Sunday, April 29, 2012

Make progress, not dinner

Do you have those days where you simply cannot tear yourself away from your sewing machine and suddenly it is 6 o'clock and the natives are restless? Hungry? Opening and closing the fridge every 5 minutes hoping a meal will suddenly appear?  Well, I have those days every day. I distinctly remember a great line from a presentation I saw by Jane Sassaman once where she said "If no one asks about dinner, I'm certainly not going to mention it!"

I am still playing catch up since our travel in March and am slowly plugging away at bee blocks in between sewing stints at D's circus school in preparation for the big production, Blue Sky Circus in two weeks. I'm helping with costumes and have sewn my first serger seams!  Unfortunately, 10 hours of cutting in one week was partly responsible for my back spasm, but I'm slowly returning to normal thanks to my massage therapist and chiropractor.

I am in two bees at present (and I've decided that two concurrent bees is plenty for me!).  First up, the Free Bee. This one is a really fun challenge every month. The idea is to make free-pieced blocks within some sort of guideline specified by the Queen (or in the case of this group, King) Bee each month. We use our own stash.  Both John and Dan are in the Free Bee!

I first had to make Krista's March block which is awfully late:

Free Bee March by Poppyprint

In fact, so late I made another smaller one to go with it.

Free Bee March by Poppyprint

Krista's making a 'Modern Mood' quilt inspired by the work of Sherri Lynn Woods. You can read more about these stunning quilts at Sherri's blog here.

Then today I made this block for Ethne, which I think turned out really well.

April Free Bee for Ethne

Ethne's inspiration comes from graphic images in a calendar by Leah Duncan. She asked us to use any dark blue as background and solids or hand dyes for the triangle highlights.  I think both of these Free Bee quilts will be a fabulous challenge to assemble and I look forward to seeing them come together!

Finally, here's a block I made for Elizabeth in the Stash Trad Bee. In this excellent bee we are making traditional blocks with modern fabrics from our stash each month. This is a fabulous block and you can make one yourself using Elizabeth's Radiant Ring tutorial here.  Elizabeth requested either a cool-, or a warm-coloured block from each of us.

Stash Trad Bee block - April for Don'tcallmebetsy

Well, it's 5:00 p.m. and that means I can cram another hour of sewing in before people will be thinking about food. I hope that my next post will be my Dresden Pillow pattern release. It's all set up and ready to go, I'm just awaiting confirmation of my new Paypal account.  So exciting!!

12 comments:

felicity said...

Yummy blocks! One of those moody quilts is in my future, I am sure of it.

Sandi said...

I am impressed! Those blocks are fabulously creative.
Sandi
sahill@telus.net

Leanne said...

Each of those blocks is wonderful!

Katie B said...

Your blocks are really cool! I'll be interested to see how the quilts from the Free Bee turn out.

I had a dinner experience like that tonight. I put something in the oven, then ran over to sew for a few minutes. Then I put some water on to boil, and ran back to the machine. etc. Surprisingly, I didn't burn anything!

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Fab; although your and Lynne's blocks for Ethne, for some bizarre reason, remind me of bending over strippers!! Too much CSI Las Vegas!

carol said...

LOVE your free pieced blocks. I think I MUST try that one of these days!

Krista Withers said...

Gorgeous blocks!!!!
I have that same weird dinner phenomena happen in my house every night.....hmmm. My family is somehow under the same impression that opening and closing the fridge repeatedly is going to somehow make dinner appear.

Dianne said...

I've been waiting for that dinner genie to show up for years but so far no luck. People ask what is the first thing I would do if I won the lottery. My answer? Hire a cook!
Your blocks are beauties! I especially love the first free pieced one. Can hardly wait to see what "Krista" does with them!

Kristie said...

LOL! I have quickly scrambled some eggs for dinner on many-a-nights like that! Glad I am not the only one (and love that quote)!

Sherri ~ daintytime said...

fabulous job with all of your bee blocks!

Unknown said...

That triangle one is so graphic. Love!

sew katie did said...

Love the triangle one! I feel the same about the dishes and dinner.