Orphan Block Mini Quilt {A Little Finish}

I made a mini!

This 12.5" block has been hanging around in my pile of orphan blocks since at least 2014. Yes, 2014! This block came to me as a swap block, when I participated in a monthly block swap on Flickr. (Takes me way back!)

I used many of the other blocks to make these baby quilts but this was one of the blocks whose color scheme wasn't exactly right.

I was just in the mood to do a little FMQ and burn through some batting scraps. I quilted this with white Aurifil in a meander. The backing is "vintage" Anna Maria Horner -- this is a Bubble Burst print from the Innocent Crush line.

The binding is the same bias binding that I used on my Blooming Bear Tracks quilt that I shared last week! I used purple thread to topstitch the binding.

Sometimes you need to just make something quick and simple.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Pastel Mini Quilt
Pattern: 99% sure it's Double Aster from the Quilter's Cache
Fabrics: Scraps
Quilting: meander in white 40 wt. Aurifil
Size: 12" square
Started: the block was originally made in 2014!
Finished: March 2019
Future: doll quilt or mini quilt for my sewing room

Sharing at Brag about your Beauties!

Finished NuBees Quilt

Last year, I participated for a few months in the NuBees swap on Flickr and I just now have gotten my quilt finished.

One of the perks of being married is having someone to hold your quilts -- especially when it is rainy and gross outside.

And here is the pieced backing that I put together using just my stash! I love being able to do that.

This was long arm pantograph quilted with a large meander -- here are my two favorite blocks!

The cross block on the right is also my husband's favorite block.

I bound this quilt with a half yard of Posh by Chez Moi that I've been hoarding for ages. Originally I planned to do a scrappy binding, but it just needed some more brown in the mix and this fabric fit the bill perfectly.

Thanks to everyone who participated in making this quilt happen, especially Kim @ Crafternoon Delight, Marla @ Sew Hungry, and Anne @ Play Crafts!

Sharing over at Crazy Mom Quilts!

(Don't forget to check out the Starburst Quilt Along -- still lots of time to join in!)

NuBees Quilt Top

While my mom was here two weeks ago, we drug out and looked at a bunch of my projects and she helped me lay out all of my blocks from my NuBees swap that I did over the summer and fall.

I finished sewing the blocks in rows while she was here and finished sewing the rows together last night.

Here is the top all sewn together:

The blocks are all 12.5" blocks and the sashings are 2.5" strips cut from a huge chunk of Zipang fabric that I got on sale a year ago at Christmastime that was the inspiration for these blocks.

I decided to also do a pieced back for this one out of the rest of the sashing fabric and a number of other small cuts of fabric in my stash. This pieced back is much simpler than the one I made previously, but it's such a good feeling to not have to purchase additional fabric to finish this one!

If you can't tell the back is NOT squared up right now. I didn't figure it made a difference until after it was quilted, anyways.

Also, I'm all set up for anyone to follow me on BlogLovin' now! There's a button on the sidebar and if you're still in Google Reader, apparently its really easy to transfer from one to the other. I always just use Blogger so I'm not super affected by the demise of Google Reader.

Have a Hoppy Easter weekend all!

Newest Bee Blocks

When I was working on my Nubee's blocks yesterday, I realized that I never made my own block for last month.

Here are my own September and October blocks:

And here are all of my blocks so far (missing one September block):

I'll have one more set of four blocks coming this month and after that I think I will make a lap quilt with these colors. Hooray!

Happy Sunday and don't forget to sign up for the jelly roll strip swap!

Slow Goings

It's been a busy week for me between Park Ranger boyfriend visiting for nearly 4 days (4 DAYS!!!), work, volunteer schtuff, and just regular life. So sewing has been a little bit on the back burner. I started and finished another New York beauty block, one of the more complicated ones, so it ended up taking two days to just get the paper piecing done. Oh geez oh man.

Here's the finished product:

The October/November Nubees hives were also assigned and I got three of my four blocks done! I used the Card Basket block via Quilter's Cache (modified slightly for simplification).

And now I get to listen to whatever party my neighbors across the hall party it up and resist going to bed at 8 PM today.

Don't forget to sign up for the Jelly Roll strip swap...my blog readers will have the chance to win free shipping!

Keeping Up

My mom and grandma have been here this weekend so I had to put the sewing on the backburner, but since last I posted, I finished up my last bee block for the month and sent them all off.

I also finished up another New York Beauty block and took a picture of all seven that I have completed so far.

September Bee Blocks (and more argyle)

My crazy two weeks are finally over and I have more time to sew, finally!

This month for the NuBees swap I decided to do the Box Quilt block from Quilter's Cache. I got three of the four done yesterday!

I altered the way that I made the blocks from the directions and I'll be talking about that tomorrow.

I also got 7 more argyle blocks done, bringing my total up to 55:

Lots more to go!

Received August Bee Blocks

Happy Friday! I am off to visit Park Ranger Boyfriend this weekend but I wanted to show off my August Nubees blocks!

Here are all of my blocks thus far (the one I made for myself this month is in the upper right hand corner):

And if you're not too busy go vote for your favorite scrappy quilts in this week's Quilting Gallery contest! My Teacup Quilt is in the running this week!

Bit by Bit

After 5 days of being home from my whirlwind trip out to Colorado for a friend's wedding, I am finally back in the sewing swing of things. It didn't help much that I took a red eye flight back on Monday morning and got back to my town at 9 AM. I went home and slept until 4 PM.

This week and into this morning, I finished up my Nubees blocks for August.

I really liked this pattern a lot when I found it on Quilter's Cache, but I did have some hesitations about picking a rather intricate block. The first time I tried to make the angled blocks that end up looking like chevrons, it was a complete disaster. But, of course, by the time I got the last ones done, I can churn them out rather quickly and much more accurately.

Now I need to make one of my own!

Round-Up

Since I did my marathon sewing, I haven't done a whole lot because Park Ranger Boyfriend came to visit and I had to clean up all of my sewing stuff so he could use the kitchen table for historical research for two days.

I have since recluttered the table in starting to work on my August blocks for my Nubees swap. I have one block done, one block cut out, and two blocks that I am still working on figuring out which fabrics to use. I might have to go buy a quarter yard or so of grey. Not sure yet.

In other blog news, my day on the Let's Get Aquainted blog hop is fast approaching! If you haven't been keeping up, you are missing out! My project that I've been working on is fast, easy, and you can use up scraps of batting.

August 20th also marks the anniversary of starting this blog! (Blogiversary, if you will) So in honor of that and in conjunction with the blog hop and because I have almost 50 followers now (heck yes!) I'm going to do some sort of giveaway to celebrate. If you have ideas let me know!

Also, Pile O' Fabric is hosting a new event: Pin it, Sew it! in order to get us all to actually make use of all of those sewing and crafting pins on Pinterest that we hoard. I know it's not just me!

This weekend, little to no sewing will get done because I'm making a whirlwind trip to Colorado for a college friend's wedding! Hope you all have adventure filled weekends as well!

Recieved July Bee Blocks

These are the three Nubees swap blocks that I have recieved so far, as well as the one that I made.

The tutorial for the Broken Herringbone block is here (upper right hand corner). Happy Friday!

Tackling paper piecing

This weekend, I started and completed a paper pieced block!

Of course, I had to pick the flying geese in a circle that everyone has been doing lately! And I did it in a rainbow as well. 

Ta da!

Although, silly me didn't think to double check the scale marker on the paper after it was printed and it ended up 11.75 (approximately) instead of 12.5 inches. Oops. I'll have to remember that next time. I think it might get made into a pillow. Or a gigantic hot pad.

I also made a block for myself in the same pattern that I used for my hive mates over at the NuBees swap. 

What are you working on today?

July Bee Blocks

Last night I was able to get two more of my NuBees blocks done.

And I finished this one up tonight, after having taken it entirely apart yesterday and having a heck of a time getting the corners on some of the seams to match up:

What kind of bees and swaps are you guys involved in? This is my first one and I definitely like it so far!

Introducing...

Introducing my newly updated blog!

I won Jennie's blog make over and we've been working to make it absolutely adorable! And of course it has a bunny.

I feel like a real blogger now.

In other news, I got back from vacation on Sunday and am still catching up from being gone. I did deliver a set of almost finished placemats (they just need the binding hand stitched to the back) to my sister before she moved to St. Louis on Sunday.

They're made from a fat quarter bundle plus some other batik scraps that I had hiding in my closet.

I started working on my NuBees blocks for this month too. I decided to do the Bachelors Puzzle block and this is the first one of the four I'll be doing:

Three more to go!