September: A Lovely Year of Finishes ~ Goal Setting Party

{cough, cough}
What!!!!
Sept-tem-ber

Okay, whoever is playing with the speed of my life would they please STOP.

Hope that you all are preparing for the change of season wherever you may be.
I know it's approaching fall as we have the glorious windows open to air out the house each night.
It feels like football and sewing time to me. :)

As always, Melissa from Sew BitterSweet Designs  is awesome and make sure to go check her out. 
Even with her busy life Melissa just keeps me on task.  Thank her for me :)

And remember to check everyone else out too.  ALYoF is awesome because of all of YOU.


~~~

So shall I dare ask where the time has gone?  September?  How can it already be that month?

While I still need to finish the binding from the last two months goals - I actually did touch it this last month.

I need a new goal.  A refresh to focus on something else.
I'm on the road again this month but it doesn't look like as much.

I'm going to set a SEWING goal.

For whatever reason these were on the top of my pile.



Blocks from a bee way, way back.  Orange you glad with some very fun ladies.

I have in mind some sashing and then some more orange (imagine that) for adding to the length of this beauty.  That and so the white isn't straight up against my face.

That's it.  Just the top but more wouldn't be too terrible.
 
~~~

Do share, what's your September goal?

What one item will you choose?

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up {on this post} the first 7-days of the month 
Please choose ONE project

and

2. Link-up in the last 7-days of the month 
Only with a completed, successful project.  And yes the same one that you choose earlier in the month.

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

Please grab a button or link back to Melissa and I so other people can join in the fun!

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Melissa , so there is no need to enter twice **



~~

 Here is a list of our generous sponsors for September!!

1. 2. Honey, Bunny and Doll – 2 Patterns

3. Sew BitterSweet Designs  one pdf pattern

4. One pdf pattern from  Sew Sweetness

5. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

6. 1 Charm pack or $10.00 gift certificate to

Stitches n’ Giggles (winners choice)

7. $30.00 credit towards Long Arm Quilting Services
from by Orchid Owl Quilts

8. Thread Prize from Aurifil

9. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies - Custom fabric package, 4 yards (worth $20) plus free shipping

10. 11. One pdf Pattern from Clover and Violet

12. PDF Pattern from Katy - The Littlest Thistle

13. PDF Pattern from Persimon Dreams

14. One PDF Pattern from Meadow Mist Designs

 


~~~

Happy quilting my dears!

Officially Orange Free

This is my busy summer life! 

Well the few weeks of it anyways.

Not a ton of stitching going on with family visits and a Girl Scout trip coming up 2 adult and 5 pre-teens.  I'm smiling a lot these days!

I do have a few bee's and many of them ending.  This wonky house block is the last block for the talented group of ladies in Orange you Glad.

I stitched this up for ladybug4785. A wonky Oregon cabin in the mountains - on the east side of the state with very few trees but lots of ground cover.  Not sure why they created an orange cabin in the middle of this country but it's cute, it has 'character'. 

I have to say that the clouds turned out pretty cool and I didn't even plan it that way.  I actually was very pleased with the top part of this as it's the first time I could execute this without lots of fabric waste (or bring out the seam ripper).

~~~

I'm hoping this may be my last house block for a long time. I'm not really a house block kinda person.  Le'sigh.

~~~

So this bee is DONE!

I'm sad to say goodbye to these ladies as they talk a LOT.  I like that.  I don't always join in but it's fun to catch up with their conversations every once and awhile.  While they aren't my group it still felt as if I was part of it.  Oh the joys of sewing with others.

I'm off to calm myself down before the Girl Scout trip. . .

Hope that everyone is doing well!

WIP Wednesday 6.20.12

It's been awhile since I've linked up to Lee over at Freshly Pieced.  With my brain absorbing  the changes of life including but not limited to: my laptop dying, on-line bee's ending, garden needing to be tended to, summer coming at us like a lion where my step-daughter will be back and forth visiting her mother. 

It's time for me to link up again to Works in Progress (WIP) Wednesday with Lee over at Freshly Pieced. I haven't done this for way too long but it's time to take account again.

Finished projects:

- Clean sewing area - seriously it's amazing to see the floor again!  I of course didn't bring in a new trash bag so small pieces of fabric are already starting to gather.

- Bee Blocks!  I'm finishing up my bee commitments but still have a few going on.    I ran out of fabric - gasp!  But more is making it's way to my mailbox as we speak.

Oh did I show you this one yet?  The Orange you Glad bee I was able to sew for The Pewter Acorn


Everything was cut so well I didn't even blink and this block was done.

New projects:

- Packaged up bee blocks for July for the awesome bee group {Sew Bee It} - the last time I'll be mailing out for myself in 2012.

- Wedding wall-hanging for my fella's peeps.  I'm doing a New York Beauty!

Active WIP:

- Pay it Forward items
- May Bee Blocks: Bee a Lone Star(burst)
- June Bee Blocks: Bee a Lone Star(burst)
- Layer Cake quilt-top {hanging on my design wall . . lalalalala}

- Knitted Socks ~ my first pair baby! I'm even on the second one.
- Knitted baby blanket for Lou

Back-Burner WIP:

- Postage Stamp quilt.

- PJ pants for fella

- Twice as Nice quilt top

- Threadheads quilt-top
- Aqua and Red (Round 1) quilt-top
- Waiting for blocks for: Aqua and Red (Round 2), Sew Modern Bee, and Aqua and Orange - then all of these will are offically back-burner WIP's too!

This week's stats:

Finished projects - ~3

New Projects - 2

Currently in progress - lalalalala

Hope all is going well in your neck of the woods. 

I'm linking this post to :

Beautiful May

Wow.  .are you ready for some blocks?  I can not believe how much I got out the door this month!

{Sew Bee It}

Shelly has jumped right into this bee after life hit a few of our members.  She provided some lovely blue fabrics and asked for a herringbone block [tute found here].  These were awesome to make.  These totally work - if you follow the instructions.  Thankfully a fellow beemate urged us to do that before I worked on these.  It's like magic people!

New Bee on the Block

I am started this bee almost a year ago now.  I'm stepping in the last two months as life has hit a few of the bee-mates.  mejbenz wanted wonky houses.  She sent a lovely assortment of fabrics.  Here is what I came up with. 

Oh and I made up a story for each. . .

This block is a wonky beach house.  Can you see the ocean, beach, dune, and reeds on the left side of the block?  And then the many funky houses that are at the beach this one with a wonderful pink door.  It's a tall place that you can rent anytime.  There are windows on the beach side of this place, you just can't see them. Let's go rent it and go beach combing.  

And for my second trick. . . a castle! 
I've always wanted to go stay in a castle. And why not here! This domed abandoned place has a huge moat with a retaining rock wall that still stands today.  This is only one snapshot of this monstrous place.  Sadly this castle has seen it's day but it's still fun to visit.

Orange you Glad

& 

Block Party

Funny that there are many overlaps with the gals I sew with.  This month Shawn was the queen bee for May in both of these bee's.  Here are her two stacked blocks. She has a quick tutorial found here.

I stepped in to make an angel block for Jacqueline in the other hive (yes there are 20 + ladies in this bee). The tutorial is found here over with Anna.  Let me tell you this block put me back in my place!  I am so sure that I'm soooo good and then a block like this steps in. My brain hurts from making this thing. I did prevail - eventually.  I hate to talk about how many times the trusty seam ripper was in my hand.  At least the fabrics were fabulous to work with and she included enough!

Aqua and Red

The last month of this bee with two lovely ladies and two fun blocks.

First up -
Granny Squares

whimbrella asked for these from this tutorial.  

 

And since these were pre-cut so this was super quick!

Second,
Anything circles

Julianne, she blogs here, asked for circles.  It's awesome to see the variations that people are coming up with.

I attempted a circle at first and it was all blah (blah = puckers, anger, and something way ugly)!  So I then ended up with this lovely.
This is HUGE so it can cut it down however she wants.

Bee a {modern}swapper

 

I'm doing a side swap in this bee with stayathomelibrarian. Her block came in the mail on Saturday.  I wanted to make hers before I opened her package up. I've never made a book block before and this one kinda made my head scratch. There is a little book of life is tucked in there.  If only I could find it! It's tucked right in between a book of sewing and the Little Miss Naughty.

Sew Modern Quilt Bee

The last month of this bee we worked on some fantastic garden fence blocks.  Seriously this is adding to a yellow quilt desire!

  

 

Blue Bellbird, she blogs here, provided these pre-cut. I had these done within 20 minutes of them walking in my door.  I held them hostage until today.  I didn't want to see them go!
 

We used this tutorial. These are so wonderful I might need to make something for myself from this. And these colors.. oh swoon!
~~~

I'll be late on one bee - the lone star(burst) blocks but I'll finish these up soon after my step-daughter goes to visit her mother this summer. The paper piecing is just not something I want to tackle at the moment.  But I'll get there!

Not too shabby for May, if I do say so myself.

A whole month gone in other words April bee blocks catch-up

Well I must say that a whole month has whisked by and I'm wondering where it's gone! 

Sewing wise I was focused on my auction quilt and I'm so proud!

That came at the perfect time as I was Queen Bee for 3 of my (cough) few bee's I'm participating in.  I've been gathering a few packages every few days.  I'll blog about that sometime in the future!

As for what I was able to sew for others I had a few items.

Block Party Bee

 

These are made from some lovely vintage sheets.

I have to say that I am Mama Mac chose a lovely block for everyone to sew up. 

Orange you Glad

Marta requested these wonderful granny squares.  Seriously the best blocks eva!  That's why they are popping up all over the quilty blogs.

Aqua and Red Bee

Look at the lovely fabrics tinking along sent.  It was super fun to pick out any star I wanted and not to have a background like white, as I'm used to.

Bee a Lone Star{burst}

Templates from the talented Anna is to just fall over from.  I'm in awe of all of her work go check her out you won't be sorry!

 

 

These blocks are for Crandons. She wanted grey backgrounds and YUM!  I have to stop questioning my fabric choices as these are rocking all done up.

Sarah has given me permission to not stress about her blocks. . so here they are but I'm going to wait til I'm in the right mind-set to stitch them up. I'll show the finished blocks off when I finish them. 

I also have to finish up a blocks for the group I'm hosting {Sew Bee It}. I get to sew for one of my favorite bee-mates Mary picked yet another block that stretches me beyond what I anticipated. Black is such a lovely stark color.  Oh it's fun to sew for others!  But I'll also show that off later.

~~~

That's my re-cap for most of April. May is a bit more busy but that's another story for another time.

Hope you get to hear the whir of a machine soon!

 

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.

 

January Bee Blocks

Taking a break for the holidays and doing a little sewing for myself has done a world of difference.  I've just whipping out the bee blocks that I have arrive at my door.  

Here's a rundown of all the blocks that are out the door before of the end of the month deadline.

Threadheads

The lovely gockfrocks (blogs over here) sent us pre-cut japanese x and + scrappy blocks.

 

This was so super easy I was shocked! I won't be mailing this off yet as I might have to throw in a few more just because.  She sent me three lovely blocks for my month of being queen bee a few months back.

Aqua and Red

fqnb (she blogs over here) asked for a lovely block, not only is this block wonderful but she had her fabrics pre-cut.  So simple. Some DS Quilts fabric might be included in this package back over the sea.

The second January Queen Bee [dreamfctry] (she blogs over here) let me make her a Swoon block.  I posted about that here.  Oh course I want to show it off again.



Ohhhh Swoon!

Aqua and Orange

betc1978  (blogs over at here) sent some lovely fabric.  She was looking for some blocks inspired by Denyse Schmidt's drunk love log cabin quilt. We used this tutorial.



I constructed these at the same time.  And I didn't have enough to finish either but I'm sure Betsy will finish them up at home.

Sew Modern Bee

Our January Queen Bee ask for HST blocks.  And I put my hand up to make two blocks.  Especially when the smaller HST's were already squared up.  Ohhhh Pretty!

 

This larger HST was super easy compared to the above block. I'm enjoying HST's and how crisp they can be.

   

{HST Queen I'm telling ya!}

{Sew Bee It}

foxflower asked for presents.  She sent some lovely fabrics for her blocks.  We used this tutorial. I got to make these with with Jovanna on our sewing day.  Jovanna dealt with me bringing out my new old machine.  It was super fun to sew these blocks together, mix fabrics, and try out my new old machine. 

Orange you Glad

I was able to sew a spiderweb block for Vegetarian Hunter (she blogs over here). This block went a lot faster than my first attempt.

~~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~

And since one of my bee's Twice as Nice has officially ended, I might have joined in a new bee/swap group called Bee a {Modern} Swapper.  It's a swap and a stash bee.  Oh gads it's something different for sure.

By the way, if you want to see me freak out just wait and see. . I have 3 bee's I'm Queen Bee and will be sending out fabric for in April.  I still have NO clue what I'm going to have everyone make me. The options are not endless anymore I'm kinda at a loss of what I want.