Bees and Things

I finally finished Feeling Stitchy's July challenge. I did the the bees twice; they were way scary in a pure black next to all the other subtle colors. Again, I ran to my Valdani thread colors - what can I say, I'm smitten with them! I'm pretty happy with Mrs. Bee, but I'm tempted to redo Mr. Bee for a third time..

This kitchen towel is part of a thank you gift for a friend that lives out of state. Utah (where I live) is the beehive state, so this seemed an appropriate gift. I'm going to fill a gift basket with a number of other Utah treats - chocolate truffles, Polygamy Porter microbrews, and more.

And I stayed up late quilting last night. What? Yeah, the Universe is pretty hilarious. It was really hard for me to confess yesterday about my lack of desire to design. Once I purged all my fears, I was flooded with ideas and couldn't wait to get back to it. More on that later..

I received a layer cake of polka dot fabric from my quilt guild last Thanksgiving. I was afraid if I placed it with my stash that it would be forgotten and never played with. I diced the fabric into squares and circles using my AccuQuilt Studio and Sizzix machine.

When I started playing with squares, it started to feel a lot like Tetris. I loved that game as diversion during my college years! Thought a rainbowific Tetris quilt would be fun. I thought for a minute that I must be clever and then it dawned on me that I wasn't probably the first to think of this. I found this fabulous Tetris quilt-a-long online over at Happy Quilting. I don't have enough squares to do the challenge, but it looks like great fun if you are interested.

I can't wait to finish this one up! I bought a Juki/Grace midarm earlier this month.. such a joy to me that deserves its own blog post later this week ;o)

Summer of Vintage Stitchy Love

I've recently started looking for more projects that I can do with just my hands; Baby is not allowed in the sewing studio since she became a mini tornado of energy. I'm working more with embroidery and love following Feeling Stitchy.

This summer they are hosting a contest with vintage patterns and we know it's hard for me to ignore a challenge. I whipped up this sweet design posted by doe*c*doe and did a little crayon tinting.

I hung it over my window pane panel for pictures, but just loved how sweet it looks up there on my mantle. I think I will need to make a few more towels for a full display.

Are you doing any embroidery this summer? Later this week I will be posting a free patriotic pattern, so be sure to come back!

Feeling Stitchy - May Project

I finally was able to complete a Feeling Stitchy project in the right month! I loved this pattern from isewcute and immediately thought of Alice when I saw it. I pieced it into a sweet quick coin purse; I used Make It Perfect's tutorial and it came together really fast.

It even has a lining!

Kiddo wants it desperately -she's a bit of an "Alice in Wonderland" nut.. We'll see how long it takes to move from my studio to the bottom of her toy box.

WIPS for This Week

Can you believe Halloween is just weeks away? I'm so excited! It is one of my favorite holidays - some may argue it is my very favorite! I love to decorate, make costumes, and eat lots of pumpkin goodies. A Starbuck's pumpkin spice latte can fix many wrongs!

I have 2 Halloween mug rug classes going on in October. Here is a sneak peek at the one I'll be doing over at Thimbles & Threads in Draper, UT. The class is only $15 and I'll teach you everything you need to know about paper piece foundation quilting. I'm going to have to make a couple more of these myself - Isabelle is wildy fascinated by this "witchy house".
What else is on my plate? Well one of my favorite Twitter pals, revealed her project for Feeling Stitchy's September motif and I just about died from the cuteness. I of course HAD to get in on the action. Now, I'm not against hand embroidery.. I actually quite like it, but I'm just not *feeling* it these days. As many of you know, I'm *all* about the free motion sketching. So here is my take on it...
It's just a work in progress. I'm hoping the girls will let me finish before the end of September. I made the major outlines in chocolate brown and am going back and "coloring in". I love the sketch look to it - do you?

What projects are you making for fall or Halloween?