I've been stung!!

By a Bee...

Accidentally....

I had absolutely no plans to join anything this summer!

never mind my first EVER Bee!!

Eeek!

Sana and Janine who I "met" from Lynne's Small Blog Meet, are both in it, so I though it would be so much fun!

This Bee is all about doing one block a month for another member about something that represents your country!

May is the organizer...

Star Of Africa

Confessions of a Fabraholic

I'm not sure when it will start, so if you are interested, check it out and sign up!

Now, I have to start thinking of ideas that represent Canada!

Maple leaf, beaver, geese, hockey, curling, polar bear,moose,snowplow!,water,igloo....

Hope to see you as we travel around the world!

WIP Wednesday

Wednesday!

How do I love thee...

I'm feeling pretty darn pleased with a couple of finishes this week.

#1

It's no secret, as I've mentioned a hundred times, I loved doing the Sew Out Loud QAL!!

12 blocks all  by different amazing and extremely talented designers.

I completed my blocks and joined them with a narrow black sashing, a little outline quilting, black and white stripe binding...

and,

TA DA!

Now I get to look at it every day in my sewing room.

Mostly I am noticing all the wonky mistakes!!

But, that will pass and then I will just remember all the fun I had and the paper piecing lessons I have learned.

I am already planning to do a couple of the entry blocks submitted in the contest for the final block!

#2

My wallet is in tatters!
Well, actually I threw it out ages ago and have been using zippered pouches!

I desperately needed a new one...

found this great tutorial at Confessions of a Fabricaholic.

I did a "test run" first!!

Do you do that too??

It turned out well, but I decided to add a heavy interfacing to the exterior piece of my new pretty "real" wallet.

;

Love it!

And no, that is not fake money  ;-)

 I will still keep most of my coinage in this framed pouch I made a while back...

#3
I've been working fast and furiously using up my bundle of Summersville.
Such a great fabric line from Lu Summers.
So I made a couple of large 24" cushions for my couch.
The first one I showed you last week, so here is the second one...

 I used a tutorial from Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts for this easy zig zag pattern.
I did re-size the pattern to make it more cushion friendly. I could have made them even smaller to have more rows, but I wasn't going to redo it!!
And again, added an invisible zipper and pieced backing.
Here are the two of them playing nice together...
they are now on my couch!

#4
I really like Jeni's tutorial at In Color Order, for her lined drawstring bag!
I'm sure you have seen all over blogland, and probably made some yourself!
I made a few this week for auction with proceeds going to The Canadian Cancer Society.
Relay for Life is in a couple of weeks, and unfortunately I won't be here for it.

So, those are my finishes. On my WIP list is:
Ocean View, which I really plan to finish quilting this week!
Also, Ironwork*, which I have NO plans to start quilting this week!
Too many UFO"s to mention!!
Maybe someday I will get to them :-(
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced
and
Monika at The Needle and Thread Network.
Have a great sewing week!

WIP Wednesday

Yikes! 

We are getting a ton of rain! Good thing I got my yard work done on the week-end.

Which now leaves me free to catch up on my sewing projects.

I have one finish....

This is another of the Swoon blocks I did a couple month ago.

I wanted to practice my FMQ, so I decided to pick one of the blocks and do a lot of dense quilting...

For some reason I put it away, and kinda forgot about it.

Luckily, I found it this week and finished it off!

Bound and hung on the wall!

Love how the back looks too!

*****

I have my Sew Out Loud blocks all joined and I'm in the process

of quilting it...

Should be done by next week.

*****

My love of Summersville continues.

After I finished From Summersville to New York..

    I continued cutting fabric for new cushions for the sofa...

They are 24"

I have only done one so far...

I quilted the front and put in an invisible zipper.

I don't think I'll do the second one identical..

All those freakin' hst's!!

maybe chevron or something similar.

Any suggestions?

*****

I am a bit disappointed in myself for not doing any more quilting on Ocean View, but maybe this week if it keeps raining!!
So, all that's left to do is show you a couple of photos of "the girls" Sheriti & Kissa

 Time to link up to Lee at Freshly Pieced
&
Monika at TN&TN.
Have a great sewing week! 

Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry

This looked like so much fun, I thought I'd give it a try!

So...
My entry is a lap quilt which I recently completed called
Path To Tallahassee.

I actually started this in the beginning of January, but it took ages to do.
I used the foundation block called Tallahassee, and then use the Drunkard's Path die and a Go!baby cutter to do the flower blocks.

My fabrics were mostly Aunt Grace Circle of Friends 1930's reproduction fabric. A few other pieces of fabric were thrown in as well.
I thought the reproduction fabric really complimented the Tallahassee block.

 All of the background fabric is white linen.
I finally finished this quilt which now measures 56"x63"
It is bound in white linen.
Quilting was done by me on my home machine.
Mostly straight lines with a leaf motif on the side borders.

The

backing is pieced with leftover fabrics used in the quilt.

Hope you like it!

You can enter too!
Just go and visit Amy for the details. 
you can also check out the entries in the Flickr group.

WIP Wednesday

As the temperatures warm up, I find myself less inclined to spend too much time sewing, but I did manage to complete a couple of projects this week.

Sadly, the Sew Out Loud QAL has come to a conclusion with the final block instructions posted last week.

 Naturally, it wouldn't be a block of mine without something wonky about it!

The needle hole should look a whole lot better than that!

But, what the heck...I'm leaving it alone.

Now I just need to join together the 12 finished blocks, quilt them, and get them hung on the wall in my sewing room.

*****

For the second project I completed this week, I used the new fabric collection, Summersville.

A couple months ago there was a New York Beauty QAL which I joined and then abandoned after only doing 2 blocks.

I loved the blocks, but didn't have a clear idea what I was doing with them!

It wasn't until I saw a table runner by Lee here at Freshly Pieced, that I knew what I wanted to do.  Thanks Lee!

So, here is my New York by way of Summersville!

 These are some beautiful fabrics and make a great summer

project!

I think I'll also use it to make some new pillows.

*****

Finally the thread I've been waiting for has arrived and I can get back to quilting Ocean View and Ironwork*.

I'm linking up with Lee and Monika today.

Hope everyone has a great sewing week. 

 

WIP Wednesday

I haven't posted a WIP for a couple of weeks, so I had to look back at what I had actually done!

More that I thought, it appears!

Sew Out Loud QAL....

Block#10 is designed by Melinda @ Quirky Granola Girl.

A fabulous block to do and used alot of tiny fabric pieces. I didn't embroider the needle but instead used a needle from a package of buttons!

Block #11 designed by Krista Withers.

I love this block, but had the stupid  bright stupid idea to try my hand at writing some text with FMQ!!!   Duh!! This is a photo of my second attempt, and I have decided to take it out and just use a whole panel! What was I thinking????

I sure do love those teacups with the spools of thread!

We have only one more block to do before the QAL is finished.

I'm so sad about that.

Loved doing this so much.

*****

My big finish is a quilt called Path to Tallahassee which I started way back at the beginning of January.  For this one I used the Tallahassee block(found at quilterscache) which is foundation paper pieced, and the flower block cut with my Go!baby and the Drunkard's Path die.

I love this quilt so much!

I used mostly reproduction 1930's fabric- Aunt Grace Circle of Friends. All the white is linen.

It measures 56" x 63"

The backing is just randomly pieced with leftover fabric.

  For the quilting I did straight lines, and just a bit of a leaf design on the sides.

*****

My third completed projects are 2 box pouches using the tutorial by Kaelin @ The Plaid Scottie.

The first one I use a really cute Japanese print and made it  an inch wider than the tutorial.

The second one I made quite a bit larger because I want to use it for shampoo etc for traveling.

I also lined it with laminate (a first for me!)

As you can see, it is quite a bit larger because I used a 14" zipper and wanted to use the full length of it!

The laminate was the only pattern available at my LQS!

Not too bad to work with actually. It did seems to stretch a bit as I was sewing! I used a tip from someone, somewhere and put tape on the bottom of the sewing foot. So, there wasn't any sticking. I do wish I had interfaced the Melody Miller fabric with something a bit more substantial than medium weight fusible cotton....maybe fusible fleece would have worked. It seems a bit floppy with the weight of the laminate. However, once it's full of stuff, it won't matter I guess!

*****

My last project to show is partially quilted, as I ran out of thread and had to order more... hate when that happens!!

Patiently waiting in the wings for it's turn to be quilted is Ironwork* 

  okay, that's all folks!

Whew!

Linking up with Lee and Monika.

Have fun sewing. 

 

A Happy Finish!

I wasn't expecting to actually finish this quilt this week, but because I ran out of thread for the quilt I had planned to work on, it turned out to be a happy finish!!

I started this quilt way back in January. In fact it was the first start of the new year!

The fabric is mostly Aunt Grace Circle of Friends 1930's reproduction fabric, and white linen.

The Tallahassee blocks are foundation pieced, and the flower blocks are made with the Drunkard's Path die and a Go!baby cutter.

I didn't have a layout planned, so when I got tired of making blocks, I just stopped....

tossed them up on my design wall...

and pieced them together!

I had an extra Tallahassee block, so I took it apart and put one section in each corner. Very scientific!!

I spent waaay too much time thinking about binding, and in the end I just used white linen!

 The back is pieced with leftover fabric.

 Straight line quilted.

The finished quilt is 56" x 61".