Hail To The Queen... Bee!

I can hardly belive that it's my turn to be the queen bee in our quilting bee, and it couldn't come at a more perfect time.... just before our move! Even as early as February, I have been thinking about what block I would like for my bee quilt. I ended up "auditioning" three possible blocks, but was not really sure if I wanted to impose curved piecing or a 100 piece paper pieced block on my other bee members. The most likely candidate, the Churnstile block from Stitchery Dickory Dock, was top of the list, but after I had made a few blocks, I realized that I had very specific ideas about the direction I wanted to go with the colors.  I knew that I wanted to do paper piecing because......

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The Thrill of the Pull

What's your favorite part of the quilting process? For me, hands down it's pulling fabrics for a new project. I've always been drawn to intriguing patterns and strong colors, and thinking about how fabrics might mix, match, and compliment each other... well, you just can't get any better than that in my book! I've had this vibrant little stack of fabric in my head now for months! I've always loved a rich jewel tone palette, and once I had seen this quilt, I knew I had to embrace it. Of course, I had to go pretty heavy on the green tones. Let's just say that you will be seeing a lot of these snippits sewn into several upcoming projects! Without giving everything away, let me just say...

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Busy As A Bee... No, Really!?!

There's really so much going on right now, that I almost don't know where to begin. Let's just say that the majority of things that have been tying up my time these past weeks are essentially secret and behind the scenes projects... not to mention that I am about to have a major life change... Before imaginations start going wild, let me just simply say that we are about to move. My husband and I have been talking about this move since we have been married, and it would seem that now is the time. I've not talked about it here, but just a little heads up might explain some future missing-in-action time here. So, I've essentially been working on TWO Quilty Circle of Bees projects...

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Dreaming of Summer

Do you find yourself dreaming and yearning for summer all year long?... especially those moments at the beach just soaking up the warm sun, being cooled by the fresh salty air, and curling your toes up in the sand while settling into an inner calmness lulled by the soothing constancy of the waves crashing onto the shore. Such summer memories were the inspiration for my latest projects for Lena's Patchwork Magazin. One of my favorite beach time activities as a child, next to building sand castles, was collecting seashells. Still to this day, I am fascinated by their beauty and uniqueness. These pretty little free motion applique mussels can be used in a variety of ways for fun summer decorating...

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Penny Quilt FINISH!

It's no secret that I'm a project jumper. While it was my original goal to work on a quilt that I could turn out quickly and easily, I'm still pleased with how long it took to finish this charity baby quilt (story here)... especially considering all the in between sewing. Yeah, another quilt checked off my 2016 FAL list for this quarter! If you're curious about all those other in between projects, I added a "Finished Quilts" tab to share how far I've come... not too bad for just two years of quilting, huh? This quilt is packed full of favorite fabrics... come on now, who didn't fall completely in love with Heather Ross' Tiger Lily fabrics when they first came out?!? I waited for this...

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