March Birdie Block

Still plugging away on the Birdie Stitches Block of the Month from Little Miss Shabby.  Here's March.  I love the happy rainbow!

And I whipped up a dragonfly pillow to go on the bench at my shop with the roses pillow.  They don't look so hot together, but I thought the dragonfly fabric was a no-brainer.  (My shop is called Dragonfly Garden, after all!)  I think I'll come up with something else to coordinate with the dragonfly blues and purples.

A couple shoppers have admired the pillows already, so I need to determine a price for them.  It looks like there are lots of shops on Etsy that specialize in pillows and pillow covers.  Perhaps I'll join them!

February's Love Birds

Luckily there are only self-imposed deadlines when it comes to my quilting.  Here's the February Birdie Stitches block.  The little birdies are just oozing love!

These are such fun designs.  I'm really enjoying each one, no matter how far behind I am.

What are you up to?

Work in Progress Wednesday

If variety is the spice of life, its also the spice of creativity.  Sometimes I think you need different projects for different moods, and certainly your circumstances create limitations.  I'm planning a road trip soon so I'll be bringing along some knitting and probably some embroidery.  No hand quilting in the car for me!

Here's the January block for Birdie Stitches.  I've got all the fabrics cut and partially sewn for the borders, but I don't have the borders on the blocks all just yet.  This requires some planning, so as to be sure I don't end up with certain fabrics right next to one another.  I love the January block - I made my birdie red for a winter cardinal, and the snowman is a fairly predictable blue.  But I made the snowy swirls pink.  I kept thinking about the blizzards in DC two years ago, and walking Katie in the deep, deep snow when there were no cars around.  It was so peaceful and truly beautiful, and for me it was food for the soul.

And here's May.  Yes, I know its weird to skip months like that, but I wanted to start with May because that's when I joined in and I figured I'd catch up with the other months later. Call me kooky.  So May was actually finished first, and I used purple for the field of small flowers because I used to bring my mom violets on May Day when I was a little girl.  The larger blooms are all sunny colors to celebrate spring.

I'm finding that even though I take my time sewing, I still end up crooked.  What is up with that?

Moving on to a new project, a couple of weeks ago I got a crazy notion that I wanted to do a pink and orange quilt.  I decided on the New Wave pattern from Oh, Fransson and found about half what I needed in my stash.  A quick trip to the LQS for some additional fat quarters and Bob's your uncle. Or so they say.  I've finally gotten everything cut and started sewing the columns this week.  I'm really excited about this one!

It's a well written pattern and easy to follow.  The time consuming part so far was the cutting.  Well, I started off with a brief delay of a few days because I didn't have a large enough piece of quilters template plastic to use for the 6x9 block template, but once I got past that wee hurdle I was on my way!

I thought I had a good shot of my orange & pink fabrics all stacked up but I can't find it.  I've been very out of sorts this week for some inexplicable reason.  The sewing has helped to center me, and since I've gotten two embroidery blocks done I feel like I've actually accomplished something. 

What are you working on?

WIP Wednesday

There are some wonderful blogs out there who publish "Wordless Wednesdays" with lovely photographs of nature, loved ones, new treasures and whatnot.  Personally, I think my photos are not quite up to snuff for that sort of thing, so I've decided to present you with "Work in Progess Wednesday" instead.  So here's what I'm working on!

I've been enjoying sewing some pinwheels using the leftover Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric and a pretty floral white on white.  I have no clue what I'll do with them, but they make for some easy sewing when I'm not sure what else to do, or when I just need to sit and stitch unthinkingly for a few minutes.  One of the pinwheels here is backwards, but I'll fix it. My points are getting better all the time - practice really helps!

I've started the Birdie Stitches Block of the Month being offered by Little Miss Shabby.  Her blog is just wonderfully inspirational, and I've been admiring her BOM all along.  I chose about 14 FQ's from my stash in mostly saturated colors with a few lighter ones, and some white on white yardage for the embroidery space.  There are so many pretty rainbow quilts out there in blogland and on Flickr, I just had to try to create one myself.  I'm gaining confidence in combining fabrics, and I'm looking forward to the embroidery for this project.  I haven't done any in about 5 years, but I'm sure it'll come back to me quick.  This is the May block.

Finally, a patchy lap quilt of Strawberry Fields is on the design wall.  I love the strawberry red, and I'm kicking around the idea of not using the red charms in the main quilt, but creating a red flower applique in a corner or two.  I need some yardage too, but I haven't stumbled across any online or in my LQS yet.  Does it want sashing or should it just be patchy?  I've got 2 charm packs though, so this will likely get larger as time goes on.  The collection has a nice range of values and scales, like all Moda lines, and it was alot of fun rearranging the charms until I found an arrangement I like.  Its inspirational just on the wall!

Do you have more than one project going at a time?  Tell me what you're up to!