My Turn in the Sew Beautiful Bee

A few months ago I participated in some of Kati's color wheel charm swaps. After two rounds, I had all these five-inch charm squares and no plans for what to do with them.

Fast forward to the end of January/first of February. I started brainstorming about what I'd like the girls in the Sew Beautiful Bee to make during my month. I toyed with a few scrap quilt ideas (using confetti blocks like this and wonky triangle blocks like the one in Block Party). Ultimately, I settled on mod mosaic blocks using Elizabeth's tutorial.

I thought this would be a great way to use the charms, so I set out organizing single-color packs of fabric

and planning this layout.

My plan is for each block to gradually move from color to color. For example, for those making the green blocks, they'll place the green-yellow fabrics in the upper left corner, the green fabrics diagonally in the middle (bottom left to top right), and the green-blue fabrics in the lower right corner.

I'll be making all the yellow and blue blocks while the rest of the girls in the bee make the other blocks for me.

I really hope this idea works. I think the end product has the potential to be pretty awesome!

Holy WIP Wednesday Batman!

Hooray for Wednesdays! They give me a good kick in the pants to evaluate what I've been working on and make sure I'm on track to get the things done that I need to. This week, I feel like I've gotten a lot done. So let's get to it.

Granny Squares

I caught the Granny Squares bug (read more here).

I-Spy Swap

I cut up a couple I-Spy fat quarters into five-inch charms for a swap. I'll be getting back 48 unique charms I can use in an I-Spy quilt. It'll be fun to have another option for my kids to use on the couch so they don't fight over The Lorax quilt I'll be making soon.

Fabrics are:
Red Letter Day White Ducks on Pink in Feather by Lizzy House
Outfoxed Hedgehogs in Navy by Lizzy House
Metro Cafe Toasters Toast in Spring Blue by Monaluna
Going Coastal Crab Walk in Gray by Emily Herrick

Twin Quilts

My nephew and his wife had twins a couple months ago, actually about two months after I had my baby. (It sounds pretty crazy to say that I'm a great aunt, especially after just having a baby, but I'm only five years older than my nephew.) I've been meaning to make quilts for these adorable babies for a while now. They live in Chile so I think I've used the excuse of them not being close to put these quilts on the back burner. But, after seeing Jessica's super cute Baby Blocks quilt, I decided to finally get started and set to work cutting the fabric. In no time, I had two quilt tops done.

Sew Beautiful Bee Prep

April is my month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. I'm having the girls make Mod Mosaic blocks using Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial. I'll share more on this later this week as I get the fabric shipped out, but for now I'll share my test block.

So, there you have it folks. I feel like I put a good dent in my never-ending to-do list.

This Week's Stats:
Finished: 0
In Progress: 10+
New: 4

Granny Squares Love

I've mentioned in a couple previous posts that I was bitten by the Granny Squares bug. I don't know what it is about this block that draws me in, but I love it. I raided my scraps,

cut up the 2.5 inch squares a few weeks ago,

and finally got around to putting my first block together on Saturday.

I'm going to be putting blocks together here and there as I have time. I have a few more pressing items on my to-do list, but I think I'm really going to love this quilt when I finish it!

Pillow Talk Swap 7 Received

Look at this amazing pillow that came in the mail on Friday!



I was so happy to open the mail box and see a package sitting there for me. Val seriously hit the nail on the head with this one. In my mosaic, which served as inspiration for the swap, I had a lot of images of stars, strings, and rainbows. This pillow incorporates them all!



She made a purple star that didn't end up fitting in with the design, but she sent it along anyway. I'm so excited to use this block and make another pillow or wall hanging out of it.



She also included a bag full of scraps for me. There are some great fabrics in there and I can definitely put them to good use!



Thanks again, Val!

Squaretastic

For Elizabeth's month in the Sew Beautiful Bee, she asked us to make blocks made up of multi-sized squares. We could come up with our own design or use one of hers.

I chose this one:



She sent us a bunch of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile. I've only sewn with voile once, so I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to make a quilt block. The voile was a little slippery, but it actually came together pretty well. I'm excited to see Elizabeth's quilt come together. The colors go really well together and the fabric is so soft.

Carpenter's Star for Sukie

For Sukie's month in our local guild bee, she requested Cherie's Carpenter's Star blocks. She had such fun color combos within each package, but I chose this green and gray one. The green doesn't quite look as yellow as it does in this picture.



I'm part way through cutting my Figgy Pudding stash to make a Christmas quilt using this pattern. I can't stress enough how much I LOVE this block!

I also received my last fabric.com order last week. I purchased an assortment of Lizzy House's Outfoxed prints as well as some Michael Miller grays. Aside from Flea Market Fancy, this is my last fabric purchase for a while...at least it should be. ;)



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200th post

I was hoping to have something awesome in the works for my 200th post, but instead I'm sitting here on the couch trying to recover from a sleepless night with two puking kids and a puking mama. Thankfully, the mister and the wee one didn't get hit with this nasty stomach bug. While the vomiting has stopped, the hurty tummies abound and I'm trying to keep my mind off of mine. So, for my 200th post, I hope you'll enjoy some eye candy of a recent fabric purchase.



For the first few years of our marriage, my inlaws bought all the married couples sets of children's books to start our collections for when we'd have kids. Among those books were some Dr. Seuss favorites that were new to me (Oh, the Places You'll Go and The Lorax). When Robert Kaufman released The Lorax fabric, I knew I had to get it to make a couch quilt for my two older kiddos. They've been loving the book lately (and the movie was fantastic!), so I ordered the panel. Katie made a great Seuss quilt and I think I'll probably use a similar design for mine.



Thanks to my trusty Kona colors card, I picked out these solids to frame the panel prints. I'm too lazy to look up all the colors I ordered, but I might be able to list them off the top of my head: sable, wheat, cheddar, banana, cactus (?), aqua, sage, and peridot.



After making my dad's quilt, I started planning another solids quilt inspired by part of the design. When picking my solids, I wanted to use colors from a pair of PJs we got my son for Christmas.



I can't name these colors off the top of my head, but there's a great assortment of blues (including lagoon, cyan, and teal blue), greens (cactus and peridot), and grays (ash, medium, coal, and pepper - the almost black one). Oh, and there's white too.



I've definitely got more than enough fabric to keep me busy for the next couple years! I've started so many new projects in the last few weeks though that I need to sit down and prioritize all my to-make items. Looks like my goal of trying to stick to a project from start to finish is pretty much out the window.

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This week's wrap-up

Hopefully, you aren't getting sick of seeing these iPad cases. I made another one for my sister this week. It only took about an hour to put together. I love Faith's (Fresh Lemons Quilts) tutorial. I'm thinking of making a few more smaller versions for a Nook and Kindle for another sister and niece.







I then pieced together the first block of my mom's quilt. She picked this Lost and Found fabric by Jen Allyson for Riley Blake. She wanted gray sashing, so I paired it with Kona medium gray. I forgot that these blocks can take a bit of time. They finish at around 15 inches. I'm planning on making 36 total blocks for a 6x6 layout. One down, 35 to go.



I also purchased some fabric this week for a steal. Here are my first two orders (half yard cuts of each). Another order came yesterday, but I need to take pictures of it first (so excited for the quilts that'll come out of that package), and my final order should arrive on Tuesday.



Fabrics from top to bottom:

• Marvel Superhero Retro Comics for Camelot Cottons
  
• Sea Kelp in Gray from Going Coastal by Emily Herrick for Michael Miller
  
• Sea Star in Red from Going Coastal by Emily Herrick for Michael Miller
  
• Crab Walk in Gray from Going Coastal by Emily Herrick for Michael Miller
  
• Daisy's Dates in Red from Reunion by Sweetwater for Moda
  
• Wall Flower in Cherry from Lotus by Amy Butler
  
• Circles in Carrot from Metro Living for Robert Kaufman
  
• Premier Prints Zig Zag Twill in Chartreuse
  
• Premier Prints Twill Gotcha Girly Blue
  
• Premier Prints Zig Zag Twill Girly Blue

I have plans for some of these, but the rest are just to add to the stash. I plan to make a drawstring bag or two for storing some of my son's toys with the superhero fabric. With the twill Premier Prints, I think I'll make some zippered pouches, like this one, and maybe a bag.

I've really been enjoying my renewed sewing time these last few weeks. Life can be so stressful that it's nice to have something that I feel I have control over and that stays finished. I'm sure my mother thought I'd never say this, but thank goodness for sewing!