Thank goodness for Flikr!

I think without flikr I would forget that I even have anything to blog about - I never have time to sit down and blog right after I take pictures. Here is a little eye candy for you all tho on this overcast Sunday afternoon:

I received my Modern She Made swap item a week + ago and it totally made my day! Such an awesome package from Sunni:

These stacking baskets are the best and I love how each one is unique with the circle stamp, hexagons, and o yes - my blog name embroidered on the front of one of them - so cute!
From the snaps and raw edges to the coordinating handles and the orange/aqua/grey colorway, these are just so perfect for me! *swoon* She did an awesome job!

She also sent along the really cool Zakka Style book you see above and 2 Melody Miller type writer prints. I've been coveting this book for a bit and was waiting for it to go on sale later this year - so glad to have it and I've been plotting projects in it ever since! Thanks so much Sunni for being such a great partner! Now to find cool projects for those typewriters... hmmmm :)

I'm done with swaps for now but I am still in my Bee a Modern Swapper - Bee. We've had some personal issues with the ladies in our group and my heart and prayers go out to all of them. We're taking a break for July but hopefully things will calm down in their lives and the rest of us who've stayed will have a good rest of the year together.

My month was the first - March - and here are the blocks I've received so far for my "Picnic Quilt":

Such an awesome mix of paper piecing and applique - my group is so talented!! I feel absolutely spoiled and am not sure what to do with these beauties. I have a couple more on the way still so maybe that will force me to make a few more on my own to expand this quilt a bit. Right now it would be 36 x 36 and something this lovely is not getting made into a baby blanket to be drooled on lol. We shall see what their destiny is... for now I'm enjoying them on my design wall in my craft room.

Last but not least, I've been playing with my Bee blocks from this year and last from the 4 x 5 and 3 x 6 bees. I made a few of my own and had a few made for me by friends and I absolutely love the way they all look together. That open center space is for a swoon block I'm hoping to finish today.

First it looks like I should clean up my bedroom tho - yikes, what a mess! haha

Aren't these blocks lovely? This Orange/Aqua/Grey Sampler quilt is definitely going to be one of my favorites when I am done with it! I'm using this quilt as my submission for this month of the "My Precious QAL" - 2 of the blocks I made for this quilt used my hoarded Heather Ross Fabric and the center swoon block will also. Several of the others made by my bee partners use pieces of HR which I love!!

Off to do some chores and get started on the Swoon block. Hope your weekends are lovely and full of fun - the crafty kind or otherwise :)

Alive and finally some projects to show!

Yeesh - between work and school and playing outside in the little free time I have, I haven't been getting ANY sewing done!

Finally sat down this weekend and finished my May swap items - here are some project pics for your viewing pleasure:

1. Modern She Made Swap - (sorry for the cruddy picture, I had to get it in the mail since I was already a couple of days late so I grabbed the Ipad and snapped a quick pic.)
This project was way outside my comfort zone since I had to figure out the piecing from a picture and the quilting is geometric with some free motion - neither of which I am used to. Im happy with the experiment over all tho and hopefully my partner is too!

2. May Bee Blocks for Bee a Modern Swapper - I'm a few days late on these too but they will go out on Monday so again, sorry beemate! Life takes over sometimes...
She requested a mix of Yellow, Aqua, Grey, Brown and Navy - but we didn't have to include all of those colors in each block. She also requested that a triangle be in the block somewhere. I tried to be a little different/funky in my piecing and fabric choices and I like the way they turned out.

3. This block is for my Orange/Aqua/Grey quilt which will include swapped bee blocks as well as some of my own to make it big enough. Finally swapped out the light greys for darker ones and I like it way better than my first attempt.

My current translation class is a beast so if I fall off the face of the earth again, never fear, I'll be back eventually! When I do have a little free time the great outdoors are calling my name louder than my sewing machine and I think it is smart to listen :)

Splitting up siblings... aka fabric lines... do you do it?

I have a major problem with splitting up fabric lines - aka siblings! They are a family - you can't just rip them apart!! lol Apparently I have some issues ;-)

ANYWAY.... do you tend to buy and sew in fabric lines or do you try to mix and match? I have friends who take awesome fabrics in certain colorways from several lines and combine them to make fantastic projects. I try this... but then my thought is always "but if I use that print, my set won't be complete anymore!" For certain lines I really do want a full set, my lizzy house and heather ross favorites to name a few, but honestly most of the others could be split up... by normal people... who don't have hoarding tendencies lol. Any tips on how to get over this hump and just rip those little fabric families apart? Seriously... I need some help, this collection hoarding has to stop :)