ScrapBeeLicious Quilting Bee

After the Let's Get Acquainted Blogger Hop from Plum and June was over...some of us didn't want to say goodbye. So naturally we started a Bee! Ashley of  Wasn’t Quilt in a Day & Laura of Little and Lots put it together and now we're ready to rock n' roll!

Wahoo! I'm so excited to get started on this bee. As if I don't have enough bees and swaps already in my pocket! There are 13 of us and we are sooo excited to be working on this together! It's like a Bee Dream Team! 

Every month there is a new Queen who chooses the block she wants. She will post about it on the first of her assigned month. The rest of the team makes 2 of the requested block in whatever colors scheme the queen desires and send them off by the end of the month. By summer next year, all of us will have enough blocks for a quilt top!

I'm having such a hard time decided what block I want! There are so many great ideas out there it's just so hard to choose ONE! I have until June next year to figure it out I guess :)

Here's the schedule if you want to keep up with all of us. I put a button on my sidebar too.

August: Ashley @ Wasn’t Quilt in a Day

September: Gwendellyn @ The Rainbow Revolts

October: Cath @ Wombat Quilts

November: Alyce @ Wonderland by Alyce

December: Nicole @  Modern Handcraft

January: Rachel @ Likes to Sew

February: Nanette @  Yeah, I Made That

March: Liz @ beadqueene’s bits and baubles

April: Robin Sue @  RobinSue Quilts

May: Stephanie H @ Simple Sewendipity

June: Stephanie A @ Quarter Incher

July: Michelle @ Factotum of Arts

August: Laura @ Little and Lots

Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please - Scrappy Box

Even though I made a fabric basket instead of the quilt last week for the Zakka Sew along... I went along and made the scrappy box for this week as well. One can never have too many baskets and boxes! A little cute & crafty organization never hurt anybody :)

My cute little blocks for the Fussy Square Block Swap

Amanda of What the Bobbin is hosting a fussy cut square block swap. I signed up right away because I thought it would be fun! Then I realized I don't have very many novelty prints so I had to get digging into my scraps. Well...I found quite a few and narrowed it down to the 12 required. Most of them are vintage scraps I received.

There are only a few spots open if you want to join in! 

1. Fussy Block #1, 2. Fussy Block #2, 3. Fussy Block #3, 4. Fussy Block #4, 5. Fussy Block #5, 6. Fussy Block #6, 7. Fussy Block #7, 8. Fussy Block #8, 9. Fussy Block #9, 10. Fussy Block #10, 11. Fussy Block #11, 12. Fussy Block #12

Tula Pink's City Sampler Blocks 25, 26 & 27

This week's set of blocks...

Tula Pink's City Sampler Blocks 22, 23 & 24

Like true Stephanie style...falling behind!

Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please - Books for Baby Basket...not Quilt

So I decided to take the book block and make something else with it. I'm not really in the mood to start another quilt. I'll make it eventually but for now it needs to wait. 

My daughter has all these great little baby books (the tiny 4"-5" ones) and they're just stacked up next to her toys. I wanted a cute little fabric basket to put them in and thought this pattern was perfect! All her little books fit so perfectly inside :)

I used the 6" block from the Stacking Blocks tutorial from Elizabeth Hartman available on Sew Mama Sew. I did not enlarge the pattern since it's 7" straight from the book already and that's the size I needed.

Please welcome Westwood Acres!

I'm so excited to introduce Westwood Acres as my newest sponsor! Westwood Acres is a fantastic little Etsy shop owned and operated by Husband & Wife team Weston & Amanda Woodruff. Amanda has a fantastic blog called A Crafty Fox chock full of great projects.

Westwood Acres offers the best custom precuts & bundles. I'm loving so many things in their shop at the moment! Here are some great things they have right now...

Check out their shop whenever you're considering fun new modern prints! Shipping is always a flat rate of $5.85 no matter how much you purchase! 

I recently bought the brand new line Hand Drawn Garden by Anna Maria Horner and I love it!!! I can't wait to figure out what I'm going to do with this! It's sitting so patiently on my fabric shelf just begging to be used....Gah! The colors are even more stunning in person! Thanks for offering this fabulous bundle Amanda!

Take a look at the other great bundles Westwood Acres has to offer!

Clashy & Bright Mosaic open for voting!

Rachel of Stitched in Color has her Clashy & Bright Mosaic Contest open for voting now! I'm so excited to see one of my entries in the top 10! Whoo-hoo! So here's little shout out to vote for me!...haha! It's ok if you don't...I'll still like you :)

Check out all the fun entries on her blog and vote for your favorite!

If this isn't Clashy & Bright..I have no idea what is!

Sew Many Swaps, So Little Time... Swap Calendar PDF

I've been feeling a teeny tiny bit overwhelmed with all the swaps I've signed myself up for. I'm not talking about the sewing part. I can manage that part okay. It's the details of each swap that get me all confused. 

I decided to make an official Swap Calendar. I have a paper filled out and posted up by my sewing table I've been using for now. I've marked it up with notes, color choices, item details, etc. This version is much prettier and will keep my swap schedule all organized. 

(It doesn't have random bold lines like it shows in this image)

If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, confused, or just want to stay organized with any future swaps...feel free to download the Swap Calendar. I hope you find it useful. Have fun swapping!

Click here to download the PDF

Pink Elephant on Parade

I took the time to look through some of my quilty books and decided I needed to make use of them. I opened up "Last Minute Patchwork" and decided on the cute Elephant for my daughter. I had some trouble deciding what fabric to use because I wanted it to be perfect. I didn't know what direction to go...modern, whimsy, etc. After much deliberation, I decided to go for a boutique style with some Michael Miller "It's a Girl Thing Eiffel Tower" in Blossom Pink. I grabbed some brown & pink checker fabric I had and a great fairytale-ish text print I received from Leona for the blanket.

The pattern was laid out pretty well and it actually came together pretty easy. I used freezer paper instead of making plastic templates like it says. I've never made anything like this before so I was pleased with how it turned out. I love the little braided yarn for the tail. I decided not to add the eyes because I love faceless dolls. 

This little cutie has been approved by my daughter :)

My items for The Sewing Room Swap!

I finished up the items for my swap partner for The Sewing Room Swap. I chose to make an open sided sewing machine cover with a Needle Book. My partner likes a good number of designers listed on her profile and I had quite a few Bonnie & Camille "Bliss" fabrics laying around so it seemed like a good fit for her. Now I just need to package these pretties up and send them off next month :)

I used the Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial from Ellison Lane because it's fun and unique! Here's what I came up with...

Large Item: Sewing Machine Cover

Front: I made the spool using invisible thread. Sorry for the wonky picture, I wanted to show the cover, liner, binding & label

Back: Applique with blanket stitch in Red

Small Item: Needle Book: Handstitched cover with red ribbon & vintage button

Triple-Zip Pouch for Swap Partner

Here's the fun Pouch I whipped up for the Triple-Zip Pouch Swap. My partner wanted bright colors (most of them did) and loves Aqua and Red together. Now I get to fill it up with goodies and send it off in a few weeks. I hope she likes it...because if not...I'll definitely keep it :)

-For the Triple-Zip Pouch Tutorial from Debbie of A Quilter's Table, click HERE
-For a tutorial on adding a detachable strap, click HERE

Front: I went with the "Scrappy Trip" idea and a little stitch-work

Tutorial: Adding a Detachable Strap

Hosting the Triple-Zip Pouch Swap has led me to this post. I had a few swappers state they wanted to add a strap but didn't know how. So here we go!

What you need:
- 13" x 2.5" fabric for Wrist Strap
- 4" x 2.5" fabric to secure strap to pouch 
- Clasp Closure ( I like Lobster Clasps, Available at Michael's)
- Split Rings (Available at Michael's)
- D-strings (Available at Joann's)
- (optional) Small Jump Rings (tiny split rings for the lobster clasp to attach to a D-Ring instead of a Split ring)

Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please - Dino-Mite Hat

Two words: Ridiculously Adorable. PERIOD! I hope my daughter loves this as much as I do because it's amazingly cute! I just love the way it turned out. I used some pretty orange "Circa 52" Birch fabric that reminded me of the Flintstones...haha. Flinstones & Dinosaurs? Yes! I paired it with solid white Kona cotton for the lining and used a few vintage prints I had laying around. I added fusible fleece to make the hat a little more firm and not so flimsy. The pattern calls for wool but I didn't have any so I went this route. My daughter picked out the ribbon herself...pretty good choice by a 1 year old. I just love the way it turned out :)

Tula Pink's City Sampler Blocks 19, 20 & 21

Here are the blocks from this week as promised. I'll try to get better at not falling behind but I can't make any promises. Too many projects going on! I'm working on what feels like a million swaps & bees plus this sew along and the Zakka Along. If only there were more hours in the day OR a few more days added to the week. I'm not too crazy about block 19 (the pink one) but I guess it is what it is. It should look fine with the rest of the blocks in the whole quilt. At least I hope so...I'll just re-do it if it's not working for me.

Tula Pink's City Sampler Blocks 16, 17 & 18

It seems I'm always falling behind on these dang blocks! Ahhh! Well, here are the blocks from last week. I'm posting a separate post for this weeks blocks so be sure to check that one out too. I still need to press all of them better so please excuse the wonky "looking" seams or edges. They're all straight :)

Clashy & Bright Mosaics

Yesterday, Rachel from "Stitched in Color" announced a fun mosaic contest called "Clashy & Bright". I was so excited because I'm all about Clashy & bright! If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that my fabric selections are often very random and don't make much sense sometimes. This was a perfect little opportunity for me to pick some fun prints and throw them all together. I used ONE print for each mosaic as my focal print. I think it's kinda obvious which print in each because it's pretty random (hint: AMH). I selected some geometrics, florals, & texts and this is what I came up with.  Thoughts?

Entry #1

Entry #2

100 Posts Giveaway Winner!

Thank you for all the sweet comments about hitting 100 posts and my pillow. It was so much fun reading all the comments and responding to each and every one of them! If you didn't get a reply, it's because you're a"no-reply" blogger. Check your blogger profile and allow people to see your email so you can get replies :)

Without further ado...the winner of the 1/2 yard of Kaffe & Aurifil Sampler pack goes to....

Congratulations Linda! I sent you an email! Please respond with your mailing address! A big Thank You to everyone that entered. We'll have another one soon :)

Zakka Along 2.0 Patchwork, Please - Yum-Yum Apple Bib

We made it to the children chapter! This is so exciting! I can actually make these for my pretty girl! That's her nickname..."pretty girl" or "beautiful". Anyways, I wasn't sure which color to go with so I chose a traditional green apple. I think I'll whip some up in every color! Kind of like those "day of the week" things for kids. One color for every day. This bib came together super quick! The binding took the longest because it says to do it by hand. I may cheat on the rest of the bibs and do it by machine....hehe...I'm a rebel I know.

In case you were wondering, I cut my binding to be a finished 1/2" instead of 1/4". I hate working with tiny bindings! See? Rebel...

Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop & Giveaway!

 

Welcome Quilty readers to my little part of the blogging universe. I hope you had a great 4th of July yesterday! I'm so excited to be a part of the this blogger hop and want to thank Beth of Plum and June for organizing it!

I'm a new blogger for sure! I've only been blogging here since March 2013. It's been a fun adventure in sewing so far and I know that it'll keep getting better and better.

Here are some recent projects I've done.
Check out my Flickr page to see more beauties!