I'm Still Here!

In the past few weeks, I've had a realization - those bloggers that are super popular, have tons of followers, and post every day...AND HAVE KIDS...they're my new heroes.  I seriously don't know how they do it.  With my new taxi-driver-mom lifestyle, I'm finding it hard to do a lot of things.  Blogging is one of them.  I am finding time to sew, just not time to write about my sewing!  So I thought I'd just do a quick post showing some of the things I've recently made.  And by recently, I mean, in the last couple months.

First up is a bee block for Natalie.  She asked for wonky stars with these beautiful orange fabrics.  She said the block could only have one star, or multiple stars.  So I went with three.  I've never made a wonky star before, but I had been wanting to so badly, so I'm glad I had this "excuse."

Next are the items I made for the Modernista Homemade Kitchen Swap.  My partner was Karen, and she asked for pretty much anything.  She said she likes color combinations like blue and green or yellow and gray.  I went with the yellow and gray (obviously) and made her a table runner/kitchen mat, kitchen towel, and potholder.

Here's the back of the pot holder.  I used Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial.

I also finished up these two quilts.

I also made this fall pillow.  If you've followed my blog for a while, this may look familiar to you.  It was part of a QAL, and started out as a quilt for my second daughter.  I wasn't able to finish it as a twin size (which is what the QAL was for), so I finished the quilt at the size I stopped at and made a baby quilt for my friend's daughter.  I still had all these strips of squares left over, so I made a pillow out of them.

I also made this laundry bag version of Jeni B.'s drawstring bag out of Valori Wells' "Nest" collection.

Those last few items, I made for a craft fair that I participated in over the weekend.  They didn't sell, so they're now listed in my etsy shop.

Now this may seem like a lot of stuff, and some of my friends with small kids ask me how I do so much.  But really, I work very slowly.  What you're seeing are things that I've worked on gradually over a few months.  I rarely ever just crank something out quickly.  But that's okay!  You know why?  Because these people are the reason I can't crank something out, and the reason I haven't been blogging much.  I love them all so much, and I wouldn't change anything about my life right now!

Bee Happy 2011-2012

I've been kind of slacking when it comes to posting about the blocks I make for Bee Happy, but we just finished (are finishing) this round!  This was my first bee experience, and I have to say it's been fantastic!  The girls in this bee are just amazing.  Period.  Out of all of us, I'm probably the least when it comes to using words, so I'll just leave it at this - I am blessed to be a part of this group, and I'm so thankful that Melissa convinced me to join last year.

Here are the most recent blocks I've made...

Alison sent all of us scraps of lovely vintage sheets and asked for two word blocks - one with our name, and the other with a word that reminds us of her, of the LAMQG, or of Bee Happy.  For that block, I chose to do "LAMQG," since that's how I know Alison.  I used Kelly B.'s wonky alphabet paper pieced pattern.

And last, but not least, Melissa asked for some Mod Mosaic blocks to help her complete this WiP.  As a person with a lot of WiPs, I really loved and appreciated this idea!  She assigned me one green block and one red block.  Here's my green:

And my red:

I've done a few of these blocks before, and they weren't my favorite.  My seam ripper and I usually spent a lot of time together whenever I attempted these in the past.  I'm happy to say that I didn't have to rip out one seam this time!  I think it finally clicked!  I'm really proud, particularly, of that green block.  I have an affinity for polka dots, and the color green, and I realized that I have several green polka dotted fabrics.  I also love Echino, and I only have a small piece of that glasses fabric left, but was more than happy to use it for this block.  I also like that little cupcake.  That block is me.

Anyways, I'm not going to go back and blog about all the blocks I didn't blog about along the way, but here's a mosaic that shows blocks that I made for every month of this Bee Year.

1. My door and window blocks, 2. Katie's Rainbow Tree and Christmas Tree blocks, 3. Libby's Christmas in July blocks, 4. Blossom's String block, 5. Yolanda's Garden Fence blocks, 6. Lori's Drunk Love block, 7. Janice's Circle and Triangle (not pictured) blocks, 8. Rosanna's Asian Heart block, 9. Natalie's Bookshelf block, 10. Nicole's Gees Bend block, 11. Alison's Word blocks, 12. Melissa's Mod Mosaic Block.

We're jumping right back into it, and I have the first month of the year again, which is August.  I'm so excited to be a part of this amazing group of women again!  Stay tuned for another year of Bee Happy goodness!

January Bee Blocks

The bee that I'm in (Bee Happy) took a break in November and December, but now that it's the New Year, we're back at it!  This is Janice's month, and she started out the year with a bang!  She wanted two blocks, one using trianlges and one featuring a large scrappy circle set in a square.  She sent us an assortment of Hope Valley to use for the blocks.  Here are mine...

First up is the triangle block.  I debated and went back and forth - I don't know how many times - on which block to use.  I went to Pinterest to try to get some inspiration, and saw this block several times.

It looked like something I wanted to try, especially since I had very little of a solid, and this looked like it would accommodate what I had (the white in this block). 

So when I followed the link, I realized that Jeni, from In Color Order was doing a half-square triangle block of the month, and this was the January block.  Since I've been in kind of a triangle mood lately, I decided that I might just have to do these blocks on my own, as well!  But we'll see how that goes.  I have a layer cake of Half Moon Modern that I've been wondering what to do with, and this just might be the very thing!  But like I said, we'll see.

Anyways, I set to work on this block, and I really love the way it turned out!  I had just enough of the solid to make it.  In fact, the scraps leftover from the solid were too small for me to use in the circle block!

So yeah, onto the circle block.  I was pretty scared about it!  I've done circles before, but this one was going to be using a different method.  When I decided how I wanted the scrappy layout of the circle to look, I started cutting a lot of strips of different sizes (smallest was 3/4" and the biggest was about 2 1/2"), and laying them out in a pattern.  When it came time to actually sew the circle into the square, I was nervous, but I just bit the bullet and did it.  I was going by this tutorial for setting a circle into a dresden.  Got almost done pinning it, but when I got to the end, there was a big clump of the white fabric left.  So I kind of started to panic.

I just took a few deep breaths, decided to take all the pins out (which I wasn't happy about, because that took a long time!), and took a different approach...

I folded the circle in half both in directions to give me a visible crease to go by.  Lined up those creases with the seams in the white fabric, and pinned 4 pins where the seams and creases met.

Then went about pinning in between each pin, which really spread out that clump of fabric.  Between each pin, I allowed myself a little slack with the white fabric.  Once it came time to sew it together, I still had to do some easing in, but it all came together really well! 

So that's it!  I'm glad I'm not behind on anything, because this baby could literally come any day now!

I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday on Canoe Ridge Creations!  Check out what other people are working on!

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.  

Long Time, No Post!

In regards to my last post, and going to Japan...the long and short of it is that we didn't go.  We were supposed to take a military flight (called Space Available) from Seattle to Japan.  But, just as the name indicates, that's only if they have space available on the flight.  And they didn't.  Oh well!  We got to take a tour of the Pacific Northwest, which turned out to be a great little vacation for us. 

And as a nice bonus, I happened to be in Portland on the night of the June meeting for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild!  Yes, that's right, I'm so addicted dedicated to the MQG, that as we were driving down to Portland, I checked to see when their meeting was.  In all honesty, I didn't want to go, because that's just way too out of my comfort zone - driving around a city I don't know, walking into a group of quilters that I don't know, etc.  But my husband was really encouraging me to go.  I'm so glad he did, because as soon as I walked in, I felt right at home.  These were my people!  I got to meet Monica of The Happy Zombie, which was awesome.  Her blog is one of the first I started following, so it really was an honor to meet her.  Really, the Portland Guild is just packed full of talent, and I was so glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone, listened to my husband, and went.  It was a great experience!

As soon as I got back from my trip, I went to work on Katie's blocks for Bee Happy Round 2.  She asked for two blocks - one Christmas tree block, in either red or aqua (she sent me red), and one any-kind-of-tree block in rainbow colors (she sent me orange).

I did the Christmas tree block first, and this is what I came up with...

But I thought it was missing something.  So I went back and free motioned some stars over the trees...

And here's my orange tree...(I feel like it looks really bumpy in this picture...I made the mistake of ironing it after I was done, and it put all those ripples in it.  I'm hoping after it's pieced and quilted and washed, that part won't be noticeable.)

I free motioned the tree trunk, and completely borrowed the idea from Rachel's Mosaic Tree from Stitched In Color, although hers is much better!

To say that I've second-guessed myself with these blocks and questioned if they're good enough, is quite the understatement!  Panicked is more like it!  This is the first time I've done blocks for someone else, and I didn't really expect all the insecurity.

But I think I just have to be okay with it.  I told myself when I first started sewing and quilting that I wouldn't be paralyzed by my insecurities, so even though I don't think they're perfect, and I can pick out every flaw, I'm leaving them alone.  For now.

Bee Happy - May

I said a while back that I joined my first bee - it's the second round of Bee Happy.  I decided to just go ahead, jump right in, and take the first month, even though I kind of don't know what I'm doing.

I had started collecting some of the McKenzie line from Dena Designs months ago.  I knew I wanted to use it for a quilt for my bed, but didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with it.  Then I joined the bee, so I figured I would use it for that!

But as far as what I wanted, I still didn't know. 

Then I was watching Monsters, Inc. with my oldest daughter, and there's a scene with a warehouse full of doors.  So it hit me that it would be super cool to have everyone in the bee to a door!  House blocks are pretty popular, but I had never seen door blocks!  So I went on Flickr, and sure enough, door blocks had been done.  But that didn't make me not want to do it - if anything, it pushed me more to do it, because the blocks I saw were super cool!

In this particular bee, it's pretty standard to do 2 blocks, so I still didn't know what I wanted to do for that second block.  I was talking to Ramona about it, and she said, "What about a window block?" 

I loved the idea!

So that's what I'm going with.

Here are my blocks, which I'm going to be honest, I'm not totally over the moon about.  I like them, but I feel like they're pretty simple.  So I may end up changing them later.

That being said, I can't WAIT to see what everyone makes!  Here's all the fabric packaged up and ready to go...

PS - Did you know I was having a giveaway?  Check out this post.