Starting the new year off with a quilting bee

I accidentally joined two online bees this year.  I meant to join one, but somehow I found myself as the January block person for a different bee too!  I thought they were the same bee, but in fact, they are hosted by two different people on two different blogs.  How did I let that happen?  Children, I’m sure.  Not being able to focus for more than a few seconds before somebody needs me!  Anyway, this should be interesting!

So I was really sweatin’ my fabric choices for January since this is my first bee and I’m the first to pick.  Then, this beautiful quilt came across in my reader and I was smitten!  It is made by Melissa Burt and posted on the Connecting Threads blog, Notions.   The quilt is called “Wonkytown.”

I went ahead and bought some fabric for the border and back since it was still technically 2011 (for 2012, I have resolved to spend less time looking at fabric online—and buying it—and more time sewing). 

The fabric is by Anthology.  I think it’s called Woodlands. 

I made three tree/house blocks just to see how easy/difficult it was and give better guidance in my preferences for the block.  It was a bit of a challenge to make the blocks,  but I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  I did my first ever embroidery (if you can even call it that) on the sun’s rays in this block:

When I showed it to my husband, he said, “Isn’t it a little asymmetrical?”  Ha ha, men just don’t understand!

Then I tried another tree block, and this time made it night.

The fox sleeping in the bush isn’t quite what I envisioned.  The two snow-ball corners of the bush got cut off in the seam allowance, but overall it is an acceptable block.  I plan to put it in a pieced back.

Then I made a house block:

This one turned out pretty good I think.  I tried to make it on a hill and that’s how it looks to me.

I can’t wait to see what my other bee members come up with!  Melissa, who made the original quilt, hung it on the wall in her daughter’s bedroom.  I was thinking that might be a nice thing to do with this quilt as well since Bea and Esther are moving to a new bedroom this year.  It is much bigger than their old one.

On a personal note…I have been having unbelievable urges to have another baby!  I joke about it all the time, but there is literally a jumbled pile of exersaucers, bumbos, boppies, and a swing at the bottom of our stairs by the front door ready for me to pass on to another person…and it’s been sitting there at least 2 months!  I guess I am not ready to call it quits yet.  The only problem is that I have been having trouble sleeping lately and now take a prescription to sleep.  In November my husband went on a business trip and was gone about a week.  I literally did not sleep for almost 4 days and had to go to urgent care when he returned to get medical intervention!!!!  It turns out that I was taking real Sudafed for a cold, and whatever the active ingredient is, it was making me jittery and unable to sleep.  So, since then I’ve been taking Ambien.  A few nights I haven’t, but usually I am so nervous when I go to bed that I won’t be able to fall asleep that I can’t fall asleep unless I take the prescription.  It is such a dumb problem, but I certainly don’t know how to get around this.

I counted, and I have 7 quilt tops finished that have not been basted or quilted yet.  I am going to see how many I can get finished in January.  I am not going to start any new quilts until they are all completed.  They are:  Greek cross, charmed prints, Chinese coins, Valentine’s quilt, my dad’s flannel quilt, my mom’s denim quilt, and a new one I have almost completed, Little Leaves.   Oh,  and I just remembered,  I have a flannel quilt I made for Bea two or three years ago that I never got around to finishing.  This quilt is huge!  I think it will need to be tied instead of quilted.  So, that makes 8 quilts to finish up first!

Here’s to a happy new year!