Wee Bee fun!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) quilting bees
(2) show n tell
(3) good friends

Saturday at our bee our member Charlene was presented with this beautiful signature quilt from our guild (Uhuru) as appreciation of her two-year service as guild Treasurer.

She was not at the last guild meeting, so they caught up with her at the bee and presented the quilt.  This is such a pretty pattern and layout!



We had some nice show n tell from Emma:

and Lyzetta:

and Pat K:

and Pat J... I specially love this one because it's a simple nine patch that's simply beautiful!

and Sandra Ealy:

and Sandy Hassan:

these two go under the "I made this last night" department - Sandy

and Sandra:

clever ladies!

I showed two... someone else snapped my picture!

That's it for today, got a few errands and it'll be foot to the pedal!  Sew forth and sew on til later...

Keeping it simple-er!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) clocks that tick
(2) red staplers
(3) tv remotes

Still designing my bee's anniversary swap blocks - I wasn't keeping it simple enough!

After stitching around those letters in the 10th Street Cafe block I realized I didn't want to do that 3 more times!  Even after simplifying it and just putting a "10" on the tray, I knew I could do better.

So I found some clipart and decided how to combine it with the number 10...

Getting there...

I'm glad I took a photo of it first though... that "1" looks like the number seven!

Not bad, eh?  I like it!  Why didn't I arrive here sooner??

The ones I didn't stitch down yet will be replaced with this figure.  This is so super simple, and it's all one piece!



That's it for now, I have a dental appointment this morning, lucky me.  Enjoy your day, sew forth and sew on til later!

Good day at guild day!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) the color red
(2) cane fishing poles
(3) eyeglass cases with a magnetic strip

Saturday was guild day, I meant to post these show n tell pictures yesterday.

There were lots of members present, and two ladies from the Baltimore Applique Society (one was a member of our guild) brought their gorgeous raffle quilt!  I couldn't get a shot of the entire quilt, it was behind a table but just look at these four panels!

Sheryl did a sashiko demo/workshop that I didn't get any shots of ... but I did get the great show n tell part.  I tell you we had a mini quilt show right at the guild!

Every year Jennifer makes a t-shirt quilt commissioned by the National Education Association.  They're always pretty...

and check out the back art!

Cynthia Y. made a pretty sweatshirt jacket:

and look at the peplums on the back - very creative! 

Rosa's granddaughter will be a happy little girl when she gets this quilt!

I love when someone says "I was trying to use up my fabric!"

Tammie's batiks...

Jackie's quilt for her husband...

A t-shirt quilt from Donnette - this is just one of several she made using President Obama t-shirts...

A pretty community service quilt from Cynthia W...

and a small Toulouse Lautrec quilt 

I don't remember who did this one, but it's intended for a community service quilt...

soft and scrappy!

That's it for now, enjoy the snow if you got any... sew forth and sew on!

Cake for breakfast?

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pale green lichen
(2) a glass of orange juice
(3) a new recipe

I woke at the wee hour at 6:30 (5:30?) this morning and used my kindle for a bit, then decided to work on my bee's  anniversary swap blocks.

I don't know if I showed this one or not, but it was only fused down, no stitching had been done on it.

I stitched around the main part, now I have to do the letters.

Those letters!  Now I know what not  to do on the blocks ... those rascals can be tedious to stitch around unless they're super large!

The connected letters (cursive?) are easier because there's not so much start-and-stop action.

The good news?  They'll all get done by April's deadline - or else!

Last week the District distributed new trash and recycle cans ... see the snow still on the ground?

I didn't know we were getting them, they were delivered to the front  of the house - which means, since the entire neighborhood is connected rowhouses,  everybody had to drag their cans around back to the alley.

The new trash can is the same size, but the new recycle can (on the left) is larger than the old one was.

Some households need larger cans but the old one was fine with me, trash is collected once a week and I can usually get all my recyclables into the smaller can.   Whatever.

That's it for today, get out and enjoy the nice weather if you're having some... sew forth and sew on til later!

Three more done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) signs of spring
(2) the colors of spring
(3) springing forward!

Two sure signs of spring for me are the clock springing  forward and street cleaning starting up again!  Today they clean my side of the street and parking is restricted between 9:30 and 11:30 or you risk a ticket.  Can you believe this... last year they installed cameras on the sweeping trucks so they can take pictures of the scofflaws, upload it to the District's Public Works database and bingo - a ticket!!

I used this clipart I found someplace to create three more blocks for my bee's 10th anniversary swap...

I like the silhouette, it's clean and simple!  To keep  it simple I eliminated the cover, and traced the word "Cafe" onto the platter instead.


Here's a green one:

I hope someone likes green!

A red one...

and my favorite!

I had just enough left of this blue fabric for the words:

it looks black, but it's a lovely shade of blue.  Not even a crumb left of this one!

Temperature's rising, have a great day, do something creative, sew forth and sew on...

Thought for a Thursday...

Why can't we all get along!





Eye doctor appointment this morning -  his receptionist told me she was the only one in the office on Monday, so she left after an hour or so... sew forth and sew on til later  :o)

Two test units done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) melting snow
(2) sunshiny mornings
(3) rising temperatures

Well!  Today I'm in a much better mood, can you tell?

I cut a few more pieces for the Lozenge leader ender challenge and sewed two test blocks, although with this pattern you really don't need a test block.  Although in this case I'm glad I did!

When I cut the little 2" squares for the corner HST I figured I'd use a combination of lights on one block and darks on the others... only it doesn't quite look right. 

Took another look at what Bonnie cut and I discovered the difference:  she was cutting blacks for the light blocks and neutrals  for the dark blocks!  W  

When I studied the original quilt I realized the little corner pieces created a definite pattern that could make a difference in the finished quilt.  So, back to the cutting board!  I only cut a few of the 2" squares, so I'll pull my black scraps - and my neutral scraps - to cut the real  ones.  

These blocks are so ugly I don't want to use them in the quilt...   

All isn't lost though - I"ll cut the ends into little flying geese and the middle will be a scrap!

Meanwhile I'm going to have a great day.... I notice my neighbor 4 doors down hasn't cleaned off her car, I'll call her to make sure she's okay - shoot I'll even clean it off for her!  Sew forth and sew on til later!

Monday morning blues

I'm blue because it's snowing.  Again.  They're calling for up to 6 inches before it stops, I think.  There's snow on my car, snow on the street, snow on the sidewalks... I know other places have it worse than here, but ... still...

So here we go -  Three things to be happy about:
(1) the first flowers of spring
(2) birds building a nest (but not under my awning, please!)
(3) new house plants

Sandra over at Sistah Stitchalot told me about this handy dandy applique sheet she uses.  Actually it's a  Betty Crocker 23 x 16" oven liner!

I've seen vendors selling applique pressing sheets at quilt shows but for some reason I hardly ever see them anyplace else.   I don't know how much they cost, but this one was $9.99 from the kitchen area at Bed Bath & Beyond.

I know, I know, you can get them online but if you REALLY need one right away, a quick trip to your local Bed Bath & Beyond beats online shopping!

The Sue top has been kitted with the back, and I've put it to bed as it were til I can quilt it.

While I'm deciding what to work on next, I'm cutting fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's latest leader-ender challenge; the units are being cut at 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" with 2" squares for the HST at the corners.

I don't have any pre-cut 3-1/2" strips, so I've been digging through my scraps again, pulling out some of the larger pieces to cut down.

(have you noticed that every pile of scraps looks like you've seen it before??)

I even have this Alexander Henry print in two colorways:

It's a 2000 print called "elephants of rana" that was gifted to me, it'll play very nicely with the other scraps!

I'm pinning these into groups of 10 as Bonnie suggests... so far, so good, I've cut 60 already!

So that's it for today; I supposedly have a 9:30 appointment at the eye doctor which ain't gonna happen!  Have a great day, make a snowman or snow quilt, sew forth and sew on!