Okay, I know the title is corny, but it's the best I could do at the moment. I've recently discovered the magical world of flickr, and I accidently ended up in my first quilting bee (the second and third ones were on purpose though!). Basically, I saw a flickr group called "Bee (a little bit) Japanese" and joined it, because I like Japanese fabrics, and they had pictures of Japanese fabric. I had no idea it was a quilting bee, or even what a quilting bee was! Suffice it to say, I was very confused when I got an email asking for my address. As soon as I realized what the group was, and that I would be making one block a month for each person's quilt, and then on my month I would get 11 completed blocks in the mail, I was thrilled! I immediately joined two more flickr quilting bees. I'll be queen bee for September in Bee Modern Too, queen bee for November in Sew Scrappy Sew Happy, and queen bee for June 2011 in Bee (a little bit) Japanese. I'm also in Quilt Swap Bootcamp, a mini quilt swap that started today and finishes when we mail our quilts to our secret partners on August 15th. After that, I'll be starting in a scrappy pincushion swap that begins in Aug./Sept.
Here's what I've been working on recently:
Scrappy Spiderweb blocks for Kaelin (ktelschow) in Bee (a little bit) Japanese.
Unfortunately, I'd never made a scrappy spiderweb before, or sewn with linen (stretchy stuff!) so all my seams are wonky, and none of the points match exactly.
I still think they look pretty good! Mostly that has to do with the awesome Japanese fabrics Kaelin picked! Great stuff!
These are already in the mail to her, so hopefully she likes them! I can't wait to see her finished quilt.
Kaelin said we could keep the scraps, so I used some of the leftovers to make an improv pincushion. It looks quite nice for 30 mins of effort!
I'm not a person who likes to put things off till the last minute, especially things to do with quilting and fabric! I've already got all my fabric for Bee Modern Too cut and packaged up for September. In my own defense, I'm encouraged to ship around August 15th, so I'm not that crazy! The blocks will be gnomes and mushrooms. I'm going to give them all copies of these patterns from Artisania, and have them make one of those, and then one improv block of their choice with a theme of gnomes and mushrooms. For example, they could make one Gnomlette, as on Artisania, and then one block of appliqued mushrooms of their own design.
I just got a new camera! It's a gorgeous red 14.1 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot, and I am obsessed with the huge screen and amazing picture quality! So obsessed, that I don't want anything to come between me and my precious except for a spiffy new camera case! (We can't let my precious get bumped and scratched, now can we?)
It was super easy, took about 30-45 minutes, and used up less than a fat quarter of fabric! It's very stiff and sturdy, and I feel like my camera is well protected.
If there is interest, I'd be willing to make another and take photos for a tutorial. Just let me know in the comments if you'd be interested in a tutorial to make one!
This scrappy circles quilt has been in the works for about 2 years. The first year it was just finished blocks, the second year it was just a quilt top, and finally this month I've quilted it and now I'm working on sewing down the binding. It's beautiful, I can't wait to finish it so I can show it off properly. Forgive the "less is more" approach of this photo, but I don't want to show the whole quilt until I'm 100% done!
Finally, I've been working on mini quilts. I've made 2 in the last 3 days (they're addictive and work up very quickly!). Since I'm in the Quilt Swap Bootcamp, this is very good practice. I plan on beginning my mini quilt for my secret partner this week. She and I have very similar tastes, according to her favorites on flickr (nope, I'm not above spying /stalking to get the information I need, hehe) and I already have a pretty good idea of what I'll be making for her. I'll probably get started tomorrow, and I'll post the progress here as it goes along. I hope she'll love what I have in mind!
Close up detail of my mini quilt "The Caged Bird". The words are the final verse of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
"The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom."
I love the mini quilt! The writing you did with your sewing machine looks great on it, I didn't know it would do that! You are so talented my dear!!
Posted by: Djam1029 | Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 10:34 PM