Magical Forest

I have a finish that's almost 5 years in the making!  In January 2017, I was Queen bee in my Stash Bee hive and asked for trees to make a magical forest.  I got beautiful trees but they sat unfinished.  It's even been on my list toward my PhD (projects half done) with Quilting Gail every year. Fast forward to a few months ago, and my Bee Inspired group decided to do a casual sew along and picks a tree quilt!  This was my chance to finally put together my Magical Forest!

I really did enjoy Stash Bee for the 4 years I was involved.  These trees came from a total of 12 different makers (including me) from 6 US states and 3 Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Manitoba, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Prince Edward Island, and Wisconsin.  

 

I had to make 3 more trees to get the right number for my forest.  I'm quite pleased with the finished quilt. I quilted with organic wavy lines and used a rainbow batik for the binding.  This will be donated, probably to the local children's hospital.  I sewed the binding on our trip to the mountains in October so was able to get some great "on location" shots.  Well, my husband took the photos, I held up the quilt.  So glad to finish this one!

 

another fabric doppelganger

A few weeks ago, I showed off my fabric doppelgänger, made for Velda during her turn as Queen in my Stash Bee hive.  Well, another hive member was unable to make a block so I volunteered to do an angel block.  Except I have no idea what that hive member looks like since we've never met or seen photos. So I made my best friend, Laura, in fabrics instead.

Laura is wearing a purple shirt (our shared favorite color) and jeans, because she rarely wears dresses.  I've shown her the picture of her fabric self and she loved it.  Her favorite part was the sparkly hair.

With this block, I end four years of participation in Stash Bee.  I've made the slightly sad decision not to participate next year. I've had a ton of fun and made a lot of friends, but I'm feeling a time crunch in my sewing time especially as I continue to balance sewing with my full time job and my family. I also have only actually completed ONE of my Stash Bee quilts despite four years of participation.  These girls who want to have fun have been a great ending note!

My fabric doppelganger (bee block catch-up)

I'm behind in posting my blocks for Stash Bee.  This is my fourth year in the online bee and I really enjoy the variety of blocks I am asked to make.

November is Queen Velda of Freckled Fox Quiltery.  She's making a quit inspired by the phrase and song "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and asked each of us to make our likeness in fabric, with the Pippi Longstocking block by Just Jude as the template.  So here's mine:

Yes, I know the bottom is shorter than the rest of the block.  It's improv!

Looks just like me, right?  I made my dress longer than the original tutorial and used a purple batik (from Island Batik, of course!) and kept my feet bare instead of adding shoes.  This block combines my love of batiks with my love of Kona solids--the skin is Medium Pink and the hair is Chestnut.  It's a tad darker than my actual hair but it was the closest match among my Kona scraps.

October Queen Heather asked for a Hunter's Star block with bright colors.  She asked that we keep the quadrants separate and not sew it together so she can mix and match later if she wants.  Here are mine:

This was my first Hunter's Star.  I didn't love the angles of the pieces but I do like how it looks.

September Queen Kim created a fabric wampum block.  Her brother-in-law is a citizen of the Oneida Nation, part of the Iriquois Confederacy.  She plans to make a quilt of the flag of the Iriquois Confederacy and asked for blocks that simulate wampum for the quilt.  Here are my blocks:

Are you interested in joining on online bee?  Stash Bee sign-ups are open for 2020!  I really enjoy Stash Bee!  I get to meet a great group of quilters from all over and it's fun to see the variety of blocks chosen.  Plus I get to make a new block each month without the commitment of a while quilt!
Sign-ups are open through November 17th.  https://forms.gle/t6RTm9QKe3HNT4HR8

A Waddle of Penguins

I am so excited about this finish!  For Stash Bee this year, I asked for the fabulous penguin block designed by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  (I did ask her permission to use it for Stash Bee.) I absolutely love Lorna's designs and have used many of her patterns before.  This is one of the free block tutorials on her website and I asked my Hive for the 12" version, plus a border to make it a 16" block.   

And boy did my hive mates deliver!  Aren't these guys fabulous??!!!  Many folks named their penguin, which was super fun.  One hive member made three (!) penguins and named them after each of her brothers. I also got a bonus penguin from a hive crash of one of the Bee Mamas, giving me enough for a 4 by 4 layout. This quilt is huge!  I planned it to be twin sized but it fits pretty well on a full bed as well. 

not a great photo, but you can see it fits on a full-size bed (it's not yet quilted here)

Since it's bed-sized, I donated this to the Carolina Hurricane Quilts project, coordinated by the amazing Carole of From My Carolina Home.  She's been collecting quilts for most of 2019 to be donated to folks who lost everything in Hurricane Florence last fall.  Carole specifically asked for bed-sized quilts, so even though I dislike wrangling large quilts, I decided these penguins would put a smile on someone's face.  I know Carole also wants quilts for any age, but I admit that I am someone that doesn't think an animal quilt has to be for a kid!  Based on the number of animal quilt patterns out there, I think lots of adults enjoy quilts with an animal theme.

It's so big, my adult male quilt holder is completely hidden save for a tiny bit of visible fingers

 The sashing in Kona Marine.  I quilted with a line of my machine's serpentine stitch every 5 inches. 

Did you know the collective noun for penguins is different if the penguins are on land versus in water?  These penguins are on land, so they are a waddle.  If I were to take them on a houseboat, they would be a raft of penguins. 

Thanks so much, Hive 4!  This is my fourth year in Stash Bee but only my first finished quilt!  I guess I need to get working on the others!  The Waddle of Penguins was #1 on my list of Q3 goals for the Finish Along and is on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail.  I'm also linking up with Tish of Tish in Wonderland for her UFO party and will use this as my completed UFO for the UFO & WIP challenge hosted by Julie of The Crafty Quilter. 

August Bee Block

I always look forward to the first of the month because I find out what block I'm making for that month's Queen Bee in Stash Bee.  And this month I was particularly excited to find a super cute cactus block for Queen Pam.  Here is my version.  She wanted solid pink for the background and while I was hoping to find something a little brighter, this Kona Medium Pink turned out better than I expected.  Love this block and may make it again!

June & July Bee Blocks

Bees are such a great opportunity to try lots of different blocks and color schemes that you may not have picked yourself.  June's queen Gayle in my Stash Bee hive asked for Rolling Stone blocks in blue, green, or purple.  Well, since purple is my favorite color that was an easy decision! I made two blocks but it seems I didn't photograph them together.

Queen Amanda for July asked for a block that I don't believe has a name, but was designed by a fellow Stash Bee-er a few years ago.  It's a strip block and Amanda asked for either yellow, orange, or green.  Well, orange is probably my least favorite color so I don't have much stash, and I wasn't sure if I'd have the needed 9 yellow fabrics either, so green it is. I feel like my greens aren't cohesive at all and I'm hoping this block looks less awkward when paired with some friends.

I've already seen a sneak peak of the August block for my hive and it's super fun!  I can't wait to make it!

May Bee Blocks

Diana of Red Delicious Life is the May queen in Stash Bee.  Diana asked for Stacked Squares blocks in shades of green and gray.  This was a super simple block that was quick to make.

The original block came from Moda Bake Shop but Diana is inspired by this version made by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation.  Isn't this gorgeous?!  I can't wait to see Diana's version!

I think the math to put this together would drive me insane!

April Bee Blocks and an Adventure

I'm pleased to have my bee blocks done before the halfway point of April.  I like having a little breathing room!

In Bee Inspired, we aren't a traditional bee this year but a few of us are taking turns asking for blocks that will be made into charity quilts.  Ann of Brown Paws Quilting asked for chicken blocks.  Aren't they cute?!  The original tutorial is from Sew Inspired.  The comb is a bit fiddly but overall I'm happy with this flock.

Queen Karen of Stash Bee asked for red and pink heart blocks that she will make into a quilt for a child in foster care. This is such a fun quick block that I made three.

I love know blocks I made end up in quilts all over the world but I am especially pleased that many of them end up donated to people who need something to brighten their day.  I hope these hearts and chickens find great homes and put a smile on someone's face.

As for the adventure, yesterday I met Carole of From My Carolina Home in person!  It's always great to meet online quilty friends in real life!  Carole is the organizer behind Carolina Hurricane Quilts for those impacted by Hurricane Florence in 2018.  For folks in North Carolina, Carole has made arrangements with 5 quilts shops across the state to be drop-off points.  I'm her runner for the Charlotte area/southern Piedmont shop.  So yesterday morning I loaded up the 10 quilts that have been dropped off at Quilt Patch Fabrics as well as one I made and drove to meet Carole about halfway between our homes.

Eleven quilts for the Carolina Hurricane project, and you can see where we had lunch through my trunk window

Carole has all the pictures of the two of us (plus our delicious sushi lunch) on her camera, so we'll have to wait until after Easter for those.  Here are the eleven quilts in the trunk of my car and the restaurant sign can be seen through my open trunk window.  We'll get together again in July or August to transfer any other donations.  The quilt drive is open for several more months and she is able to match completed tops to willing long-armers, so if you are looking for a place to donate quilts or tops, check out all the info here. 

February and March Bee Blocks

This is my fourth year in Stash Bee and I still love the excitement of finding out what block I'll be making on the first of each month. Queen Anna (February) asked for a bookshelf block to make her son, age 4, a quilt for his big-boy bed.  She asked that each block have a theme and an object.  I picked trains/transportation/vehicles.  I used my Accuquilt train die to cut out the engine.

Queen Marie (March) asked for "X and +" blocks in white, gray, and spring greens.  I hadn't made this block before and was surprised at how quickly they came together.

Bee Inspired, the online group that formed from some of us in the New Bloggers Blog Hop group (2016), is not doing a traditional bee this year.  Instead, there are a few different projects and each of us can choose which ones to do.  Some of them are charity quilts where the hostess picks a block and anyone who wants (including those not originally in Bee Inspired!) can send a block or more to be made into a charity quilt.

Irene designed a block for a quilt that will be donated to the Carolina Hurricane Quilts project.  Irene loves paper piecing so of course, her block is paper pieced.  But I don’t love paper piecing, so she said the strips could be pieced traditionally.  So I made some strip sets and then just paper pieced the last step.  Here are the blocks I sent her:

I was the hostess for the first charity quilt of the year and I asked for boat blocks.  I made a few extra to get to a nice round number and it was only after I finished this one that I realized I had used checks, stripes, and polka dots in the same block.  It's like the scrappy block trifecta!

November Bee Blocks

November was Queen Becky's turn in Stash Bee.  She asked for kaleidoscope blocks.

I think this was my first bee block that used a paper template.  I was not a fan of cutting using that template and am glad I only had to make 2 blocks that way!  I hope Becky likes her blocks!

Bee Inspired scheduled everything so that the last Queen was in October, so this marks the end of the year for me in terms of Bee blocks. 

Bee Inspired is changing how they do things for next year, so there is no "bee" in that we will not be making blocks for each other.  I believe I am slotted to continue in Stash Bee, though.  It's fun to try all kinds of blocks in different color schemes without the commitment of an entire quilt. I also really enjoy the social aspect of bees and knowing that blocks I made end up in quilts all around the country and the world.

September Bee Blocks

I made my September bee blocks early in the month, but I didn't get them mailed until October 1st and I don't like to post before I've dropped them in the mail.

Bee Inspired had two Queens in September.  Queen Janice wanted a house block with a sawtooth star.  She likes bright colors and wanted each block to be in a single color way.  My favorite color is purple, so of course I had to make a purple house.

Queen Irene asked for a log cabin with red centers and white and off-white logs.

In Stash Bee, Queen Pam designed her own block.  She asked for bright, scrappy star points.

As always, I loved the variety of blocks I was asked to make!

June Bee Blocks

I was super on the ball with May's bee blocks, so I guess I felt I needed to compensate by being down-to-the-wire for June.

Queen Jen from Bee Inspired left us open to make pretty much whatever we wanted. She loves tertiary colors and while she gave us free range, she did highlight some of her favorites from the Quilter's Cache website.  One of the blocks in her collage really spoke to me, Galaxy Star.  It's paper pieced and makes a 9" block.  I changed it a little bit to make the long spikes all one color and the short spikes all one color, rather than the alternating pairs of the original.

Queen Diane in Stash Bee asked for a basket block.  It's a very traditional looking block.

One of our hive members is having some health problems, so I volunteered to make her block for her this month, called an Angel Block.  So here is that block:

I'm still loving both bees and trying new blocks every month!

May Bee Blocks

That's right, I got all my bee blocks done in the first week of the month!  This month's blocks were just so much fun that I couldn't wait!

Queen Velda in Bee Inspired asked for cakes!  I absolutely loved this block and had such a good time coming up with a culinary creation.  The pattern is Sweet Cakes and is a free download from Michael Miller fabrics.

Velda asked us to name our cake.  I'm calling this a Raspberry Tea Cake.  Here is what I wrote on our group blog: Welcome!  Today’s featured cotton confectionery is Dogwood Delights, where the dessert of the day is a Raspberry Tea Cake.  This tall tiered cake is light and refreshing, with swirls of raspberry, hints of traditional birthday cake, and floral accents.  Our Raspberry Tea Cake is the perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of tea.

In Stash Bee, Queen Jacqueline asked for cat blocks.  She called them "M" cats, because she was inspired by Morris the Cat from the Friskies commercials and her own dearly departed kitty Milo. So I figured I'd give these kitties names that start with M.  Meet (clockwise from top left) Meadow, Magic, Maverick, and Minerva.

And in a different Stash Bee hive, Queen Sue asked for toadstool blocks.  I had never seen a toadstool block!  I thought it was too fun not to try, so I made one for Sue.  The quilt is for her grand-niece Tilly who is almost 3. Sue's tutorial and her inspiration for the block can be found here.

It was great to have such fun blocks to work on this month!!!  I'm realizing how much I like blocks that look like things. 

February Bee Blocks & recap

Yes, I know, we're almost a full week into March.  But February really took me by surprise, so I'm running a little behind.  I usually don't mind that February is so short but it really felt short this year. 

In Stash Bee, Queen Lori asked for Sister's Choice blocks.  This is a traditional block that I had never made before.  I enjoyed the block and could see making them again.

By now, I think everyone knows how much I love novelty fabric. Queen Darrel of Hive 7 asked for novelty blocks appropriate for teenage boys.  The tricky part is that each of the disappearing 9-patch blocks required 4 of the same novelty fabrics.  I was able to find a few that I thought would work and sent them off to Darrel in Australia. 

In Bee Inspired, Queen Ann asked for an improv block with strips of bright scraps.  We were to sew the small scraps onto a strip of muslin and then add 2 or more stripes into the block.  I made about 40" of my crap strip. I was worried about matching up my strips if I crossed them so I chose to have multiple strips that did not cross.

Inspired by Kate at Life in Pieces, I've been tracking how many days I spend at least 15 minutes sewing.  In February, I got sewing time 24 of the 28 days, for a total of 86%.  I'm also at 86% for the year so far.

I'm working on my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail.  Her challenge is to finish at least half of your unfinished projects AND finish anything started in 2018.  I have a list of 25 unfinished projects and must finish at least 13 to earn my PhD. I completed 2 projects from that list in February, both for Project Linus, plus one project that was both started and finished in 2018. That puts me at 5 projects from the UFO list so far.

Happy Weekender

Monopoly

 

Quilt for Neighbors

I used 11.1 yards of fabric in February, bringing my yearly total to 20.4 yards used. I also made my first (and so far, only!) purchase for the year of 4 1/4 yards.  The local quilt guild's annual show is this weekend and I think I'm going to go, so the number of yards purchased may go up.  I'm specifically looking for reds and hopefully I can limit my purchases to just red fabrics.

January Bee Blocks

Once again, I am in 2 online quilting bees in 2018.  The first is Stash Bee, where I am queen in my hive for January.  This means no blocks for me to make and I've been getting fabulous bookshelf blocks in the mail all month! 

In Bee Inspired, Sharon was Queen in January.  She asked for Quatrefoil blocks with pink, green, yellow, blue, turquoise, and coral.  We could choose which colors went where. This is my second time making a Quatrefoil block and I really like it.  The pink fabric was one of the fabrics I bought with a Christmas gift certificate from my mom and I love how it looks in this block.

This was not for a bee, but I did make 3 Perkiomen Valley blocks to go into quilts for those displaced by the Thomas Fire in California.  Carole of From My Carolina Home put out a call for blocks and volunteered to assemble 3 quilts.  I sent mine to her, though she is now asking that additional blocks be sent directly to the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild.  It's a great block for scraps!

November Bee Blocks

Flying Geese.  Seems quilters either love them or hate them.  I don't exactly hate them, but I certainly don't love them either.  And yet as luck would have it, both November Queens in my online bees asked for blocks that feature flying geese. One of the reasons I love these bees is that it forces me to make things I wouldn't pick.  And I while I wouldn't have picked geese-heavy blocks, I liked these!

Queen Laura asked for Scrap Bag Geese in any and all shades of pink.  I liked doing the geese in two parts and putting them together, so these scrappy geese were actually a lot of fun!   I enjoyed these and think that all the pink geese will look amazing together.  Can't wait to see them all fly!

Queen Paige designed her own tree block in honor of the Loblolly Pines in her part of South Carolina.  She sent each member of our bee some ground fabric and I love it--it's the color of Carolina red clay! Paige gave us some wiggle room on the height of the block because her setting allows for variation.  Good thing, because mine are not the same at all!  I love these trees and think Paige's quilt will be amazing.

And while this block wasn't for a bee, it doesn't really fit anywhere else.  When I was at QuiltCon way back in February, the Michael Miller booth let you pick out 4 fabrics from a list and cut you a sample of those fabrics.  In return, they asked for 6" (finished) blocks that will be turned into quilts for kids' charities.  I completely forgot about this until I found my fabric bundle and saw that I still had a week before the deadline.  I looked through some block choices and picked out Quatrefois.  I used this tutorial.  I really like this block and think it's something I am likely to make again in the future.

This ends the year for me in terms of bees.  Stash bee runs January-November, so this was it.  Bee Inspired does have a December queen, but it's me!  So I get to sit back while others make blocks for me.  I really like these online bees: I make new friends and I get to try a lot of different blocks.  I'm in for another year of both!

September & October bee blocks

I'm behind in posting my bee blocks!  Luckily, I'm not behind in sending them; most of these have long been received.

Bee Inspired's September Queen Jen gave us all a lesson in the color wheel when she asked for LeMoyne Star blocks in tertiary colors.  I had to  go shopping for this one.  This was my first LeMoyne Star and I am completely in love!

September Queen Debbie from Stash Bee asked for tulip blocks.  Debbie has been super generous to everyone in our hive, so I wanted to make her two blocks.

In October, it happens that Janice was Queen in both bees!  So I could chain piece her blocks.  She picked a scrappy block and asked for high contrast between the two fabrics.  If you look closely, you'll see that one of the blocks for Queen Janice has the same 2 fabrics as Queen Jen's LeMoyne Star from September.

Stash Bee has 9 hives, and one of the queens from another hive asked for bookshelf blocks to make into a quilt for her 80-year-old uncle.  He's a voracious reader and especially loves westerns, so she wanted cowboy/western themed blocks.  This was a perfect storm for me: I'm a librarian, I'm making my own bookshelf quilt (including blocks from last year's Stash Bee), I love novelty fabrics, and my mom is a big fan of cowboys/western things so she's given me several fabrics that would work.  So I crashed that hive and made a cowboy bookshelf for Queen Kim.

I love my online bees and the variety I get to make for people!  If you are interested in joining a Bee, Stash Bee sign-ups for 2018 open on November 1st.

August Bee Blocks

I am still loving the variety of blocks I get to make for the 2 online quilting bees I'm in.

In Bee Inspired, Queen Ann asked for a Doggone Cute block.  These are from a quilt along by Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts and Lorna keeps the directions up on her site. I love Lorna's patterns and have been considering this one for a while.  After making this block for Ann, I made an identical block for me that will be the start of my own Doggone Cute quilt.

Ann asked each of us to think of a dog that has mattered to us and to pick out which of the eight Doggone Cute blocks most resembles that pup.  I chose my dog, Ivy, and decided that dog #2 was her best match.  Ann wanted bright colors so I picked orange because Ivy herself is kind of orange.

Ivy with her fabric likeness

Ivy has been with me since 4th of July weekend in 2010.  She is my first pet.  My parents were not pet people and no amount of begging during childhood from me & my brother changed that.  Ivy was rescued from a busy highway by the sister of a coworker.  Said coworker had been working on me to get a dog and she thought this one would be a good fit since she was so sweet.  They both wanted to keep her, but they had 3 or 4 dogs each and could not add another.  I had just been laid off from my job at the time and didn't think that adding the expense of a dog was a good idea.  My boyfriend, who grew up with lots of animals and loves dogs in particular, assured me that "the dog food fairy" would show up and help. I'm glad to report that he's now Husband and he does indeed buy the dog food.

In Stash Bee, Queen Mary Ann asked for Garden Stars blocks. She loves batiks and so do I!  I had a lot of fun looking for bright batiks to use.  Mary Ann suggested a technique I had not tried for the 4-patch blocks.  I tried it but did not like it at all.  Perhaps it's just me, but I didn't get enough units and had to cut more.  Luckily, I only used that method on one block to try it out and I went back to more traditional methods for the remaining 4-patches.  I like trying new techniques but I admit, I will give up if they do not work for me!

Mary Ann is using the blocks from her turn as queen to make a quilt for Friendship House, an organization that provides transitional housing for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  The idea is neat: each apartment has four people, one young adult transitioning to living alone and three students studying various healthcare fields.  Mary Ann's goal is to put a colorful quilt on each of the 24 beds in the facility! 

When I saw that she hopes to make 24 quilts for this cause, I thought of my Midnight Mystery quilt.  I finished the top and was never sure what I wanted to do with it.  I made it without a plan for giving.  I knew it could easily be enlarged to be bed-sized and bought extra background to do it, but never added any borders.  I also had no idea how to quilt it and I really dislike quilting large quilts.  After thinking on it for a few days, I emailed Mary Ann and asked if she would like the top toward her goal, emphasizing that it was an unfinished top.  Mary Ann wrote back within a day and is thrilled at the donation. And I am quite sure the quilt is going where it was meant to be.

I now realize that I never blogged this quilt because it didn't actually get finished.  Here's a photo of the top.  The background looks like navy in the picture but it's actually a dark purple.  Kona purple, to be exact.

I haven't mailed blocks off to either queen yet but I will get them packaged up and shipped off in the next few days.  I can't believe how close we are to September!