Hot, hot, hot

What a hot day! We picnicked. Shaded playground. Still was too hot.






I think tomorrow we will picnic in the living room instead.

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Pondering Commitments

Block # 2 for linda, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

So I am in 3 bees. Two are virtual bees and the third bee is with my friends here locally in the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild.

I gotta be frank with you about my experiences with bees and swaps...

I'm pretty shocked at the number of people who flake out on things they commit to. Seriously. My friend, Linda and I had the month of November. In her group, she only received six blocks back instead of 11. Several of us have stepped in and been angels to make blocks for her, since it's SEVEN months later and the bee is wrapping up.

It took until last month for me to get enough blocks back to make my quilt and several people made angel blocks for me, as well.

In my other online bee, (I'm sure I've blogged about this before) two people committed to the bee and then kept the fabric that I sent & didn't make my blocks. After much pestering, one of the people who flaked out made some excuses and promised she would send back my fabric, but she didn't. I never heard a peep from the other person.

In more than one of these instances, the "offenders" were actively blogging and posting photos on Flickr the whole time. They were still signing up for other swaps I was in. Still over-committing.

I realize that life is more important than sewing. I totally get that. However, when you say you're going to do something, I think you need to either do it (and do it well) or communicate with the people involved about the situation.

My bee with my local KCMQG friends has been great. We see each other monthly and exchange blocks/kits. Because there's a regular face-to-face meeting each month, it makes us all more accountable. I'm not saying that we're always on time, but we do pretty well.

All in all, I'm soured on online swaps and bees. I'm involved in a bento block swap and a mini bow tie swap right now, but I'll likely stop swapping for a while after these.

I'd like to focus more on sewing for myself (finishing some UFOs!) and for my Etsy shop (so I can get my featherweight!)...

What are your experiences with bees and swaps? Mostly good? Some bad? Do tell...

Mini Bow Ties for Liz

For Liz, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I am in love with this pattern. In LOVE.

Here's a link for a tutorial: http://quilterscache.com/M/MiniBowTieBlock.html

I made it for the last month of my vintage sheet bee for Liz (http://www.clairesmama.blogspot.com/). What a stunning quilt this will make! Frankly, it's a little difficult to put this block into an envelope and mail it away... :) But I will.

I've decided to move away from using Vintage Sheets, so I'm de-stashing in my Etsy shop. I might make a few tops to sell there, though. They are REALLY soft, but they're not as substantial as cotton and linen. I'm planning on experimenting some with silk and wool in the future, as well.

Fabulous Finds

So I've been thrifting.  Decided that Featherweight I'm wanting isn't going to buy itself, so I've opened an Etsy Shop. 

Look what I found last night... TWO of these Vera pillowcases.  Hard to part with them, but they are on sale in my Etsy shop, along with some other vintage linens, wool charms, Indigo batik panels and more...

I'll be adding more items in the coming days.  I'm hopeful that by de-stashing my vintage sheets and some other fabric that I don't have a clear plan for, I'll have more room and (maybe) a new sewing machine to play with...

So help me out!  Visit my shop!  If you have suggestions for me, I'm all ears!  Thanks!

De-stashing

De-stashing, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I spent some time tonight adding to my Etsy shop... I'm SERIOUS about de-stashing my vintage sheet and feed sack collections, along with other treasures.

I'm itching to buy myself a featherweight sewing machine, but need some more cash to manage it. My birthday is July 13... Think I can raise enough $ by then?

Let's hope so...

Visit my Etsy Shop here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nkiblueeyes?ref=si_shop

And check back often. I'm adding more and more each day.

Lazy morning

My boys watched tv for a while with their daddy.



Then he took them to the gym to "work out". This gave me the morning to sew.

Did I mention that he took them to his parents' house last night, too?

I love that guy.

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X blocks

Carla got me started on these doing leaders & Enders. Addicted.


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Hoot Baby Quilt

Last night I got my act together & finished this hoot top. It will go in my shop.




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Posh baby quilt

This top is completed. I just started it last night.






I used a charm pack I bought last weekend at an estate sale & paired it with some white solid that was in my stash. Trying to decide what to back it with.

Here are some close ups:






I used one leftover charm from a "Pure" charm pack. Couldn't resist.






This will be for sale soon in my Etsy shop.

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New stash

New stash., originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Here's my newest addition to my stash. Something I've been REALLY looking forward to! It's Lizzy House's new line of Castle Peeps. I'm missing a couple fat quarters that were on backorder, but they should arrive soon.

I fell in love with her previous line of Castle Peeps, but a lack of funds and solid plans on what I would do with the fabric prevented me from purchasing many of the prints at the time. I bought 5 or 6 prints in a variety of colors and instead of buying fat quarters, I splurged and bought 1/2 yards.

You see, castles are my thing. I made my hubby promise to build me a castle someday before I'd marry him. He promised and I'm going to hold him to it. :)

So how could I not make the investment in this fabric?!? It's destiny, I tell you.

I'm thinking I've found the pattern I'm going to use for these. Will see if I can't post a link later today. My friend Jeni made a Sherbet Pips quilt with 16 inch 16 patches and 16 inch solid squares. I like the way it would show off the larger scale prints, yet still have the patchwork feel.

*** HERE is the link to Jeni's quilt***

I've not had much time in my sewing room this week. I'm feeling it, too. Hubby has been in Texas all week and the kids haven't been taking many naps. I'm tired by the end of the day, so I've been sleeping instead.

But hopefully I can get some time this weekend to myself and next week, hubs will be home nights, so that's a major improvement! :)

So stay tuned!

New stash

Went to an estate sale this weekend. The lady who died was a quilter.

Look at the treasures I bought for myself...



Recess jelly roll & Posh charm pack. So excited. $25 total.


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Next Up?

This is the next quilt I've got on my to do list, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

It's time to start assembling Wyatt's spider web quilt. I'm going to order a bit more aqua essex to make one more row. This was created by my Lovely Linen Bee and unfortunately, two of the members went AWOL with my fabric. So infuriating. But... Such is life. I have more scraps and I can order more linen. Trying to not dwell on the negative.

This quilt is one of my very favorites. I was inspired to make it by my great grandmother's spider web quilt. She used lots of scraps and hers is more colorful than this, but I looked closely to see how she constructed it & duplicated her methods.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make another quilt like this for my other son, Owen. I might use a natural linen on his. Not sure yet. I do know that I will use the same color scheme on the scraps. I used cool colors (blue, purple and green) along with some black and gray to darken it up a bit. The lighting in this picture isn't great. There are more greens in this than it shows.

Anyways, I'm trying really hard to knock out some of my UFOs... Having some success, too!

Denim Commission Quilt

Denim commission quilt, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Made great strides on my denim commission quilt for Amber today. Many thanks to my buddy, Toni for sharing her wealth of denim, as my client didn't have enough for the size quilt she requested.

What you see here are 24 blocks made from cut apart jeans, jumpers and overalls. About 1/3 of them were given to me by my client. These were jeans from each member in her family.

I tried to include pockets and brads and even managed to have a zipper or two incorporated into blocks.

I'm going to work on my block placement a bit tomorrow and start assembling the top.

Going to order some brown flannel for the backing and binding. No batting. It's already very warm and heavy.

I'm going to stash away profits from this to go towards the featherweight sewing machine I've been pining over...

Polka Dot Quilt

Polka dot quilt with 5 inch charm squares, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

I've been saving 5 inch polka dotted charm squares for some time now without a real plan for them.

About a month ago, I started making 4 patches with some Kona Snow. This quilt is a twin size and I'm planning on quilting it myself.

This will go in my Etsy shop when it is completed.

Table Runner...

Lately, I'm focusing on some WIPs that have been collecting dust... 

Once upon a time, this was going to be a baby quilt for my sister's baby I thought she would have a boy, but she surprised me & had a daughter.

This still would've been fine as a quilt for a girl, but I made her two other quilts & this sat in my closet for many months.

I've decided to make it a table runner & sell it in my shop. Time to find a backing & quilt it!

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Wonky Log Cabin

Wonky log cabin from Bee Vintage, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Via Flickr:
I finished my wonky log cabin quilt tonight!!! I'll be keeping this one for myself. I think I'll quilt it myself, too! Brave, eh?

It's made of vintage sheets and a couple of feed sacks. Very soft. These blocks are 14 1/2 inches, so this quilt is a biggie.

I think I'll make it a priority to get my kitchen floor mopped tomorrow so that I can spread this out and get it basted.

Should I piece the backing? What do you guys suggest I use to bind it? What color? I will have to cut into a flat sheet to have enough fabric. Most of my stash is chopped up fat quarters.

I have one other vintage sheet quilt top that's this size. It is orange and yellow 12 inch squares.

Nice to mark off some tops from my list. Will have to start getting serious about quilting some of these (many) tops that are neatly folded and waiting for my attention...

Bear's Claw for Tracy

Bear's Claw for Tracy, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

This is for Tracy in the Lovely Linen Bee.

I got a package from her today from England with the materials to make this block inside. I love getting Royal Mail. Don't you?

I'm sending back some scraps to go in her bottled rainbows quilt. I've been toying with the notion of making one of these myself, but I think I have enough UFOs right now. Going to try to resist the temptation...

Angel block for Meg

Angel block for Meg, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

This is for Meg in Bee Vintage. Just a simple 9 patch made from vintage sheet scraps. Will be a fun and cheerful quilt!

KCMQG Peeps:

If you have quilting materials that you'd like to donate to Joplin's quilt guild, you can bring them to me at the KCMQG meeting tomorrow night and I'll drop them off Friday at Lynn Droege's house.  She's our BVQG president and she's driving a truckload full of quilting supplies to Joplin on Saturday, taking them directly to the Joplin guild's president's house.

Thanks for your support on this!

Helping Joplin

I'm in a couple of local quilt guilds here in Kansas City and we're working on helping a quilt guild in Joplin, Missouri (just 2 hours away from us).  Many members lost everything including their homes.  The place where they kept their charity quilt materials was blown away.

We're gathering quilts and quilting supplies to take to them in the next couple of weeks.

Here's a link with a letter from their guild president along with an address where you can send materials, quilts and monetary donations.

(Thanks, Carla for the link)

I'm working with some Veteran friends to get a local contact in the Joplin area in the hopes that I can deliver some Quilts of Valor to military members and veterans who have been affected.  My friends and I have several quilts that are nearing completion.  My goal is to deliver as many as possible when I drive through Joplin on my way to visit family in Little Rock on July 15.

I keep looking at pictures of the destruction there.  So hard to wrap my mind around.  I have a few Project Linus baby quilts that I'd like to finish up before I go.  Hopefully they'll find a home, too.

I've talked to a few people who have driven down and helped with the cleanup.  They've told me that they have donated stuff coming out their ears and are running out of places to put it.  Rather than sending "stuff" down there to an unknown recipient, I've decided to work on a smaller, more personal scale.  I want to make sure that the quilts we complete are given to people who need them right away.

Will be posting more soon as I get more information and a local contact.

Flying Geese for Beth

Fun assignment for Beth in the KC Scrappy Bee today. Flying Geese!

I immediately thought of this block (one of my very favorites). Here's a WIP I have going making this block:





But it's just a little smaller than the block Beth requested so I made one in her color scheme, added a border and trimmed it. What do you think?




I hope the stripes aren't too wild. I couldn't resist adding them. They really help to draw your eye around the block. :)

Thanks for a fun assignment, Beth! This quilt will be spectacular.
Enjoy!

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