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!
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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.

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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!

 

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.

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.

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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.

What do you do when your iced in?

In my little part of the world we have freezing rain not only closing school but preventing my family of three stuck in the house.  What would you do?  My fella and I are lucky enough that we could complete the most of our jobs from home.  And the 12-year old has been amazing! Fingers crossed the ice melts and we can prevent cabin fever.

With ice all around I'm still basking that I'm pod famous!  Yep I've been mentioned in a podcast a few times!  I am super lucky to tweet with some amazing gals! The usual line up recently have included Jenna – SewHappyGeek,  Bonnie – Beeclef, Melissa - CraftyMamaD, and  Susan - HQSuz. Susan is super talented and had a podcast and she just celebrated her one-year anniversary of her podcast!  Look at her go!  Check out Susan’s blog and listen to her podcast over at – The History Quilter.

While dealing with the ice storm I've been able to SEW!  I finished up my first Swoon Block!  I'm so excited!  In my Aqua and Red Bee our January Queen Bee Bek indulged me and let me sew her a Swoon Block for her.  HST cower at my feet I tell you!  I need to master flying geese next!

So here's Bek's block with a comparison of a Japanese x & + tiny block next to it!  This is one big block.

 

I believe I'm in ♥

So a random question to fellow starch lovers.  Have you used Sta-Flo?  I LOVE how easy and quickly any pieced block go together with starch but I may go broke if I continue to use Best Press.

I'll show you all my January Bee Blocks soon. . yep I'm officially done before the month is even over.  Now to get to the post office - that is after the ice melts.

2011 Bee Recap

I found some amazing gals to sew with in my on-line quilting bees:

{Sew Bee It}

Twice as Nice

{Modern 12}

Sew Modern Quilt Bee

Orange you Glad Bee

Aqua and Red Bee

Threadheads
4x5 Modern Quilt Bee

I sew with people all over the WORLD! 
It's downright awesome when you think of it!

But as a recap of this year I have made a few mosaics. 

I made 109 bee blocks this year!

January

These were my first blocks being angel blocks

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October


November

December

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All I can say is WOW!  I love sewing for all of you! I can not tell you how much I've learned in sewing and interpersonal skills!