Swoon 3 and 4

And all of them together so far :)

 dark blue pezzy print with the red from little apples (aneela hoey)

 light blue pezzy print with red dot (don't remember what it's from)

Anyone up for some peer pressure?

Just wanted to stop in to see how you all are!!  It's been a crazy busy week, mostly good, with exciting tidbits all over the place.

I want to tell you about some awesome things going on that you should check out.  Immediately if possible. 

First: have you heard of the exciting and upcoming Shorts on the Line?  You can find more details and a full schedule here.

Go check it out and pay particular attention to the end of July on the schedule...see that?  YES, it's ME!!  I'm really excited to be participating!  Start thinking shorts, especially if you're new to sewing clothes because that's the category I fall into!!  I'm planning on diving in with both feet.  Be sure to come back and see how it tuns out!

Second:  I don't have any handwork to show today, the hexagons and other fabrics I worked on earlier this week are for a secret project.  I'm worried I'll give it away by posting more pictures! However, be sure to check on Katie's Handmade Parade today, lots of great projects as usual! If you've been curious about the Handstitched class several talented bloggers are taking there are a few posts about what they've been up to.

Third: I have been busy making more swoon blocks.  I'm up to four.  Pictures to come.

Fourth: have you heard about the Soda Pop QAL that Allegory is hosting?  Go here if you haven't.  It's such a pretty quilt from Katy, per usual.  I just figured out what fabrics I'm going to use!  I got a most unexpected and delightful gift from Bianca this week! 

 She sent me a FQ bundle of Valori Wells line Cocoon (I know, right?! Awesome!)!!! 

FIFTH! Katy, of the previous paragraph and Fat Quarterly loveliness, is hosting a QAL too!  Have you seen her Hexy MF quilt?  It's to die for.  I love it.  I want to steal it from her because it's perfect.  Now I get to make my own! I'm going to call mine "I'm hexy and I know it" instead, because I can't get that song out of my head, and I kindof like it :)

Details are being posted on Fat Quarterly's website here, so be sure to go see if this is a project you'd like to do.  This will be an heirloom quilt if I have my way.  Future grandchildren will   I have already ordered my paper pieces and am planning to use most of the same fabric as Katy for the flowers, but I'm going to use a text fabric for the centers.  I'm pretty excited about that.

Finally, does anyone know if you're allowed to bring a needle onto an airplane?  I'd love to take some of these hexagons and fabrics to get started when we fly to CA next Saturday but I hate how you practically have to undress to get through these days and would really hate to be held up by a needle if I'm not allowed to have one....If you have any experience with this I'd love to hear it! 

And if you read that whole thing you deserve a medal...!!

Swoon #2

WIP Wednesday

It's my husband's birthday today!!  We stayed up late last night (he helped someone move last minute and I watched Twin Peaks of course) so I'm letting him sleep in while I wake up with the kids.  I'm not sure yet what we'll do but I know there will be an Ice Cream Cake because that's the only thing I could pry out of him that he wanted...

Anyway, since I watched Twin Peaks mostly alone last night I didn't finish my 2nd Swoon block and am finishing it up this morning. 

And here's the first one. I really need to get in order and get some these done or I'm not going to make it!!! In my opinion trimming the HST's is the worst part.  After you've made those it's pretty easy and a fun block to put together. 

I also started a pillow cover for Bee A {Modern} Swapper's June pillow cover swap.  I don't want to show to much.  You'll see more of this in hopefully a more finished form on Friday for the Handmade Parade at Katie's blog.  I have my fingers crossed that my partner will like it. 

And...though I did get charms cut and mailed for 2 more swaps yesterday, I haven't done much else yet this week!!  Sigh...tomorrow I'll be more productive.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

1 down...

...8 to go!

My only tip so far is to trim your HST's to 3.5"

It doesn't say this in the instructions so I did lots of unpicking yesterday...

Fabrics used are Curious Nature Arctic French Quarter (blue), and Stars and Stripes Red Small Stars.

Hexagons Galore

Tonight I bring you a whole bunch of hexagons.

This is my collection so far.  I swapped for the ones on the right, in sets for making flowers.  The others on the left are what I've made while watching Twin Peaks over the past few weeks.

Needless to say I got a little distracted with the show and wasn't very productive...

I got some good mail today though, more hexagon materials and some fabric for two other charm swaps.  The melon solid and polka dot on the bottom are for the matchy polka dot swap, and the two other fabrics are for the Sherbet colors charm swap.  I Instagramed this so the colors aren't very true to life.

This time I'm using 1 1/4 inch pieces to make hexagons for Chelsea for two of the bees that I'm in.  I whipped up a bunch watching Twin Peaks tonight and now just  need to piece them together.

 I think I like this size better than the 1 " pieces.  That 1/4 inch really adds up.  Chelsea's going to have a beautiful bunch of hexagons from everyone.

 I love this elephant.  He's from one of the Birch organic collections.  Great color and the fabric feels so good.  I am hoarding all my Birch fabrics and waiting for just the right project for them...

And these cute girls were from a layer cake swap.  I cut it into 5" charms and then used one to make this 3" square for the hexagon. 

I also got to do a bee block that had some handstitching.  This block is for the June Books and Blocks Bee Too.

I like this version of the pinwheel better than most.  mainly because most pinwheels make me thing immediately of swastikas and that's just not good.  The circle in the middle, and having the whole pinwheel inset into the block here softens the unfriendly look that most pinwheels have for me.

The middle circle is appliqued in place so that's where the stitching came in.  I wanted to secure it a bit more so I put some fusible stuff (can't remember it's real name right now) under it and then stitched it down.  Hopefully it will be durable.

Linking up this post with Katie at There and Back.  If you haven't already you should check out the other posts in the Handmade Parade this week!  And get out some of your handwork so you can share your projects too!

June's Just Three

I am so tired.  I don't mean to complain but I feel I could sleep all week long!  I took a class at the gym today (first in a few days since we pretty much halted everything with Matthew's surgery last week).  It kicked my butt all across those darn mirror walls.  Then I hear the instructor say she does one in the morning too.  Then I hear myself asking what time.  Then I hear her say 8:30 and ask if I'll be there.  Then I say yes.

WHAT?! I am insane.  And I just want to go to sleep...

But back to the fun stuff.  I am jumping back into Tracey's great idea of the Just Three linky party.  Head over to Tracey's blog if you don't know what this is yet.  And then check out her patterns.  She makes great quilts!

So.  My Just Three for June are as follows:

1) Make a Swoon quilt for a friend's wedding.  The wedding is the end of THIS month and I only have the fabric cut.  Haven't sewn anything yet.  We're flying out to CA on the 23rd and the wedding is on the 30th.  Fortunately my mom has a sewing machine that's pretty sweet so I'll be able to catch up if I fall behind.  My goal is not to fall behind but to get it done before we go.  Get ready to see a lot of swoon blocks this month friends :)

2) Keep up with the bee's and other required-to-be-done-by-the-end-of-June commitments.  Yes.  I may have joined too many things.  But how can you say no to so much awesome swap-ness?  I have been trying to limit myself a bit more to less intense swaps, but I think I'm going to take the entire month of July off just so I can breath again.  But they're so fun!!!!!

3) I'm following Tracey's lead on this one and am going to make my 3rd goal to relax a bit.  I want to take some deep breaths and be able to enjoy the things I get to make.   I am going to indulge and plan a great quilt to make for myself this fall, and then I'm going to get really excited about it. 

I recently got the first issue of Quilty magazine and it's so cute.  I love the projects, the wording is awesome, it's like someone's talking to you.  Reassuring you as you read the directions in the projects and the articles.  It's just a lovely magazine.  I think I'm going to pick one of these two for my Fall quilt.  What do you think?  Which would you do?

Blonde Redhead - This just makes me want to take a nap under it.  Which is totally the goal I aim for in all the quilts I make.  They should make you want to snuggle underneath them (being awake is optional I guess). But I love this one.  The colors aren't me, really, but I love how bold they are and was thinking something in browns, blues and greys would be good.  But then I was also thinking I should be brave and try some different colors. 

Firefly - This one is so pretty!!  I couldn't get over it when I saw it in the magazine and so I read through the instructions until I figured out how they did it.  Now that I've figured it out I really want to go make it, right now.   Mainly to see what the back looks like.  There isn't a picture or even a hint of the back in the photos in the magazine, and given the way it's put together I think it would make for a pretty cool looking back.  This is the front runner.  Since this will be a fall project, I do like the colors in the photo here.  Makes me want some Apple Cider immediately!


 And I didn't even show you the wonderful box I got for the Modern She Made swap!!  This was so exciting.  A great pick me up of perfect fabric goodies!  My lovely partner was so generous.  I really lucked out. 

 

It was so wonderful that this is the only picture I have of the goodies!  See that pillow?  Not the owl one, the pezzy print one. Yep.  It's mine!  It is perfect and so well done (my daughter thinks it's her pillow).  The colors are my favorites and along with it were some placemats and a matching pot holder that features some text fabric that is to die for!  My kids are very into letters right now so I'm going to break them in over under dinner tomorrow! She also included 2 jars of phenomenal buttons and a chocolate bar that didn't last the night!  This is why I have a hard time saying no to swaps...because they're awesome and 99% of participants are so thoughtful and so good at being a swapper.  It's wonderful :)
 
Final quilting bit.  This went out in the mail today.  My very first Dresden plate for the May Traveling Circles bee!  I've always been too scared to try these but it actually wasn't as hard as I expected!  I'd love to make an entire quilt out of these but....that's a project for another year.  I also think it'd be fun to do a Christmas quilt out of these.  They remind me of holiday wreaths!  Maybe enhance it to be a tree skirt where the circle in the middle would be partly for where the tree goes?

And finally, it was 90 + degrees today so we blew up the pool, filled it with the hose and went to town.  Matthew no longer sees his arm as an impairment and is back to normal.  Which means our neighbors heard a lot of "reminding" about not splashing so big and don't get water in your cast...

We are starting to get back to our regular selves here, so I'm hopeful that I'll have more to show you, and um...in a more organized way.  Seems like I've been a bit scattered lately but at least it's not boring around here! 

I can't remember the exact origin of this quote but I always like to remember it at times like this.

"If it wasn't this, it'd be something else!"

Ain't that the truth!