3 Months...Really?

Wow - I cannot believe that I haven't posted in 3 months, almost to the day!  I have excuses!  Good ones!  First, we moved across the country.  Second, we bought a house, but didn't close on it until just about a month ago.  I had my sewing machine with me, but I was living at my mom's house, and got some sewing done, just not a lot.  Then we moved in.  We've been unpacking, unpacking, unpacking.  I started the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild, and we had our first meeting.  Had a yard sale.  Took a trip to New Englad to see my brother-in-law get married.  Oh yeah, and I've been growing a baby.

Is that enough?  I hope so.

Anyways, I thought this would be a catch up post, mostly about my bee blocks.

At the July meeting of the LAMQG (which was my last), Liberty gave everyone in our bee fabrics for her month.  It was Christmas in July, and I was excited!  Christmas blocks back-to-back!  Anyways, she sent us quite the array of holidayish fabrics, and asked for only one block, and one optional block (with two options).  I think we all ended up making 3 for her, which was great!  The first was a Christmas tree block...

One of the options for the optional block was a Denyse Schmidt-style improv...

Then the other optional block was just any kind of Christmas theme.  There's a story behind this one for me.  This was the block I was most excited about.  I came up with this great idea to do a Christmasy fireplace scene.  Sketched it out and everything.  That was before the move.  Then, when I got to Florida, and was about to start sewing, I checked Flickr, and realized that Natalie had done basically the exact scene I had drawn!  You can see hers here.  I'm not saying mine would've looked nearly as good as Natalie's did, but I didn't want to do the same idea.  So I freaked out!  I really wanted to do this third block, but just didn't have any ideas! 

I finally just decided to let the fabric speak to me.  And it totally did!  I thought that this one particular fabric looked like gumdrops.  Which made me think of a gingerbread house.  Libby has a thing for houses, so I thought this would be great.  But I didn't know if I could execute it.  I wanted the icing on the trim of the house and everything.  I thought, and sketched, and practiced, until I came up with the block!  I really like this block, and I'm proud for pushing myself the way I did, instead of just giving up.

So that was July.

August came, and I waited patiently for Blossom's fabrics.  I was happy to see this beautiful arrangement of orange and pink fabrics!  She wanted us to assemble a string block, which was my first time paper-piecing.  I loved doing this block, and all I could think of was how cool this would look in Christmas colors.  So, if I'm still in this bee next round, that's what I'll be requesting.

Then September came.  September...

We closed on our house the middle of the month.  I think I got Yolanda's fabrics right before the closing, so I wasn't able to start on them then.  Then came the unpacking (which we're still doing), and the Guild, and the yard sale, and the New England trip.  No.Time.To.Sew.  In the meantime, I also got Lori's fabrics for October.  This is exactly what I didn't want to happen! 

We got back from our trip this past Wednesday, and I wanted to start on these ASAP, but by the time evening came around, I was wiped out.  So today (Sunday), I told my husband I need the afternoon to sew, sew, sew.  And that's what I did!  I got Yolanda's and Lori's blocks done.

Yolanda's were a lot of fun for me.  First of all, and I don't mean this in a bad way, they required very little thinking.  After everything I've been doing lately, and with this baby sucking brain cells out of my head, it was a nice little break for me.  I also really loved the fabrics she chose.  This quilt will be for her nephew, and I think it's just so much fun!  She asked for two garden fence blocks.

Then came Lori's blocks for October.  Which means with this finished, I'm officially caught up, and early!  And thanks to our bee taking November and December off, I'm done until January!  Anyways, this block was fun for me.  First of all - that Joel Dewberry fabric.  I've had my eye on that ever since it came out, but had no reason to buy it.  So it was fun to work with it.  Also, and this is why I love being in a bee, I would never have put these fabrics together.  And a part of me thought that Lori was crazy for sending me the assortment she did.  But the other part of me, the part that knows Lori, and knows she knows what she's doing (did I say that right?) knew it would all come together nicely.  And it did!  My husband even commented on how cool he thought it looked.  I definitely scolded the part of me that doubted Lori. 

She asked for an 18" square-in-square, not to wonky, block.

So that's about it!  I've done some other sewing here and there.  My Pillow Talk {Swap} pillow is almost done, so I'll blog about that when it is.