Bee Vintage Blocks

I managed to get some of my Bee Vintage blocks finished recently too.

I think that this is the last of the Bee Vintage blocks. 

 I now need to get going on the other blocks for the IMA bee group! 

 Four blocks more for that group in July.

The wedding quilt should be available for me to pick up today. 

 Means I will have loads of binding to look forward to this weekend!!

I may have put a down payment on this machine to be my traveling machine.

~XOP~

More Bee Blocks

I had to work on my Bee blocks for May before I leave for Raleigh tomorrow. 

 In Ima Bee I made these two Alaska Homestead blocks

Then in the Bee Vintage  group I got my first set of June blocks done!! 

 Butterflies.

The other May blocks for the Ima Bee were from the Supernova blocks by Lee at Freshly Pieced..

I put off making these as I thought they would be difficult but they were NOT. 

 I would really like to make a whole quilt of these.  

The one thing I noticed about these blocks is that I did not like too much "pattern" in the fabrics used

 as I thought it took away from the color progression in the blocks. 

 She asked for jewel tones.

I am probably not going to be able to post very often over the next week

 since I will be in Raleigh visiting my DD2. 

 I can't wait! 

 I stopped at Biggby coffee today and got some coffee for her as they don't have Biggby in North Carolina.  I hope to do a few posts. 

 I am meeting up with Mrs Goodneedle and also with Sara of Growing Stitches while I'm in town. 

 Stay tuned for the adventures!

~XOP~

Bee Blocks and Flooding in Grand Rapids

I finished the last of the April blocks for Bee Vintage.  

She asked for these woven blocks.

The pattern is on the Moda Bake Shop called Simply Woven.  

You can find the pattern here.  

It was not a difficult pattern to make but to only make 2 blocks it was difficult to figure out how much of each strip to cut. 

 I also had the first block made and did the second cut only to realize that I made it in the wrong place!  

Oh well, I just made another one. 

 LOL 

I guess that will teach me to pay attention. 

 You have to pay attention to what you are doing or it would be really easy to cut wrong.

I told you I would share about the flooding in Grand Rapids too so here are some of the pictures I took while I was there recently.

The Grand River

This barn was in trouble!

This was just past the barn, at a park.

If you look closely in the center of the photo is a street sign, Like "children at play". 

 It is almost completely submerged. 

 I am guessing it is a 6-8 foot sign!!! 

 It was CRAZY!

We saw many houses along the river that were flooded too. 

 It reminds me of the rain song from Winnie the Pooh

"and the rain rain rain

came down down down

in rushing rising rivlets

till the river crept right out of it's bed

and crept right into Piglets!"

I hope those folks were ok!

I hope you are having a good weekend.

I help hubby do some cleaning in the garage, until he became Mr Grumpy Pants.

Then I cam inside to clean and do laundry!

I am hoping to get into my sewing room today.

I emptied yet another bin. 

(How many is that now anyway?)

I need to put all that fabric away and get another one.  

I will take a picture before I put it away just to show you.

~XOP~

More Bee Vintage Blocks

I had a few minutes on Friday to eek out 2 more blocks for Nikki who is in the Bee Vintage bee.  

It was a fun block to make and I might like to make more of these in the future.  

She got the directions from Film in the fridge's blog over here.  

Nikki wanted different colored backgrounds.

Here you go Nikki.

You might like to try making them too!!  They would be a great way to use up your scraps!!!

Have a wonderful evening!

~XOP~

Vintage Sheets and Bee Blocks

I found some amazing sheets recently when I was thrifting.  

In fact I saw some on Saturday and didn't buy them and will probably be sorry about that. 

 If they are still there tonight I will pick them up.  

Here are my finds.

I was working on my blocks for Bee Vintage for March.  

Jodi requested "trees" of our choice with a white background.  

Here are the 2 blocks I designed.

The first one I used fusible and man was this fun to make!  

See the little guy hiding in the tree??

This one was totally improv. 

 I made some wonky strips and sewed them up and then just cut to make "whatever" triangles 

and put gray trunks on them.  

Really fun too.

It was exhausting work for Autumn too.  

She fell asleep standing and resting her head on my sewing machine!

I started a new leader ender project too but ended up working on the L/E quilt 

and it is now a small top. 

 I hope to finish it this week.  

More about that later.

Have a great day!

~XOP~

New Bee Blocks

I have joined 2 online bees. 

 Bee Vintage which uses vintage sheets and Ima Bee where we make 2 blocks of the queen's choosing.  I decided to make 2 blocks for each person in the Bee Vintage bee too.  

You just don't get enough with only one. 

 I have 4 to make for this month and have 3 o the 4 done. 

 Wanna see?

Here are the blocks for the Bee Vintage

And these

I showed the heart blocks that I made already but in case you forgot here they are again

On the train ride to and from Toronto I worked on my Birdie Stitches October block.

I got the center all finished

This week I got the squares around the block sewn on too. 

 Woo Hoo!! 

 Only 2 more months to go and I can begin to assemble the quilt!

I have also been working on getting my Tula Pink swap finished up and ready for the mail. 

 I think I will do things a little differently next time. 

 Yes, I am a sucker and there will be a round 3.  

On Sunday I made buffalo chicken lasagne and it was fabulous!!

  I also made bread and an apple pie.  

We packed them all up and took it to my daughter's house and ate dinner with her. 

 It was so nice. 

 That lasagne was amazing!!!  

I had to drive up to GR to see my dad again on Tuesday.

  I got to watch the amazing MSU vs U of M basketball game.

  I took the time and cleaned out some of a closet at the same time.

 I found some weird stuff, like my sixth grade gym suit. 

 Who keeps that stuff?  

 We had to be at court on Wed morning

so I could assume guardianship of my older, mentally impaired sister. 

 I had to actually go up on the witness stand and testify! 

 It all went well and I am the newest guardian of my sister.  

No shortage of fun over here at my house! 

 I am happy to be making progress though. 

I am also working on a project that I, hopefully, will be able to share shortly!  

What's going on in your life?? 

 Send me some good vibes,

 I think I need some right now!

~XOP~

Great Friends and Bee Blocks

First I want to take a minute and thank everyone that took the time to leave such nice comments about Charmalade both here and on the Moda Bake Shop.  

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 

 You guys are the BEST!!

Now just a special thank you to my friends,Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) and Konda (Moose on the Porch).  Thank you both for taking the time to blog about my quilt and the fact that I was a chef. 

 You didn't have to post about it but you did and I really appreciate you both.

  It is so wonderful to have such supportive friends!  

 I went to the Sewing expo today with my friend Waynette. 

 We stopped at the Bernina dealership and she bought a new machine. 

 I really wanted to, and hubby even said that I could (he really did, said I deserved it and everything) but the machine I wanted was pretty expensive and

 I would need a new table too, also expensive, so I decided to wait.

 It was a hard decision but I think the right one.

My bee mates have been patient and so when I got home I went to work on my September blocks (yeah, yeah, I'm a little behind).

Here is Colleen's block, she wanted zig zags.

 This one is for Jodie, she wanted string blocks.

Now I need to work on my October blocks.

I have an improv quilt to finish and I am hoping to work on that quilt tomorrow. 

 I am taking the day off work to get some stuff done that I couldn't over the weekend. 

 I am going to get to lunch with Cori tomorrow too, always fun!

My DD1 is closing on her house tomorrow!!! 

 It will be her first house and it has almost 9 acres of land!! 

 Lots of room for her peacocks. 

I did have some help while working on my bee blocks tonight.

Bee Vintage Blocks

I just want to say that my fellow bee members are awesome! 

I just received some more blocks in the mail this week.

 Each of the women sent 2 instead of the one block they had to send. 

  These 2 came from Liz. 

And these 2 came from Emily.

I have blocks coming from two more people and then  I will have them all collected. 

 I will be very excited to put them all together.

I hope you are having a productive weekend!

~XOP~

Mail Goodies

I am so lucky to have so many great blogging buddies!
 I asked for strings and strings I got!
Thanks to Rachel and Patty!!

I have been busy knitting away.
I think I am ready to stop soon, but will most likely make another one.
 It was so fun!
Now I have to find the video on how to bind it off so I can begin another one!

I was busy making my Bee Vintage blocks for August and here was my helper.
Cats can make any place look like "the" place to sleep can't they?
"Hey Jack, don't let the hum of my machine disturb your nap, ok?"

These are the 2 blocks I made for my august bee mates.
The mini-bow tie went together super easy.

This Dresden plate is beautiful but MUCH more fussy.
Getting them to lay flat was kind of a pain.
 I love how it looks all finished though.
 I may make one like this for me in the future too but would hand applique mine, I think.
I did love the flower bouquet in the middle too!

Since it has been so warm here this summer I have my windows and doors open and heard this weird, high pitched sound so I stopped sewing and went out in my back yard.
I followed the noise and it seemed to be coming from a Blue Spruce.
 I could hear some adult Cardinals around me so I figured maybe there was a nest
so I parted the branches and look what I found.
Three very loud, very hungry baby Cardinals!!

My son went down to Raleigh to visit my daughter and they went zip lining.
 (Like the piggy in the commercial)

 Here are a couple of photos of the two of them. 

Nice to know they love each other!  

The other guy and his child are just some other people that went at the same time as my two.

Now don't forget to leave a comment here 

if you would like the Charming Travelers to stop at your house!  

I am going to select a winner on Monday August 13th.

I wish I had more to show you but some things are just going to have to wait. 

 I am busy working on a LOT of things right now, just nothing I can show at the moment.  

It's not any fun when you can't show pictures of your work = (  

I hope you are enjoying the photos of things I can share though!

~XOP~