Sew Beautiful - the second year!

Fabric bundles for {Sew} Beautiful Bee - Feb 2012!

As I may have mentioned... our {Sew} Beautiful Bee from last year was such a hit that we have all decided to stay on for another year! We are (for the most part) keeping the same months, so I'll have February as my month again this year. I've been prepping fabric and laying out measurements etc all week. Now all my instructions are written and my packages are all sealed up ready to ship! But before I get too far with that... let me show you what I'm working on!

Sorry for the super dark photo... it's about 2AM here... AKA the only time my
 kid sleeps long enough for me to get anything done!

My Bee quilt from last year! I can't believe that the top has been completely finished for months now (Christmas really took over didn't it?!). I pieced the back too - using lots of negative space (grey!) and blocks pieced with the leftovers. And of course our awesome label!! I had even had the back 1/2 way finished - I got stalled out there though because I rand out of grey! Now it's all together and basted. Ready to be quilted tomorrow (hopefully). I fear that there may be a wrinkle or two in the back once it's all done... but that's ok. There was some ginormous piecing going on back there - the final measurements thus far are something like 78" x 96" Yeah. It's a beast and it's going to live on my bed forever. Except for movie nights, when we'll all cuddle under it on the couch. :) Thanks bee ladies, you're pretty awesome. 

I've just finished the last blocks to supplement the blocks made by my bee members (Sew Beautiful Bee). I'm not sure if I want to sash in between them with grey or not. If I were to sash I'd use Kona Coal (the dark one used in the blocks) or Kona Ash (the light, nearly white one in the blocks).

Or I could just add a wide border around the outside edge (about an 8" border or so). I tend to do this on quilts. Or I could leave it plain, blocks right up against each other and no border.

What do you all think? Should I:

A) sash in between the blocks with Kona Coal (darker)

B) sash in between the blocks with Kona Ash (lighter)

C) don't sash, but do a wide border with Kona Coal

D) don't sash, but do a wide border with Kona Ash

E) Leave it without sashing/border.

I'd love any input you might have! :) Thanks!!

So much to write about!!

First of all today has been a great day - for once I actually had use of our one car and got a ton done! We went grocery shopping, to Target, and to JoAnn's. I got some great deals at Target, two plain decorative pillows for just over $5 each on clearance! And, two packs of cloth napkins (sets of 4) for just $1.50 each! Score! lol.

When we got home I made us yummy sandwhiches for lunch and Allie played around me as I did the Old Person's Yoga DVD for the first time (it's some dvd from PBS that we got in at work... for people of all ages - beginner friendly/ not intimidating). The Yoga was great. I must say that I must use some crazy muscles shelving books at work because I was able to do the "advanced" methods for all of them (no chair for stability). I guess I could have started with a regular yoga DVD. Cool.

Now the baby's napping and the mail came. It's a good mail day! Two more of my {Sew} Beautiful Bee blocks came in! I actually built up a pretend design wall yesterday (scraps of batting hanging over the "toy wardrobe" in the sewing/play room. Here it is. Seeing them all up there makes me so inspired to make more of them!! Which is a pretty good thing since I still have about a half a dozen to go! This is going to be one big quilt! 

I did quite a bit of sewing the last few nights but I'm going to go ahead and save those for a different post, since I'm already rambling. There may be a tutorial to be made. We'll see! Happy Friday!!

Just a little update...

My endeavours of raising money for the Sewing Summit is on hold for another week or two... I just realised that the Summit is about 9 months away... so I probably can't make a clear decision about it for another two months, otherwise I could (hopefully), potentially be either seriously pregnant or having a baby at that time. As life is though, we've been trying for too long without success for me to hold my breath about being pregnant instead of being at the Summit. We'll see. Have I ever mentioned that TTC is just no fun anymore. I should have about 3 sets of twins by now for all that we've tried!

Enough of that sob story.

I actually did some sewing today. A very little bit. My mom is in town and she sleeps in my sewing room (on an air mattress poor thing). Since I sew mostly at night, it just doesn't happen with guests. Just now (during nap time) I managed to finish cutting fabric for my bee month (thanks Katy for sending me some much needed Kona grey!!). It's official I'm sending too much fabric. I didn't know how else to allow enough for my bee members to pick their own colors/order. So whatever, I'll use up those scraps forever and love it! I also finally sewed my practice Dresden to some white fabric so I can start embroidering on it. :) That was my little bit of sewing!

On a great note, I have all my bee fabric ready to send (need to type out instructions), All my envelopes are addressed. My mug rug (s) for Mug Rug Swap III are finished. My birthday gift for my friend Michelle is finished. I feel accomplished even though I didn't do much!

Hopefully I'll have some sweet stitchy embroidery to show tomorrow! Have a good Sunday!

Mug rugs, and bee strips...

They're all over my sewing area!

I have nearly finished cutting fabrics for my month of {Sew} Beautiful Bee (February)... I didn't buy enough Kona Ash... so I'll have to return to the store first!

Today we recieved our partners for the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 3. So I got right to work attempting some paper piecing which would have to be scaled down by about 200% ...

If my partner bites on it and leaves me a comment I'll continue...but I don't think it's my style enough for it to turn out amazingly. I may incorperate one tiny fishy in there... we'll see. Paper piceing is a little annoying - only since I am not very practiced at it! 

If my partner doesn't love it here are some of my other ideas: