Bee Blocks and Big Quilts

Happy Wednesday!

I don't know why happy, exactly. Except maybe that it's halfway through the week. Which is actually true for me this week! Usually I work Tuesday-Saturday, so my "hump day" is Thursday. But this weekend I get Saturday off! YAY!

Anyway. On to the fabric-y stuff.

I have my bee block for this month prepared for sewing together.

This is actually the only space on my cutting table right now. I think I need to do some cleaning over this long weekend...

As you can see, it's quite a mess! And I need to get cutting for a wedding quilt, so all this has to go.

Also! Exciting news! I finished quilting the Scrappy Chevrons quilt!

It hasn't been trimmed or bound yet. But the binding is almost finished (I'm going scrappy with that, too!) so I should be able to make quick work of it. Full reveal pictures when it's finally finished!

What are you working on this week? Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Fierce Quilters Progress

Yes, it's true! I have finally made some real progress on Allison's quilt. She wanted a sampler style quilt with geometric blocks in jewel tones.

Here is my contribution:

I'm really not sure how I feel about the block on the top right, but I didn't want the fabric to be wasted so I'm sending it on. If it doesn't end up fitting in, it can always go back to Allison as an extra or something!

The diamond block on the bottom was whipped up by me using Quilt Assistant. I'm starting to get the hang of the program, I think. But it'll be a while before I'm designing anything complicated, for sure! It's just 6 simple diamond blocks sewn together. I really wanted the diamond part to be a continuous piece of fabric, so paper piecing was the way to go. I really love how it turned out!

Here are all the current blocks all together:

Aren't they fun?? They will be moving along to Audrey as soon as I can get to the post office!

Oh, and because I keep talking about my new house and don't have any pictures, here you go:

Just the outside for now, but at least it's something!

Also, if you're interested, I'm sharing a little tutorial and a couple of designs for scrappy plus blocks over on the Stash Bee blog this month. Go check it out if you're interested! Here are my samples for the month:

I'm so excited to see what everyone makes!

Hope your week is off to a good start :) Mine definitely is!

Fierce Quilters 2014

Today I'm going to tell you about a little idea I had that grew into something really cool...

I joined a bee last year and it was okay. The problem was it was on Threadbias and while I kept up and mailed all my blocks, I just didn't really get into the platform. As a result, I didn't communicate much with the other members except to say my block was mailed or if it was going to be late. It just wasn't as fun as I thought it would be because other than Threadbias, there was no other place to communicate really and while I now follow a few new blogs, I still feel like I didn't make friends all that well. Which makes me sad :( But I just can't get into using Threadbias.. it's a great site, but I just don't have the time to devote to using it effectively.

So I had an idea. Why not invite some people I already talk with online (and in person in one case!) and think are really super awesome to start a bee with me? We already have avenues of communication set up, so there would be no new platform to get used to checking regularly. Plus, I already knew these ladies would be my super awesome best quilting friends if we all lived in the same city (so everyone move to Tucson, k?). Thus, the Fierce Quilters Bee was born.

We decided to set it up as a Traveling Quilt kind of thing (a little like this one here) and keep it small and laid back- fluid mailing dates and few rules. Basically everyone chose their own rules and as a result, we 6 very different quilts being made this year! Here are some (not great) pictures of what I sent off in January to the lovely Audrey.

Initial fabric pull

First few blocks

Final send off

 I was in the middle of a move when I was making these, so I didn't have time (or know the box with my camera in it) to take decent pictures before I sent them off. But you get the idea :) Audrey actually has a little preview of what she's been adding up on her blog today if you're interested!

I can't wait to see where this bee goes. We have such a fabulous group! Here are the others if you want to go check out their awesomeness:

Sarah (Sew What Sherlock)
Kitty (Life of Couch)
Allison (Sew into my 20s)
Gwen (The Rainbow Revolts)

You can also watch our progress over on Instagram (#fiercequiltersbee2014). This is going to be an exciting year!

Friday Finishes

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, however and whatever you celebrate. Mine was quite lovely. Spent time with family and friends who are pretty much family. And I spent a good deal of time sewing, which has been fantastic! Here are some things I did.

FIRST. I did it! I finished all 25 cats for the catventquiltalong! If you follow me on IG (crookedbanana), then you've probably seen all my cats. But for those of you who don't, here they are in all their rainbowy glory:

YUM. That's all I can say. I'm so proud of myself for seeing this through til the end! Now I just have to sew all those cat faces together into a super awesome little quilt that will hang on my wall. I can't have real cats because Mario is allergic, so I guess this will have to do!

I also learned to make an infinity scarf!

I only got a phone/IG picture of someone actually wearing it, oops! It was super easy, though! I decided I really would like to be able to sew with knits. I tried it once before with pretty awful results, so I thought maybe trying a scarf that is meant to be worn all bunched up and lumpy would be a much more forgiving choice than a shirt. I was right! It still isn't perfect, but I think this is a great way to get comfortable with fabrics other than quilting cottons. I read a few tutorials, but just kinda did what I wanted. Here's one if you wanna give it a shot, though: http://www.sewcreativeblog.com/tutorial-how-to-sew-an-infinity-scarf-30-minute-project/

And finally, I finished my bee blocks for the month. Of course, I forgot to go to the post office today so they're going to be a little late... but hey. Holidays and finals. Right? And she's getting 2 instead of just 1 because my sugar and caffeine-addled brain thought 25 squares would yield me 25 HSTs. WRONG.

Oh man, hot pink is hard to capture, huh? And the dying sunlight didn't help. No excuses, though. I just forgot to take pictures until twilight... Oops!

So those are the things I have finished! How about you?? Linking up to TGIFF hosted by the lovely Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts :)

The Day of the Quilt Block

So. I had a LOT to do this weekend and definitely did not get it all done. House buying stuff keeps getting in the way of all the other stuff I need to doooo :( But for the sake of a new house and a sewing room with actual light, I guess it's worth it!

Here are all the blocks I managed to finish this weekend:

First up- for Audrey! Two big, bright churn dash blocks to go in her quilt for tornado victims. I wanted to make more but I ran out of white :( But these will be in the mail tomorrow!

Next, my slightly late and slightly difficult to look at bee block for November. The queen asked for bold and bright solids. Hope I didn't go overboard here! The red is Kona Flame if you were wondering. Probably because it burns the retinas. I don't remember what the other two are!

And finally, Ferdinand. Yes, Ferdinand. Do you follow Elizabeth Hartman's blog (is that a stupid question?)? Well then you may have seen her brilliant idea for a quilt along. She will be posting a new 6 inch cat block every day until Christmas. Isn't that awesome?? Instead of going with a solid background I'm doing LV scraps. Partially because I think it will be awesome but also a little because I didn't have enough of any good background fabric to make the whole quilt, small as it is. How sad it that? I need to build up my solids stash...

All 25 cats have their own names, which is amazing. Don't you want to join in? I know you do! Check out the links above for more info and come see what everyone is making by checking out #catventquiltalong on Instagram!

Well, that's what I've been up to. How about you?

Bee blocks!

The blocks have been arriving pretty steadily over here, but I thought I would wait til I had most of them to show them to you...

Here they are, so happy together. I know they look like they're all different sizes- it's because they are. Some of the ladies purposely left them big so I could trim them down myself. Aren't they fun? I thought at first I would sash them all in white when I put the top together but now I'm not sure. What do you think?

This represents the efforts of 8 of my bee mates with one more for sure on the way... It's a newbie bee and we've had some problems with people disappearing, so I'm planning on just being content with what I receive.

Action shot of the hyper pooch leaping over the blocks (at least she jumped over them instead of running through them?):

Silly dog.

I also made a cover for the cushions on our new couch. See, we bought these awesome new leather couches... The price was so good, we just could pass them up. And honestly, we hated our old couch. It was waaay too much of a hair magnet to have a husky. No amount of vacuuming ever did any good. But we realized (after we paid, of course) that our dogs are definitely not trained to stay off the couches. Which is fine, really. I've never in my life had pets that stayed off the furniture. But that did present the problem of their little claws scratching and ripping our pretty new leather couches...

Enter: super cheap chevron canvas at SAS and my brilliant idea of sewing up a little "fitted sheet" for the cushions. The dogs don't really go on the arms of the couch and I didn't want to cover the whole thing up, so this seemed like a pretty good solution! What do you think? It really is made like a fitted sheet. It has elastic in the bottom to keep it on and boxed corners. So far it's working really well! I know it looks a little loose, but that was intentional. Canvas doesn't really stretch and when there's two or three people on it, it becomes much more taut but not so taut that it pulls the elastic up. Of course, we'll have to wait and see how long it hold up. But at $5 a yard for pretty heavy canvas, I wouldn't really mind making another set!

 I haven't finished up the one for the love seat yet and I have been trying to take pictures of the process. Would anyone be interested in a little tutorial? I figure there must be some other people out there with pets and couches to protect :) Let me know in the comments!

Also, that giveaway I keep promising... it IS coming. As well as a proper post on my first year of blogging! It's just been hectic here and tomorrow morning I leave for Atlanta for my FIRST EVER conference (if you don't count the state thespian conferences I went to in high school)! I feel like such a grown up! I'm going with my team leader and one of the team supervisors, so it's a little nerve-wracking. I'm also using Airbnb for the first time- staying in a nice couple's apartment who travel a lot for business. I'll be sure to report on my experiences on both fronts! But yeah, the blogiversary giveaway will definitely have to be when I get back next week!

I'm linking up today with Show and Tell Tuesday with Randi and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

It's My Month!

Yes, it has finally arrived. My month for the Newbee Quilters bee (hive 3) on Threadbias. YAY! I have had a lot of fun making blocks for other people. Lots of blocks I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. But now it's my turn!

Here is the sample I made for my bee-mates:

Yes, it's a granny block! With brightly colored sashing! Isn't it fun? I can't wait to see what my bee-mates come up with for their blocks! My plan is to then sash them again in white when I put the top together. That way I figure it won't matter if the whites don't match (since we're doing this all from our stashes) because they won't be right up against each other. I'm so excited about this!!

Did I ever mention that I won a giveaway over at 627handworks? Well I did! Here's the awesomeness I received:

A Simply Color charm pack and matching Aurifil thread! I have never sewn with Aurifil, so I was SUPER excited to win this! I already have big plans for the charm pack... pictures of that project later this week!

That's all that's going on in my neck of the woods! How about you?

A Finished Block and a Confession

First, the block:

The queen of the Newbee Quilters Hive 3 wanted X + blocks in bright colors paired with neutrals. I hope she likes it! It was really a snap to make. I might just have to make a few for myself!

Here's the confession. I have been absolutely moping the past almost 2 weeks since my last post. I have been looking at all the pretty picture posts linked up to Plum and June's new photography workshop linky and have been really down on myself. I just don't have any good place to stage photos. My house is super dark. I don't have patio furniture or nice pretty grass (it's Arizona!) to use as a backdrop. So I moped, thinking of how horrible all my photos were and how everyone must just hate me for taking bad pictures.

I know, stupid, right? Part of this funk has been stemming from other things in my life being stressful, I know. It has been a rough couple of weeks at work and at home and I can't tell you how glad I am that it's Friday and I only have one more day of work before a nice, long weekend. But today I'm feeling like what I really need to do is leave behind the negativity. Yes, my house is dark, but that doesn't mean I can't do the best I can. Or find a cute little patio table on Craigslist to use for outdoor photos. There are solutions to this and the other stressful things that seem to be cropping up everywhere in my life lately. It's all about attitude, right? So I have decided to work on always having a positive attitude toward sewing and blogging. I love sewing and blogging about it and reading blogs and all the other wonderful things that come with it! I shouldn't let the stress monster that follows me around everywhere else taint my happy place!

So that's my confession. I stayed away from my blog for almost two weeks because of this nonsense! How ridiculous is that?

I have been working on all sorts of things, though. I am almost done quilting the wonky triangle quilt! I was really struggling at first, but then I found this post by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh! Fransson fame and it helped A LOT. I started quilting in quadrants instead of rows and it was sooo much easier. Mario also brought me some Kevlar gloves from work that are AWESOME. I had shown him some quilting gloves when we were at Joann and he remembered and thought maybe these would work. And they do! Soon I will have a finished quilt to show you! Isn't that exciting??

I also starting cutting scraps for a new quilt:

Happy little piles of color! It's going to be a scrappy chevron quilt using rectangles instead of triangles. I have seen them around the internet, but haven't found a pattern/tutorial really, so I sketched it out myself and am crossing my fingers that everything goes well!

Well. It is time to get to work. I will be seeing you more often- no more stress monster keeping me away from my favorite destressing activity! Hope you have a great weekend!

WiP Wednesday: Trying not to Procrastinate!

I have some deadlines approaching. A couple of blocks for something secret, two swap items, and a wedding quilt (no, I still haven't basted it!). So what have I been working on?

An improv-pieced panel that will become my new grocery bag dispenser! It is high time I put some cuteness in my kitchen. I used some precious elephant scraps (don't worry, I still have plenty for the Elephant Swoon!) and other random bits. It was so much fun putting this together! I think there will be more improv piecing in my future.

I also did one productive thing and made this month's bee block:

Little fiddly strips are not my favorite thing, but I think it turned out pretty well. She wanted it completely scrappy.  I think I got that covered!

I would also be working on my Swoon... but tragedy struck. The piece of light blue fabric I had earmarked to pair with the rest of my lime green elephants is sadly too small. I guess I need to go shopping because the only other piece I have that might be big enough is brown -.- I don't think brown has a place in this quilt. So that is tabled until I find some motivation to cut the next color of elephants or get some more fabric!

Maybe my grocery bag dispenser being almost finished and my Swoon disaster (I know I'm being dramatic!) will get me to work on the things with deadlines. Here's hoping!

What have you been working on?

Linking up to WiP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Starts and Finishes

Let's do finishes first, shall we?

I has been a busy week. I'm pretty surprised I got anything done! But the boyfriend had an exhausting couple of days and went to bed super early, so I had time to sneak back to my sewing room and get stuff done!

First up: this month's bee block (finally!). The queen this month wanted Christmas themed scrappy trip blocks. Here's mine:

Some of them aren't Christmas fabrics, but I think I covered my bases as far as colors go, at least! This little block is on its way to Australia! I had never sent anything internationally before and looked like a total n00b at the post office, but I was excited, anyway :) I hope it doesn't take too terribly long to get there!

Next up: PRETTINESS.

I really needed a bigger bag to take with me to work. I was getting really sick of carrying two- my purse and my lunch bag (that was usually just stuffed full of yarn). This one carries everything I need AND it's pretty. :D What more could a girl ask for??

I didn't follow a pattern. I used what I knew of bag construction to make something to fit my needs. The front and back panels measured 16.5" unfinished and I boxed the corners by about 3". I sewed a zipper pocket into the lining and did a much better job than I did on my Velocity Girl bag! Super proud of myself for that. But I do wish I'd had something other than a red zipper... I also added a magnetic snap closure. I wanted to do a recessed zipper, but I wanted to get it done without going to the store more, so I revised my plan.

Here it is all stuffed with crap! This is without my yarn and my lunch. It gets pretty full with everything in it, but not uncomfortably so. It's juuuuust right. It turned out even better than I thought it would! And it was a good opportunity to practice my FMQ loops. I think they're getting a lot more consistent :) Must try new designs soon! I absolutely LOVE this bag!

Okay. Now, are you wondering what I started? Well I can tell you, it is REALLY EXCITING.

My sewing room EXPLODED as soon as I heard about this:

Yup, that's right! That huge mess up there will eventually be my very own SWOOOOON! AH! I love this pattern so much! As soon as I saw this, I bought the pattern and started going through my stash to see what I could do. Because I am broke (yay student loan repayment!) this really needed to come mostly from my stash. I sorted and sketched and mocked things up with the Quilt Design Tool and did a whole lot of math and! I can totally do it. I am going to use my precious Daiwabo elephant prints and a variety of solids to create... THE ELEPHANT SWOON. It has taken all my willpower to be responsible and do things like fill out loan consolidation paperwork and sleep instead of just working on this all the time... but soon it will be the weekend. And then (as soon as I finish the last of my stitch and flip blocks) it will be swoon time! YAY! So what do you say, wanna Swoon with me?? Click the button above for details!

So that's been my week. How has yours been?

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday!

And don't forget- these are the hoppers posting this week for the Let's Get Acquainted 2013 blog hop:

Green @ So Sew Green

Gwendellyn @ The Rainbow Revolts

Jessica @ Stitched In Thyme

Amira @ Little Mushroom Cap

Kathy @ Kayak Quilting

Michelle @ Factotum Of Arts

Paula @ The Sassy Quilter

Kris @ Sew Sunshine

Camilla @ Faffling

Go check them out!

Happy Valentine's Day! (And a little finish!)

What a week! I had hands down the longest interview I've ever had on Tuesday. It was 3 hours of interview plus an hour tour! Is this normal?? I mean, the position I'm applying for isn't even faculty... But no matter. It went really well, I think, and I think it's pretty great that they took so much time to make sure I understood the organization I would be getting myself into instead of just focusing on me. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

In other news... I finished my first ever Bee Block!! I really hope she likes it. We're using all fabrics from our stash and mine isn't terribly large, but I had a little bit in each of the colors she asked for. And I even had one solid pink for the "stepping stones," which kind of amazed me. I have no idea when I got that pink, but it must have been in a scrap pack because I don't have enough for another block now...

I just love it, though! This bee thing is pretty fun. I don't think I would have ever done this block or these colors on my own (it's mostly the pink- I'm not a big pink fan), but they all play so nice together! I'll get it sent off soon :)

So that's my big finish for the week. Sad, isn't it? Well, it has been super busy with interview stuff and other job stuff and my dad's birthday.. And now Valentine's day! We don't have huge plans. Just staying in with some chocolate cake I am going to make this afternoon, lasagna, and a bottle of champagne. But I don't particularly like going out for Valentine's day, anyway. Every restaurant is always so jam packed with people, it's just no fun. I would much rather stay home and spend time alone without all the noise and distraction :)

One more thing... I haven't been sewing this week, but I have been able to sneak in some crochet time! It is much easier for me to sneak in ten minutes here and there of crochet than sewing. I like to devote big chunks of time to sewing. But I started a granny stripe blanket for myself! I'm using the pattern from Attic24, but I'm only switching colors after every 6 rows instead of every 2. I wanted thicker stripes. And fewer ends to weave in ;) I know it won't have quite the same effect, but I really like it so far anyway:

There is one more shade of green as well. My idea is to have the lighter colors touching and the darker colors touching so the light/dark contrast creates stripes as well as just the colors... We'll see how it works out.

That's it for me! I am hoping to get some more sewing time in today before Mario gets off work. I really need to do some FMQ practice for my Skill Builder blocks! The new blocks have already been posted so I am officially behind!