Worker Bee

I love sewing and making quilts.  I take a long time to finish projects because I am a procrastinator and have questionable time management skills.  I want to make everything, all at once.  That's where joining bees comes in.

Over the last year and a half I have been in three different bees.  All three had different guidelines, group members and focus.

I was challenged to improve my paper piecing skills,

purchased fabrics that I normally didn't look at twice and made blocks that I thought I wanted to use for quilts and then realized that one or two blocks were enough for me.

I like the idea of deadlines ( a good idea for procrastinators) and I like having small finishes.  I always included a personal note and felt good after a trip to the post office.

Now that my third bee is winding to a close, I am reflecting on whether to join another.  These bees have given me challenges and food for thought.

In one bee, we lost a member early on, and I received all my blocks.

In another bee, we started with 12 or 13 members and I have received from five members.

In the final bee, we lost members, and it still took months to get blocks from everyone.

I should also mention that I joined a few quilt alongs, which, I'm still doing even though the events are long over.  I do work best with deadlines and perhaps if I didn't have too much going on, I might even meet one or two.

I learned that I have to say no, evaluate my time commitments and be more realistic about how much time I need to complete a project
- and to always keep in mind just how many projects I am working on.

Should I join another?  I think I'll give myself some time before I do.

Slow, Steady Progress

Quite some time ago, I joined The Library Project with Adrienne from Chezzetcook Modern Quilts and one of the quilts I committed to making is Summer Sunshine from Material Obsession.  You can read about my choices here.

 I started with a collection of scraps and sewed interfacing to scraps - lots of them!

I slit the centers of the interfacing, turned them right side out and then began pressing them to white squares.

After making 36 blocks, I then drew the stems, and hand embroidered them.

I used 10" squares as I had several Kona White Layer Cakes, searched my stash for a suitable sashing and sewed them together.  I just ordered fabric for the final border, binding and backing.  With any luck, this will be finished before the end of the year!

Linking up with "Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?"
                            "Let's Bee Social"

A Garden Grows

Just because I've been absent from blogland doesn't mean I've been absent from sewing - not at all!  I've been quite busy since my last post.  In fact, too busy!  I just finished participating in two bees and am currently participating in a third bee.  It's been quite a challenge to keep on schedule, work on my own projects and return to my job in August.  Given all that - let me show you a finish.

For some background on this project, you can read about it here and here.

A Garden Grows
72" x 72"

The background is Kona Expresso.  At first, I wasn't sure about this color and now I see it was the perfect color for the flowers to grow.

A bit of shade from the tree.

I played with the quilting.  I used a walking foot and started with straight line quilting. 

I then tried different quilting patterns in different sections.  It was definitely an experiment which I enjoyed.

 I machine stitched the binding to the quilt and finished it with hand stitching.

The quilt washed beautifully - soft and crinkly.  Waiting for cooler weather to snuggle under it.


Linking with Let's Bee Social


Thanks for stopping by!

Photo Shoot

This past weekend, my daughter and I did a photo shoot at our local park of both finished and unfinished quilts I have been working on.

Photo Shoot at the Park

Let's start with the finished quilts:

Scrappy Orange Peel  60" x  84"

I've been working on this quilt for some time.  I quilted using a serpentine stitch on the diagonal.  After quilting it, it took me a while to decide on binding. I used leftover fabric that I had used on my Ladybug Pinwheel quilt.

The Ladybug Pinwheel was made using leftover blocks from a quilt I made for a friend.  I quilted using loops (still practicing FMQ) and used binding to match the backing.  This quilt will be donated.

Ladybug Pinwheel  39" x 53

I love this backing!

Another quilt I am donating is this baby quilt.  In the first two pictures you can see it is not bound yet.  After a few days, binding made from the leftover blocks.  

34" x 39"

And now the unfinished:

I have two new quilt tops that are completed.  I started these back in March when Paula of The Sassy Quilter held her Triangle Quilt Challenge.  I hopped on board immediately but my train got stuck at the station.  I did love using the triangles.  I had no idea what I would make from them, of course, I started cutting without a plan, and cut two different sizes. 

Then I challenged myself to actually sew the pieces together.  I'm loving both tops and just bought the fabric for the backs.

One last thing - new tags!

Linking up with:

Let's Bee Social

Anything Goes Monday

Show and Tell Tuesday

Bee Block Catch Up

Once school ended, I finally had the time to catch up on bee blocks.  It's been non-stop measuring, cutting, re-measuring, sewing, seam-ripping and re-sewing for many days.  Just so you know, I wasn't really as behind as it appears.   I offered to make missing blocks for everyone in Stash Bee 4.  I enjoyed making the blocks the first time around and knew once the school year ended that I would have extra sewing time. 

For Sara - Stash Bee 4 - January

Celine - Stash Bee 4 - February

Samantha - Stash Bee 4 - March

Sally - Stash Bee 4 - April

Chelsea - Stash Bee 4 - May

Ruth - Global Scrap Bee - May

Stephanie H - Scrap-bee-licous - May

Barb - Global Scrap Bee - June

Linking with:

Let's Bee Social!