2BB (Two Bee Blocks) Part 2

Got two more bee blocks to share.  This one took a little time & patience.  I also switched around some fabrics and changed my mind twice, but fiddling around with the placement and fabric choices really paid off and helped this star shine!

The block is called Supernova and the tutorial is found here.  After sewing together the first two pieces unsuccessfully lining up the angles, I basted all the other seams before permanently sewing them together.

The next block is a modern house.  We could pick whatever design we wanted to make in a specific color palette (green, gray, orange), so I looked around online and settled on trying to mimic the lines of this house.  I wish I had tried to make it more two dimensional, but hey, it’s done and looks like the photo.

Have a great weekend!

I’ve created a monster!

For Christmas, Bea got a Janome DC1050 and the book Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts from Santa. 

She and I marked the quilting lines with a washable pen. I was a little worried that since it sat around 2 weeks before she actually quilted it that the blue marks wouldn’t wash out. But they did!

Santa also brought two doll clothes books that came with instructional DVDs.  We sewed this dress on Christmas day.

I love the little appliqued daisies with button centers.

According to Bea’s first grade teacher, she writes about sewing in her morning journal nearly every single day.  And these came home in her folder in January.  Of course I saved them!

I’m not sure what one person would do with 100 sewing machines, but it sounds good to me!  I love the little drawing of a sewing machine she put at the bottom.

My husband jokes that one day “the student shall become the master.”

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.  Have a great weekend and hope you get lots of sewing done!

MQG Madrona Road Challenge

This is the quilted pillow I made with the Madrona Road fabric provided by Michael Miller for The Modern Quilt Guild’s challenge.  You can see all the amazing projects here.

For the pattern I used the freezer paper method with templates.  Each block has 2 y-seams which was a first for me.  I used black, cream, and light gray Perle cotton to hand quilt inside each star.  Then I also quilted in the ditch with my machine.

The finished pillow measures 19” x 21”.  Have a fantastic Friday and weekend!  Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.

Finish It Up Friday

I just started a new project a few nights ago and already have the top almost finished!

My husband and kids helped me lay out all the blocks last night.  It was truly a family affair which was kind of fun.  It was also interesting to hear my husband talking about what he likes in quilts.  Turns out, it’s a lot like what he likes in ties, which is not really my style.  I also took photos of how I keep my layout straight in my mind.

I put a tiny post-it on the left-most block in the row.  Then I stack them all from left to right and pin the post-it through all the layers.

Then I can transport and store all the blocks in my sewing room without the fear that my kids will trample them and mix up the order.  One thing I have not figured out, though, is how to chain stitch in order.  My brain just cannot do it.  In fact, although I *always* stack from left to right, I still write “L-R”  on the sticky note just to keep my brain straight and avoid any panic attacks!

I also thought I’d share one of my bee blocks for September.  I am glad that month is over.  Both bee blocks I had to make were paper-pieced which is not my favorite.  Bea really liked this design, so maybe a similar quilt is in my future, but these blocks that use strips seem to use twice as much fabric as the finished product which kind of aggravates me, although they are pretty.

On a totally unrelated note, my kids are really into these Bizu bracelets.  Have your daughters seen them at school yet?  My daughter is in first grade and all the kids seem to have them.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  I am off to get some exercise on this beautiful day.  I have lost over 30 pounds since May.

Have a wonderful day!

Over the weekend

I worked on a couple projects and got two items ticked off my list.  First up is my Stash Bee block for Cindy who is making a Quilt of Valor to donate.  The block is paper pieced, so I picked up a pack of Carol Doak’s foundation paper right away and then procrastinated until the last moment to do it.  Boy, it was tough, but once I got the hang of it, I got a teensy bit better at it although I still made a mistake roughly 1 out of 2 times…lol!  It took a lot of fabric to make this star.

Last week I also finished up a quick table runner for my daughter’s previous preschool’s silent auction.  I’ve donated one every year for the past 3 years with different themes, so this year I decided to go with red, white, and blue.

It turned out nicely and my little tag looks good on the backing.

Finally, I have all the rows sewn together for my Aneela Hooey Medley quilt and some joined together at this point.  The quilt is looking uber cute, but then Esther decided she wants a different quilt with wild animals on it (I think the line is Moda’s In the Woods), so we have already made over half the blocks for that one now, too.   I wonder if Ronnie will get her first big girl quilt, or will Esther try to finagle a way to get two quilts???  We’ll see…

It was a great weekend for quilting here in southern Maryland…hope you did, too!

Charmed Prints QAL

Do you start with fabric or start with a pattern first?  I definitely start with fabric!  In fact, you might say I have a little too much.  I joined the Japanese Charm Swap here on Gen X Quilters which was a lot of fun.  Then when a charm pack quilt along came up, I thought the pattern was unique and that I’d give it a go.  But then I got stuck.  I didn’t know what fabric to use (I didn’t feel inspired to use the Japanese charms), and I certainly didn’t want to buy any considering what the shelves in my office look like!

The quilt along started quite a while ago, but I only got my game on during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I’ve made all the “special” blocks for the pattern, a few extra in fact, and I did *ahem* place an emergency fabric order on Fabric.com on Wednesday—butterflies and hearts!-- so I have two more pieces coming my way that I am going to use for a few additional special blocks, but for the most part, all the hard work is done. 

It took a while for the inspiration to hit, but I started with two blocks, picking fabric from my stash and fussy cutting the centers before I got on a roll.  I just picked things I thought Esther (my middle daughter) would like, and then she helped pick out fabric she liked, too.  Her older sister Bea has gobs of quilts I’ve made for her, although she feels a little miffed whenever I’m working on something not for her!

The best news?  I was thinking I’d need to go through and cut a bunch of charms from my stash.  Then I remembered that when I first started reading blogs, I entered a giveaway and WON!!!  It was the first giveaway I’d ever entered, and I was a bit skeptical.  But then a package came in the mail containing two charm packs and a layer cake!  I still have one of the charm packs.  I’ve looked at it enough that the paper band holding it together is missing now, so I’m not sure of the name, but the colors are pretty and, more importantly, even though it’s not totally matchy-matchy with my special blocks, a little white sashing is going to make them look great together!!!!  My special blocks have some lavender in them, so I’ll need to augment the charms with a few purples, but other than that, I’m ready to go on to the next step, making the quilt top, the directions tba on Tuesday.

I’m linking this up to Love Affair With My Brother this week.