The Year of the Bee!

I spend most of my afternoon breaks absorbed in my Bee commitments...and although I seem to be on top of each one of them, I feel a bit scared that at this rate I will miss a month, overlook an envelope and basically forget someone's block...so I now keep a proper list of all my bees and their requirements and I tick off all my boxes when ready! I also keep a 'to do' list with all my other quilts. It is the only way to keep a bit of order in my chaotic mind/sewing room!!
So, here is progress made since my last blog:

Geese in a Ring Swap: block for Fordcowgirl who asked for orange and aqua geese flying in succession! besides the bad photography, this is a really lovely block in terms of the colours and I was very happy with it!

 
Next one up is the We Bee Modern Too and Kersten who asked for the 'Missing Your Kiss' block. Once I was happy with the colours it was a great block to make. There is one or two little giraffes hiding in one of the kisses! I could not help myself!
I am going through a bit of a grey time with my fabric choices but I think the kona charcoal compliments this block well in terms of borders! Another gorgeous quilt in the making here! Enjoy Kersten!

Then I made some wonky stars for my Happy Scrap Quilt Block Swap. One is truly scrappy and two are wonky but less scrappy! I love this first one...so sweet with the dotty fabric!

And finally!!!!! it has been about 12 months in the making!!!! a Cluck Cluck Sew pattern for a baby quilt...all fabrics used from my stash (no dent though so am not worried!!!!)
Mr Whirlygiggles is holding it in our garden! Photography is a big issue for me at the moment ranging from lighting to who will hold my larger quilts that need to be photographed? arghhhhh

 and the back with some spare pinwheels!:

PHEW!!!!!! off to finish basting another small quilt before the princess wakes up!
Talking of which (I know she is mine and I think of her as beautiful even when I change smelly nappies, but isn't she cute?) where does time go?
In the first one she is modelling her 2 bottom teeth which are not fully out yet but they are there and as sharp as a rotary cutter I assure you!!!!

                                                                        Amelie x

The kindness of strangers

I have just managed to get my Flickr & Blogger to be friends again :-)
life feels so much better when things work the way they are meant too...yesterday their relationship broke down and it bugged me all day long so much so that I wasted 2 hours on a Geese in a Ring block that ended up in the bin....let's not talk about that as it will break my heart just thinking about it...
Anyway, a stranger from the Flickr forums was most kind to me and I am grateful to him for sharing his  knowledge and making things good again.
The other good things come in the form of these two blocks:

Stash Bee Hive 2: block for Miki:

 I stayed with the red theme because I was not sure what other colours you might like Miki...I hope you like it! there are some of my all time favourite fabrics in there especially the last two.

I also made the Parisian Star for the Patchwork Queen from my Modern Minx Beginner Bee: this one is the Parisian Night Star and in the middle it has a bit of a map of Paris featuring the Champs Elysees a reminder of a hand in hand stroll there many many years ago!

And finally, another picture of the yellow/aqua bee block...I still cannot get it to look as good in pictures as it does in reality... :-(

I am off to try making another one of these and hopefully making it right this time!

                                                                          Amelie x

Resolutions!

First time ever that I have stuck to my word on one of those resolutions....
but the proof is in the pudding and without further ado:

I will give you one guess only on what it is and whom it is for!!! ;-)
Yep, little dress for the bella Isabella who has found her loud voice and she likes to practise it daily especially in the supermarket!!! any tips for managing this are every welcome (except for shove a 'biscuit' in her mouth). I am on week two of my six week dressmaking course and I am loving every bit of it! throw any dart at me and I will sew it down!!!!

Apart from little girly dress, I have continued to work on my Oh My Stars QA at a snail pace am afraid...i get a bit upset every time i look at my stats and I see that I have still only made 12 of the 68 little stars...;-(
anyway, I will get there eventually...

The last one is a medium size star. The others are large and I have only made 2 more small ones...

I have also made another Geese in A Ring for my swap group. This one is for FairlyMerry. I can assure you that my photo is not very good and the block is soft and beautiful!

And finally: Susanne from my Bee Europa 2011, asked for a mosaic block using only solids. The tutorial is from the brilliant Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson!. Another challenge for me as I am not too keen on just solids and could not believe how i could get from this:

to this and LOVE it! Even Mr Whirlygiggles loves this block and the colours!!!!

Well Susanne, well done you! this quilt will look fantastic I am sure...
I cannot wait to see the whole article. Also, thank you for getting me to try something new and for getting me over my worries about solids! I hope you like it! I added some of my solids in order to bring it as close to 15" as I could and it is almost there...I will have to leave the final touches to you as I did not want to add any more Kona Ash to the sides. Good luck!

Well, finally, next month is my month and I cannot decide which one of my 4 ideas to go with!!!!

Off to watch Masterchef with Mr Whirlygiggles and fantasise about all the fabulous food we cannot smell, touch or taste!!! Oh well....
                                                       Amelie x