getting there

Two more bee blocks down. I'm now officially caught up on the Cocorico Bee, with a sweet little piglet made for Megan. Her theme is "The County Fair," which I love! I'm trying to stop beating myself up over my inability to draft patterns, so I purchased this one from Bubblestitch on etsy. It was so nice to just think of fabric choices (the piglet is a mix of teeny Yuwa dots, some Suzuko Koseki, and a blush shot cotton) instead of stressing about design.

I should add too that I finally figured out that my blocks are so much more accurate if I leave the paper on until the very end. And that it's great to have an 11-year-old helper who actually likes picking teeny pieces out of seams! Avery sat next to me while I sewed this weekend, working on a sock monkey for a friend. It was so nice to have company in my sewing room.

I'm also caught up in the Free Bee. Mari asked for an urban landscape, inspired by the work of Elizabeth Barton. It was another block that I was overthinking. So in the spirit of being "free," I just started cutting and sewing and made this little cityscape.

My list of sewing to dos is still quite long. But I'm getting there.

pippi

I'm behind on bee blocks. Very behind. One thing I'm learning about myself is that I am really not good at creating blocks or quilts that look like something in real life. I'm better at creating abstract pieces. But I'm not a quitter, so I am pressing on and sticking with these tricky bees. Muriel requested blocks in the Cocorico Bee with a Pippi Longstocking theme, so I finally got it together (her month was February) and made this:

It is a direct, 100% copy of a book cover illustrated by Lauren Child, found here. I just tried to do the design justice by picking fun fabrics and not screwing up the thread sketching so much.

Next up I've got to make a playing card soldier (from Alice and Wonderland), an urban landscape, a vintage office product, and something representing a county fair. And that's just to get through March. All fun though, right? Wish me luck. And if you're someone who is expecting a block, it's on it's way. Promise.

weekend sewing

Thanks to a quiet weekend at home, I was able to tackle two items on my to do list!

First up, some bee blocks for Krista. She's kicking off the first month of the Free Bee and has requested blocks similar in feel to these wooden trees (but without the stems). She only wanted one block, but I couldn't stop myself and did two. It was fun to sew up something so low stress.

Next, I completed my partner's bag for the Potholder Pass 10 swap!

My partner likes patchwork  and modern fabrics. I used a grey Robert Kaufman Carolina Chambray for the main part of the bag, a Suzuko Koseki kitchen print for the panels, and a scrappy log cabin for the pockets.

It's lined with one of my favorite white and orange florals. I hope she likes it!

Ah, to be sewing again. It feels so good.

a pomegranate block for Annabel

This was made for Annabel, whose theme last month was "orchards." This block design gave me so much trouble. First I tried to piece the background and inset the pomegranates. Then I tried to draft up my own paper piecing pattern. Both attempts were epic fails. It was depressing, to tell you the truth. I am a terrible, terrible paper piecer. Applique to the rescue!

Now you really must check out the other incredible blocks in the Cocorico Bee. Really, please do. You'll be blown away!

the big orange wall quilt

The big orange wall quilt is done!

I actually finished this up late Sunday night, but a trip out to our cabin kept me from hanging it on the wall until last night. I got some amazing feedback about how to do the final layout (rectangular, dyptich, darker strips to add some assymetry). But in the end, I decided to keep it square and simple as was my original plan.

This quilt was a collaborative effort. 15 of the blocks were made by members of my Bee Liberated group on flickr. Even though the blocks are all very simple in their design and contain mostly the same fabrics, the fact that they were made by so many different people makes each one unique. It also turns out that one of my bee member's additions really made this quilt sing. Heidi sent me this center block made with teal and grey fabrics that I hadn't included in my packets.

Honestly, my first though was, "Oh, no! How are these going to work in the quilt?" But she also included extra pieces of that teal that I ended up using in many more of the blocks I made. Those spots of teal ended up creating movement in the quilt that I don't think I would have acheived had I kept only the original fabrics I had chosen. So thank you Heidi!

I still think the wall needs a few more things. But I think that can wait a bit. My other cushions will have to wait too. I've got things planned with the kids today and a fun weekend ahead of wedding and friends.  But please make sure to check back on Monday-- I'll be giving away a GO! Baby to a lucky someone!

I succumbed to the pressure

Okay, so no one was forcing me to join another quilt-a-long (sorry, unfinished Single Girl!), but I just couldn't resist all of the hype that's going on with The Farmer's Wife. This sampler quilt has 111 different traditional blocks. I started on the first three this morning.

Just 108 more to go! Needless to say, it's a long term project.

Now that all of my quilting bees are done, I joined back up with the do. Good Stitches charity bee and made my first blocks for the "Love" group. Lee designed her own block, "Hexing Around," for this quilt! Totally fun.

It's shaping up to be a good weekend. Rob and I have date night, and then tomorrow I'll be running the 5-mile Run for Women with my marathon team! I feel like I'm getting my sewing groove back too, so maybe I can squeeze something in besides blocks. What will you be up to?

midweek mehs

Why is it always so hard to come back home to reality after vacation? My brain is mush and I have little motivation to do anything. To top it off, it's been a crazy week for the kids and for Rob. Avery and Claire are both performing in the school talent show tonight.

Cooper is really keeping me busy too. After almost being weaned when we were in Hawaii (he only wanted to nurse first thing in the morning-- bliss!), he now follows me around all day crying, "Up!" and signing milk over and over again. I'm back to nursing him four times a day. He also stopped sleeping through the night again. He won't play with toys. But of course the good outweighs the bad. He turned 15 months old on Monday. His vocabulary just keeps growing (Dada, Mama, Sissy, Claire, puff, pat pat, cheese, hi there, bye bye, woof, honk honk, beep beep, Casey, Bubba (his blankie), diaper, Grandpa, etc.) and it's really fun to see him communicate through words and sign (unless it's about milk of course). I love watching him stand up on his own in the middle of the room and clap. He's so proud of himself! He finally took his first steps too on Sunday night, so we're just waiting for more confidence to follow and he'll be walking pretty quickly.

I did manage to rearrange my sewing room the other day and get everything in order. I didn't expect it, but I have so much more room now! I can even iron in there while I work instead of setting up in the laundry room/pass through down the hall. Score!

I've got lots of WIPs (over the couch quilt, patchwork quilt, quilts for the girls' beds) but until I get more free time, I'm starting back slow with things like bee blocks. As a whole, I'm creatively stumped. I know it will pass though. It always does!

Oh, one more thing. While we were gone, Ingrid was featured on Modern Day Quilts! Take a peek.

Ingrid

She's done! I was able to stitch the binding on yesterday afternoon while the kids played around me. Cooper would crawl up to me every so often and tug at my loop of thread so I could say, "Boink!" and then would go play with toys. Pretty awesome and unexpected.

I loved the idea of hand quilting Ingrid, but reality kicked in and I did some loose machine quilting in a grid instead. I backed the quilt with shot cottons and a strip of Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party fabrics. This combo of minimal quilting and the shot cottons makes the quilt soooo soft. It's bound in Kona Snow with a little strip of purple shot cotton on one side.

Ingrid is staying with us as a family quilt. I'm going to pretend that all of that white is a great idea in a home with three kids and two dogs!

bee blocks for February

First, thanks for all of the nice comments about my Ingrid Press inspired quilt in my last post! I'm going to start the quilting tonight, so we'll see how it goes! I originally wanted a flannel back, but since I couldn't find one I liked, I've pieced together some green and blue shot cotton. It will be yummy.

I made two very different sets of bee blocks yesterday. First, some very bright frame-in-a-frame blocks for the Fussy Cut Love Bee. I loved the colors that Vickie chose! All of the fabrics were bright and beautiful.

And in contrast, a very mellow set of blocks for Sorrel's month of Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I love the simplicity of the two fabrics in each block, and it's fun for me to try blocks like these from a pattern. Sorrell assigned everyone a week from Crazy Mom Quilts' Star Quilt Along (mine was week three) and asked us to do a setting block as well.

Both very different, but very fun to do.

a new favorite

I sewed up my Ingrid-Press-inspired quilt top from the blocks I received from the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I received 20 blocks from the members and made 10 of my own to finish it out.

I love it.

A special thanks to Avery and Claire for being my quilt top holders, keeping it off the dog haired floors while I searched all over for the camera. Even though it made their arms tired. I love them too.

My goal is to have this one quilted up before Friday, and get the binding sewn on over the weekend. I can't wait!

finally caught up

I am finally 100% caught up on my quilting bee commitments! Phew! I hate being late, but that's the way I seem to be these days.

Dresden Plates for Valerie

Square-in-Square blocks from vintage sheets for Sharon

Purple and blue Cross Blocks for Natalie

and a simple log cabin block for Jean.

Now off to chase this little munchkin...

Have a great weekend!

for the birds

First, I must mention that I was so flattered to be featured on Jodi's amazing blog, Pleasant Home, on Monday. I feel so flattered! If someone had told me when I started this blog almost a year ago that I would have so many people reading and saying such nice things about what I make, I never would have believed it.  Expect a blogiversary giveaway to celebrate all of this next week!

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My pink and green bird quilt, made of blocks from members of my Fussy Cut Love Bee, is complete! The members of my bee were so creative with the IKEA bird fabric and black, white, and green color palette. Of course once I had everything laid out, I thought the colors I chose were too limited. The blocks seemed to get lost in their togetherness. I added raspberry shot cotton sashing, and suddenly all of the individual blocks started to pop.

The quilting is pretty haphazard. I started it during a 5 a.m. sewing session when everyone else in my house was sleeping, and my brain was still processing my morning coffee. So I just went for it, and did a different something in each individual block. The inside sashes have some loopty loops, and the outside has my new favorite free-motion design-- hills. The come off as scallops on a border like this, which is kind of fun. In typical fashion, I was not loving the quilting as I was doing it, but a quick wash and dry made everything good. Of course I may never again do quilting with so many stops and starts-- burying all of the thread ends took FOREVER.

The backing is a polka dot flannel sheet from Target. Cozy and perfect for snuggling-- which is good, because we're keeping this one.

Happy Wednesday! Hope you're having a good one.

back in the saddle

I've been in a total sewing funk. I totally fell out of my groove once the holidays were done. After not even setting foot in my sewing room for almost a week, I forced myself to go in and just do SOMETHING. Anything. And what could be better than overdue bee blocks?

The first are for Bee Liberated:

And these are for the do. Good Stitches charity bee:

I also just opened up a package of new fabric from Purl Soho, thanks to a couple of generous Christmas gift cards from family. (Thank you Rita!) There's Liberty! Nani Iro! Lecien stripes! And yes, even a bit of Greenfield Hill. I originally didn't plan to buy any of this new line. But then I felt like I needed those small prints, and they do not disappoint!

With all of this great new stuff, I think I feel some of my mojo returning... and just in time, because I've got things just itching to get done. Stay tuned!

I chose sanity

Remember when I was planning to do the Caesar's Crown block for my Bee Mental 3 x 6 quilting bee? I never did figure out how to insert in those crazy pieces. I know now that getting templates for a block does not necessarily mean I'll get instructions for it too.

So I chose to keep my sanity and made these Crossed Canoe blocks instead. Straight cuts, simple piecing instructions, and awesome color choices from my fellow bee sisters made it fun and easy!

(Is anyone else having problems with photos looking fuzzy after they get uploaded to Blogger? Click on the photo if you want to see it more clearly.)

two very different bee blocks

After finishing up a sewing commitment yesterday (I'll share it down the road at some point!), I decided to get caught up on bee blocks during Cooper's nap this morning.

First, these liberated X and O blocks for Bee Liberated:

As most of you probably know, these are my kinds of blocks! No measuring, just some sewing and cutting, and everything eventually comes together. The next ones were a different story though. A member of my Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee requested these star blocks. I don't do patterns well, as precision sewing isn't one of my best skills. But she had precut the fabrics and they came together easily! So easily that I'm saving the instructions in case I might want to try these with more modern fabrics.

Ah, feels good to cross things off the list!

WIPs- bee quilts

Okay, I was disappointed to read the comments from my last post saying that no one else had experienced my unfortunate urp in the mouth. Rob admitted it happened to him. But on to the quilting...

First up-- my quilt top for my Fussy Cut Love Bee. I got some incredible wonky blocks from the members of my group, and I was happy at the time that I was using a very limited palette. But when I put the blocks together, each individual one was lost. White sashing, not practical. Adding more green made things, well, too green.

So last night I decided I would sash it in this incredible raspberry shot cotton. It's crazy, but I like it!

Next up, my quilt for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee. I'm still waiting on a few blocks, but am loving where this is going. I'm planning to make extras and make it really, really big. It's based on this quilt by Ingrid Press. The woman is amazing.

And last but not least, I'm gathering blocks up for Rachel's do.Good Stitches charity bee. She has gathered a group of amazing quilters who are putting together blocks in a green and blue square-in-a-square style, which are being sent to me for finishing out into the final quilt. I'm only showing a sneak peek because I have other blocks received that eluded me in the sewing room. I should have all of the blocks by the end of the month, then it will be on my priority list of finishes. It will then go out to a special kid who really needs it. Awesome stuff, and I'm so glad to be a part of it.

This weekend I'll be attending the first sew-in for the Anchorage Modern Quilt Guild. Five hours of sewing, away from distractions? I'll take it! We'll see what gets done. Have a great fall weekend!