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"