Blocks of a Feather fun

I'm nearing the end with my Block of a Feather quilting be. Last round, one member asked us to make a "mini-me" for the back of her quilt and we all had so much fun with it, we decided to make mini-me's for everyone's quilts. Here are the 5 I made for the 4 other members and myself.



The ones with the skirt are particularly funny to me, since I made a skirt a while ago with that fabric, so I actually wear that outfit in real life. :)


The last round (November/December) is the month everyone's making blocks for me. As you might remember, I sent out Kaffe Fassett prints and some solids. Everyone makes two blocks and I asked that one be a star.

Ruthiequilts already made this one:


and I made this one this weekend. I'm having fun working through my own instructions/inspiration along with everyone else. Here's my star block (Florida star from Quilter's Cache):

Sewing again!

Last weekend, I got back to sewing. I did a couple of blocks for the ever-talented Lucinda (LucyEllen06 on flickr). She requested spikes and circles and I posted my first block a while ago.

Here's the second block. I made it before the wedding, but I just wasn't that happy with it... I think it's growing on me, but I wanted to do another one that I felt really good about.



For the final block, I did my first "6 minute circle". It took more than 6 minutes, but worked really well and I could definitely see getting much faster if I did a few more.



November/December is my turn for Blocks of a Feather and here is the selection of fabrics I'm sending out. The colors are so me and I'm really excited to see what these ridiculously talented ladies come up with.






And just for fun, here's a photo from when Jon and I were hanging out in Minnesota.

Sewing with Glee

Happiness is spending an afternoon having my own Glee marathon and sewing without a pattern.


For Blocks of a Feather, the ever talented Lucinda (aka LucyEllen06) asked for blocks with spikes and/or circles. Here is the first block I came up with and my wheels are still turning for the second block. The spikes are free-pieced and I machine appliqued the circles. It's 12.5" square.


She also asked that we make free-pieced mini versions of our selves for the back of the quilt. This was such a great idea and I had a ton of fun rummaging through my scraps for something I would want to wear. The hair is embroidered with 2 strands or yellow and 2 strands of brown since neither seemed to be an appropriate color. It's a little block, only 6"x7".

Just a bit late

Even though it's September, I just wrapped up my block for Block of a Feather for July/August (it's a make two blocks every two months kind of quilting bee).

Spiced Coffee (check out her photo stream for some seriously inspiring stuff!) sent Joel Dewberry prints and coordinating solids. She wanted one block to feature a large motif and we had free range for the other block.



For the second block, I used the Margaret's Choice pattern from Quilter's Cache and made a concerted effort to keep my seams even and my points matching. I mostly did it and actually produced a 12.5" block, so I'm pleased.



I also wanted to send along an extra block since I was a little delinquent. I was really inspired by some of the quilts in my new Kaffe Fassett book, Simple Shapes, that feature brick-like designs and wanted to try it out myself. I started piecing without much of a plan and I'm really happy with how it came together.

Wrapping up June

Where did June go??

Here are the blocks I did for Nannette (aka Nanotchka). For Blocks of a Feather, we do two blocks but have two months to work on them. This time I really dragged my feet because she sent awesome fabric (the Oz line from Momo) and said to do "our specialty."



I didn't really know what my specialty was, but in the end settled on a modern abstract 9 patch and a block with circles since I love them so much.



I'm curious... Is there something that comes to your mind that would be my specialty? Do you have something that might be called your specialty?

Back in the Saddle

Wow!
It's been almost 2 months since my last post and almost as long since I've made anything. Between an end of the semester paper, end of the semester grading, wedding stuff and some family visits, the sewing machine hasn't gotten much love lately.

I also got behind on one of my bees. These blocks were due at the end of last month, but I just couldn't get to them until recently. I felt so awful, but Ruthie was wonderfully understanding. She asked for blocks for a spring garden and here's what I came up with.


This came from a free pattern at paper panache


This one is completely improvised (using the same method as my tutorial from a while ago). I really like how they came out but they're really different in style than what the other women made, so I hope Ruthie likes them...

Watch for more posts this weekend as I try to get caught up. :)

February Quilting Bee blocks

February would've been a short month to get my bee blocks done, but it's made even shorter this month since Jon and I are going on vacation in a week and that's going to eat up 2 weekends where I would normally get some sewing done. (We're going to Mazatlan, Mexico for a wedding and I'm really excited!! I have a serious case of cabin fever/winter blues!)

This month for Traveling Threads, Jessica (aka jmbmommy) sent Kaffe Fasset fabric and requested wonky stars. I love wonky stars and had fun with the proportions on this one. It's 12.5" square.



For my new quilting bee, Blocks of a Feather, there's only 6 of us, so we do 2 blocks every 2 months. This time, Lily.Lemon gave us free reign with some really wonderful Halloween fabrics and asked for 10.5" blocks. I decided to do one totally improv block and another with a cute play on words (trick or treating around the block)... aren't those kitties cute?




And it's my month for Snip.Sew.Send! I've asked for a little neighborhood inspired by the Ingrid Press quilt that's been all over flickr and blogland.