2012 ~ A Year in Review

For some reason I've been hemming and hawing about looking back to 2012.  I did my 2 year blog birthday back in October and it totally energized my outlook of my little corner of cyber crafting space. So, let's see if it happens again.

♥

What was 2012 in my craft room?

I completed 13 projects.
Hey that isn't bad!  Some were smaller projects and a few larger ones.
I didn't even include the quilt tops as that would just be cheating!  :)  Oh and I haven't taken photos of them all.




Like 2011 - I got a few bee blocks out the door.  Not as many as I have been sooo good and haven't signed up for any more "bee's"  although I'm doing some private swaps! Those are a totally different animal, right {just nod and say yes}

If you click on these photos it will whisk you to flickr where you can see more information on any of these.

Around 80 different bee blocks walked out of my house this past year. 

Sweet!

~~~

It really was a good year.  And I can't wait to finish a few projects this year for 'A Lovely Year of Finishes' that Melissa from Sew BitterSweet Designs and I are co-hosting.

We have a few sponsors, but if anyone wants to throw us a suggestion just email me.

This month's initial link-up is still open til the 7th.  Remember you must link up twice in the same month with the finished it with a completed project, to be entered into the prizes. 

Here's to a great 2013! And all it brings!

 

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).

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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!

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!

 

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!

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.

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!