bear paws + spooky treats + jack-o-lanterns

Happy Halloween! But first things first, here are my last pair of bee blocks for the Far Flung Bee. Bear paws for Essie.

She has a great tutorial for them on her blog and asked for autumn colors on neutral backgrounds, suggesting the scrappier the better.

My scrap bin has grown a lot recently and includes fabrics left over from my own projects, as well as scraps I received from swaps with quilty pals and purchased from various brick and mortar and online quilt shops.

It was fun being able to pull exclusively from my scrap bin and these blocks were a blast to make. I'll probably do a wrap-up post for the bee once I've received all my blocks. It takes a minute for things to travel from Australia, hence the name Far Flung Bee!

Now back to Halloween, have you seen the sale section over at fat quarter shop?! They've got tons of Halloween prints 50% off and I just couldn't resist. I don't usually do novelty prints but I love a good deal and now's the time!

I picked up this fat quarter bundle and a few other basic blender prints from Halloween lines that aren't Halloween specific and can be used in other projects too. I think it's safe to say I'll be making a spooky quilt for next year :D

And here's a look at our jack-o-lanterns, mine is on the right, Jon's is on the left. Don't they look so happy together?! He had hoped his would look more menacing but it just can't help looking smitten.

I've got candy lined up for the trick-or-treaters and a race horse costume ready for the dog. Can't wait!
What are your plans?



Sent from my iPhone

my wonky house neighborhood

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
You know what's fun? Getting mail from Australia. They have really cute stamps over there and need to use a LOT of them to send stuff across the globe. I forgot to photograph that though, so use your imagination. (think tropical fish, sea turtles... coral reef!!)



These are the wonky house blocks Erika, (@guildthelily on instagram) made me for  the far flung bee we started a while back. Someone got creative! The little weenie dog is my favorite part, not to mention the clothesline and vegetable garden. That confetti sky... I adore them.



The group shot so far, a little funky neighborhood being built block by block by a bunch of quilty peeps across the globe. Gives me the warm and fuzzies, I tell ya. Happy Wednesday!

Sent from my iPhone

Fresh Sewing Day!

It's been a long time since I linked up with Lynne over at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day. But I spent a minute making some cute mosaics to share what I've been up to over the last month, so here goes!

Some Instagram peeps and I got a scrap swap going, intending to be sewn into tiny patchwork, which we dubbed the #inchbyinchquilt scrap swap and quilt along. There's currently 119 photos in the pool and 10+ people participating. Another swap is scheduled to start in November! Clockwise from left to right: patchwork squares finishing at 1" made by me using that whole fusible method thing, my scrap packs cut and ready to ship out, a pile of my cut 1.5" squares, more of my finished patchwork!

I also made two sets of Far Flung Bee blocks this month, Erika's Dear Janes (on bottom) were a wee bit late for August, and Elizabeth's tulip blocks (on top) were shipped out a week early (that even out, right?). Just one more set to go before this thing is done, I'll be sad to have it over with!

I made my first ever pillow cover this September, something I'd been wanting to try for ages. It was for Allegory's Sailor Mouth Swap, which turned out to be a huge hit so round two will start up right after Sewing Summit. She's got several things in the works including a Hoop-la-la swap (spots are still open, I just signed up!), head over here for more information.

You've seen Jolene's granny square tutorial. I took Katy's strip piecing method and modified it by using microscopic 1" strips. That's right, I microfied it! These little guys will be turned into wrist pin cushions for personal swaps with Kris of Duke Says Sew What and Nicole of Bold Goods, because apparently I'm a swapaholic these days...

Yup, swapaholic indeed. I also joined in on Rebecca's Low Volume Swap which I'm stoked about. My fabric picks are on the top left, the button is on top right, some other fabrics in the flickr pool on bottom left, and my charms all cut, stacked and ready to go on bottom right. Can't wait to get these back, I'll be mixing them with my charms from the last swap I did. Maybe.

And finally, just to show it's not all been about swaps this month, I donated a Lucky Pieces quilt block to Victoria of Bumble Beans Inc for a quilt she's making for a friend with Leukemia. My block is on the top and bottom right, and on the left is a photo I stole (with permission) from Victoria's blog that shows all the blocks together. They look so awesome, don't they?

PHEW, looks like I accomplished some stuff this month, even if I didn't get around to blogging about most of it. I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day, click on the button to check it out!

PS: photo mosaics are fun.

Mod Mosaic blocks

Here are the blocks I made for Holly for our Far Flung Bee. They were made using Elizabeth Fransson's Mod Mosaic tutorial. I had a bit of a rough time with these, mostly because I have this irrational fear that my handmade things won't be loved by anyone but me.

Holly wanted not-square blocks with color gradation. I'm hoping they fit well with her other blocks and that she likes them. It's hard making things for other people, isn't it? I didn't really anticipate the amount of stress it would cause when I first signed up, but I think it's important to stretch your limits and try new things. Up next is Dear Jane blocks for Erika. Wish me luck!

on the road sewing + bee blocks

When I was young we took lots of cross country road trips. I spent hours in the back of our Chevy Lumina minivan (which we dubbed the "dust buster" given it's odd shape) creating elaborate, beaded macrame jewelry. Once I got old enough to drive I realized how much it sucks not being a passenger. It's impossible to get my craft on if I have to keep my eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. Enter Jon, who loves to drive, who drives me anywhere and everywhere all the time. And only gives me the slightest bit of shit over my compulsive need to sew while riding shotgun.

Speaking of EPP on the road, I've been making some cute blocks out of antique/vintage fabric scraps. They're kind of along the lines of Clare's rose star blocks, only not really since they're scrappier, made from all kite shapes and I'm not adding the outer two rows. But those rose stars certainly were my original inspiration. I just love how you can dice up a hexagon and make so many different things from its pieces.

I have four of these hand-sewn blocks pieced and was thinking I'd float them on the natural quilter's muslin I used to cover this gigantor ironing/pressing board I made (with the help of my handyman). I got it at my LQS for $5/yd and it's heavier weight than normal muslin. I think it works really well with these old fabrics.

The pressing board is something I've wanted to make for forever and has been super useful while working on some far flung bee blocks for Holly. She asked for mod mosaic blocks using our scraps, with a color gradient and odd/unsquare shape. I have to finish the red-purple-blue one tonight so I can mail them off ASAP, as these were July's blocks and I'm a major tool for being so behind.

In my defense, my sewing room and supplies were in a horrific state of chaos (I'd never really finished "moving in") until recently when I finally got my butt in gear and organized the hoard. It's only slightly better now but I can at least move around in there and find what I need to make stuff. Ah, progress.

We'll be on the road again this weekend and I'll be taking full advantage of my passenger status, as usual :D

edit to add: yesterday I stumbled across Cindy's Really Random Thursday link-up and told her I'd wished this post were more random so it would fit the bill. She told me to link up anyway, so I did! Go check it out, there's some great randomness going on.

wonky house bee blocks

My mailbox is starting to fill up with my Far Flung Bee blocks! Essie sent these lovelies all the way from Australia and they arrived just a few days ago.

Aren't they darling? I love the flower gardens in the one on the right, as well as the owl perched up top on the roof. She says the one on the left is a house full of "Bennet sisters," inspired by the book/movie Pride and Prejudice. How neat is that?

As for Elizabeth's blocks, she had some inspiration as well. Since I've spent the last few months falling madly in love with my fiance, Jon, she thought my houses should be in the shape of a heart! I think it's a totally cute idea and am so pleased she thought of it.

While the fabric, style and size of these blocks differ quite a bit, by the end of our six month bee I will have plenty of others to mix in to make a unique, quirky, little neighborhood of happy houses. Have any of you all participated in bees? What do you think of them? This is my first and so far it's been a blast :D

far flung bee + project gingham

My very first quilting bee started this month! Some Instagram buddies and I began throwing ideas around a while back, but now we're actually doing it and I'm super stoked. We're calling it the Far Flung Bee because we live all over the globe, and there's six of us so we'll each be making two blocks a month, for six months. Cool, eh?

broken dishes bee blocks

Here's a post by Elizabeth Hartman that explains virtual quilting bees in case you aren't all that familiar with them. I came up with a bit of a twist for ours, though. We each chose the type of block we wanted, but instead of one person having all twelve blocks made for them in one month, we each make two and receive two. So this month I made two broken dishes blocks for Deb and I'll receive two wonky house blocks from Essie. The last month of the bee each member makes two blocks for themselves.

swap charms on left, my picks on right

To make Deb's broken dishes blocks, I pulled four bright prints from my stash and four gray charms from the stack I received through the Neutral and Solids Charm Swap hosted by Annaliese @The Pewter Acorn. This was my first charm swap, and I chose to send a teal bella solid and a slate/white crosshatch (both on right) that I picked up from my LQS.

mom's old riccar

As for Project Gingham, it's been a bit of a struggle. I kind of rushed into an idea I had without really thinking it through too much. First I thought I'd use a standard sheet of computer paper with a section six inches wide running diagonally from corner to corner. I was going to foundation paper piece strips of ginghams within those strips, then add white on the two remaining opposite corners.

i haven't gotten very far

In my mind, it would have been a variation on this quilt I had seen on Alex's blog. So I went crazy cutting random width strips from my ginghams. But then I decided maybe there was a much more interesting and hopefully easier (im not so sure now) way of doing it. I made this mockup in paint (then drew the diagonal cutting marks on with pencil) a few weeks ago and had planned to go this route. Where I'd sew strips of stacked coins to strips of white, then slice and dice and end up with blocks for two different quilts.

cutting diagram

I've got plenty of gingham, I told myself. Only the green machine wasn't liking this process so I've finally switched to my mother's Riccar, which is only 30 years old... and it's sewing like a dream. So there you have it. The coffee just finished brewing and I'm about to go make serious headway on project gingham. Wish me luck!