Quilt Sandwich and beyond

I adore the administrative assistants in my office.  They make the office world go round.  I unfortunately had to miss their lunch as I had to glue fabric together. Great excuse I realize - sigh.

I kicked it into high gear with a deadline looming. I only a few hours with my wonderful fella last Wednesday we spray based my auction quilt together.  This is seriously so much better with two people and I have to say that I LOVE 505 spray glue.

Yet, I think I glued some nose hairs together.

 (NOTE TO SELF - get a mask for the next quilt sandwich project)

I tweeted a question to those listening at the moment about what thread people use for machine quilting.  I heard Aurifil, King Tut and some others from @caraquilts and @CraftyMamaD.

I have previously admitted to being a thread snob since switching to Aurifil for all of my piecing projects.  I mean seriously after a HUGE bobbin and cleaning out 10% of the lint accumulation I previously had - who wouldn't be a convert! Sadly I didn't have the color selection in my Aurifil collection so another thread was needed. I also have a limited selection to choose from in my local town and my LQS.

So, with my tweeps recommendations in hand I went to the LQS and walked out with a spool of Ebony King Tut and a marbled Sulky. Promptly put the King Tut in the bobbin and the Sulky on the top and viola machine quilting commenced! Seriously these are both awesome threads. 

Thanks ladies!  This community makes these projects so so much better!

Spoke too Soon

I seem to put a jinx on myself!

Many of my bee's are ending this or next month.  I am queen bee and have most {not all} of my blocks I have to sew done, although not out the door.

I need to slow down my commitments. . but then something like this . . .

comes by! 

Easy 3.5" squares. . why YES!  I can do that!

This is a stash buster baby!

Come check out the flickr group or the beautiful blog post found here at The Peacock Tree.

This is being hosted by the talented The Crafty Blackbird

*Sign-up's til May 1*

What'cha what'cha what'cha want?

Pincushion love you ask. . ooooohhhh okay!

Well I am part of a lovely group over at Bee a {Modern} Swapper. 

It's a bee AND a swap.

The beauty of this is that I can choose which swaps throughout this next year. 
This is a huge sigh of relief I can choose when to participate. I sometimes have more of my plate that I'm able to complete.

This wasn't the case for the pincushion swap, I signed up with glee! I've been wanting a pincushion for a long while.

I smartly went into my local pet store and asked for crushed walnut shells {I've been meaning to do this for 10 months}.  The workers looked at me all perplexed . . I then added that it's usually used for lizards or birds.  Oh then the lights went on. 

He had a chuckle as I obviously wasn't shopping for a pet.  I told him that I was making pincushions.

Crafters out there are all types apparently!

I made this Tula Pink overloaded pincushion for the beauty over at Handmade with Love

I loosely followed the tutorial found here. .  but I didn't read it very well and I so didn't read it all the way through so it's a wing it job!

Look at the turtle in the pincushion portion of this.  EEPP! 

I didn't think of a lot of other embellishments I could have added until I was done. . sigh.  Whateva!

I hope jmmaxman still adores this.

~~

Now a swap I got something back.

Ahhhhh!

I was SPOILED by my partner Nilya2011 from Germany.

I received TWO pincushions and some candy.  Oh the gummy bears were gone way too fast!

Two . . I mean what can be more perfect! 

I have one on my ironing board and the other on my sewing table.  They are both so fun to use and I use them a LOT!

I can not believe that I'm using pins - but at times it makes everything piece together so much smoother! 

What a great swap this was. . . thanks ladies ♥

 I'm sitting out the potholder swap that is currently going.  It's killing me but I am getting some family time and other sewing commitments out the door.  Yeah for self control!

Have a lovely weekend!

March Bee Blocks. . . Part 2

{Yeah. .I realize it's April.  I'm sewing up a storm not taking the time to blog. Hee Hee}

Well since I blogged about a part 1 I suppose that I should follow up with the finale for March. 

I successfully completed all of my bee blocks on time. 

Not only that I also got my fabric out the door for the THREE bee's that I'm queen bee for. I sent all these off and they are making their way across the world. 

On to the pretties. .  here we go

{Sew Bee It}

My wonderful bff blogs over at Sharing Jovanna Moments.  She requested a twist on the garden fence block that she blogged about here.  She sent along some yummy batiks. 



I had a wonderful sewing day with Jo and she supervised me while sewing these up.  Good thing I might have kept these!



Her quilt is going to be rocking! 

Sew Modern Bee

I also finished up two blocks for the lovely Canadian, Emelote she blogs over at Flory Counter Flory. She had us sew up some awesome blocks from The Fresh Lemons solstice stars Another Star. 

 

The greatest colors - eva! 

 

A whole quilt of these blocks . . YUM.

Bee a {Modern} Swapper

Here's a different quilt bee that I joined.  It's 2 blocks every other month. I finished up these two blocks for our lovely queen bee, This Crafty Fox who is making a picnic quilt.

This one is a rainbow. . well my improv rainbow - with rain drops.  Eeep!

This next block was so fun to make.  I'm starting to dip my toes into more advanced paper piecing patterns {say that 5 times fast}. 

For this block I melded two free patterns from Artisania and tweeked them both. 

The mushroom house has been enlarged. The hedgehog was flipped to make him coming in from the left. 
The hedgehog isn't perfect but pretty rocking {if I do say so myself}.

There's more coming in April. . Happy Spring!

Going Award Free with many thanks around

I've learned so much from my fellow quilt bloggers. Ya'll are a sweet bunch! Encouragement around every corner.

I've been given a few awards over the last few months.  Here they are!

The Versatile blogger award

I thank 

~ Chelsea who blogs over at Pins and Bobbins she gave me this award here

AND

~JanetK who blogs over at Entropy Undone she gave me this award here. 

Go check them both out. . amazing gals!

Oh it doesn't stop there . . .

I also got a Liebster Award

 

Liebster what's that you ask . . . German for darling, beloved, or sweetheart.

I received this from Danny who blogs over at Mommy for Reals she gave me this award here.
 AND
Ella who blogs over at Throw a Wench in the Works she gave me this award here.

They are both sweethearts!

~~~

With these lovely awards that I've been sitting on for awhile and fretting over who to pick, what to say, and when to post. 

Well that's been a smidge too much stress! 

[Image from www.bethsbookreviews.com]

I've decided to make my blog an Award Free blog. 

The rules are just way too much for me to think about and I would rather be creating to blog about rather than worrying about if I'm doing things right with an award. This kinda falls into my personality!

There are many other efforts out there to spread the love of my wonderful followers, friends, and the other uber talented people out there. I put in a lot of time to track down links to other people's blogs and try to spread the love in my posts. I will totally continue to do that. 

Thanks for the ♥