes awry.  She's like the many mother's I've adopted over the years!

The Orange you Glad bee is 2 hives of talented and very talkative ladies. Many of them, I believe, are older and many of them are religious.  I find that I don't mix in a lot of their conversations - although it's entertaining to watch.  While I feel a bit different it doesn't mean that I don't feel welcome.

I had 10 of these lovely ladies make me blocks back in November.  I've yet to make this into a top but here's a blah photo of their creativity with my fabrics. This night photo does not give any justice to these amazing blocks! 

One of these lovely ladies, grendelskin (she blogs over here) sent me two amazing blocks, a note, and a start of a block. I was totally confused when I opened this package but when I read the note I was taken aback. She included a small (around 4" square) block with amazing stitching with a small burn in the middle.

She had an iron malfunction at the start of this block.  Totally happens. I'm happy she didn't rip this all out and start again. I personally would have cried, complained to my fella, and thrown out this mistake. No word to the Queen Bee. . . I mean it wasn't a ton of fabric.  I expect some mistakes to happen and I hope that I provide enough fabric to compensate. 

I think that's why grendelskin sending me this block has just stuck with me.  I adore this little block!

I love it so much I made myself a pin cushion from it! 
I couldn't get the burn from the center and I'm glad it didn't come all the way out.
I pondered putting some stitch the burn area but decided against even that.

Here's my cherished first pin cushion.



Now I can't live without this pincushion.  I'm sure a few more of these will be on my to-do list this year - with or without burns. . it doesn't matter.

This time last month

I'm feeling behind this month.  My 7 bee's are still going, yes some are ending soon.

Sad that one gal didn't want us to sew for her this month. One queen bee is asking for a free-style block. Even with the below finishes, a lack of sun around these parts and life just hitting at once has make it where I'm a bit of the white rabbit.

I'm late . .  I'm late. . .

It's not getting me down per say, I'm just gonna wait for fabric love to hit and enjoy getting these creative blocks out the door.

Here are a few that I have made a few to-date for February.

Here's blocks for one (of two) Queen Bee's in  my Red and Aqua group.

This one is for tangled_threads . . . it's going to be a lovely quilt!

For the{Sew Bee It} group.

monkeysx2 requested confetti blocks.  These were rocking to make! 

I love the background color, I happen to be using it in one of MY projects. And the snippets of color are something else.  I wish I would have added more empty space (I actually thought I was!). I love these blocks. I could envision a huge quilt from large snippets.  I'm not sure if I could handle making tons of blocks for a whole thing. . . wait maybe that's why we are in bee's ;)

I also finished my blocks for Orange you Glad.  The queen bee miniaturequilter asked us to make pumpkin blocks.  A few photos and some fabric . . here's what I made.  I'm pretty happy with the stem. 

The blocks I haven't gotten to yet include a flying geese block, a tree block, and a few spiderweb blocks.

I'm pretty sure I can knock these out during my Quilt Day with Jo and Becky this weekend.

 

Still sewing and by hand too!

 

I've been doing quilty things in between life things.

Kinda difficult with life being so busy.  Lots of things going on. 
I'm having to come to grips with some of my bff's leaving town, darn better opportunities and family being closer. 

To ease my pain I've been sewing on a few things, one of them is this hand stitched block.




My fella told me it's so authentic!  And the fabric is from England.  Oh my - I'm spoiled rotten!

I'm thinking I'll turn this into something else and make another without wonky edges.  I do love my first hand pieced block. 

This is the first block of a new Quilt Along with Erin over at Why Not Sew? I'm behind but it doesn't bother me. :)  I'm not sure if I'll do all of these or not.  But having a new tool is helpful!

Hope that you all are doing grand and a bit more productive than I have been the last few weeks.

She's doing it again - jump on the bandwagon

It's better to give {again}.

I'm so happy to have participated in (the first round and second round) of Quilting for Kids with Sarah over at So Sarah Sews.

Head on over the flickr group there is another round - Sarah has blogged about the chosen block and awesome colors here. 

There's still room if you're interested.

~~~

 

And I've decided to use this idea for one of my 3 on-line bee's I'm Queen Bee in March. Phew that's a relief to decide on one of these.

 

 

Still working it. . that's right

I want to share some links to some local (amazing) bloggers that have some photos of the ice storm that we had. 

Becky over at Becky's Blabber is a local quilter.  We've had coffee a few times and have to plan a quilting night - she said with WINE.  Oh lala!  Some of her photos of the ice storm are here. 

A good friend of mine has a way with the camera. She hasn't posted in a while but she did post an amazing photo from this past storm here and here.

I've been blah blah blah.  I think it's because I'm forced to work.

I was able to catch up in my Sew.Happy.Quilt quilt along. 

This beauty is called Fireflies

I used this tute

And this is called Template Star Block

I used this tute.

My brain apparently couldn't grasp this block to save my life.  I re-cut this thing FOUR TIMES {yes, that is me cyber-yelling}. First I didn't have the template large enough, then I cut the white too small.  Then I re-cut this and I had the blue (used to be orange} cut on the wrong side - twice.  I used my seam ripper more times on this than I want to admit. Lalalala.  So eventually I got this block right.  And let me tell ya. . I'm happy to have it done with.  :)

 

Another block came out yesterday.  I might break into my fabrics soon - maybe.

 

Go check out the flickr group of the amazing 100+ participants and Jenna over at Sew Happy Geek {click the pretty button}.