My Stash Bee Quilt .... so far.....

A quick peek at the blocks received so far from my hive on Stash Bee.  I have no idea what the finishied size of this quilt will be since this is only 1/3 of the blocks that will be coming my way.  I am using a cheery woodgrain fabric for the shelves but want to do another border around that.   It is also hard to tell in this photo but I machine embroderied each contributing quilters name and homestate and/or country on their blocks.

I love how this is looking already!

September Block for Carol

I am shocked at myself!  I actually got Carol's block done in time for the afternoon post plus embroderied all the names on the bookshelf quilt blocks that I have received so far.  They need to be trimmed up a little so will post the bookshelf blocks later. 

 

Of course, this was in addition to me having severe focusing issues today......I would work on her block for 10 minutes and then jump on the computer or go look for more fabric, etc.  Carol wanted a fall themed block and I had this great center piece I wanted to use up so things worked out perfectly!  Of course, after looking at this photo, I think I need to re-iron since I did not get all my seams perfectly flat and of course, the gold is not "popping" like it does in real life.

The fun part is that I now have all my obligations done so I now get to start designing my Round Robin pieces.  Yes...shocker!...I joined another quilting swap ....this one is a Round Robin centered around Valentine's Day and will conclude in four months.  Pretty excited since this is one you get to add borders to another person's center block and you have NO clue what yours will look like until you get it back! 

Holiday Knitted Scarves

Yeah!  Half of my holiday knitted scarf set is complete!  I need to work on the hat next but here is a picture of the scarf that I decided to make for myself after I saw this yarn for a quarter at a yardsale.  (I actually got all three skeins for that price!)

 

It was raining when I took the photo so the metallic flakes don't really show up great.  Just a basic knit pattern since the yarn would not show any detail when doing anything fancier.  32 stitches across and two full skeins of the yarn for the scarf.

 

 

Below is a picture of a scarf I did last month using the Seafoam pattern. I really liked it but need to find the right yarn to do another one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next thing to work on today is finishing Carol's autumn quilt block. 

Stalking a blog....

OK....I admit it....I have now officially become a stalker of my Stash Bee quilting blog!  The reason?  Well, I am the Queen Bee for my hive this month and I keep wanting to see if there are any new postings from my hive members for my quilt block. 

It started when I realized that everyone's were turning out so cute and I got so excited about seeing them!  Then I started imaging how I would lay them out and what binding fabric I would use.  It is killing my productivity....I need to work on other things but how can I not get excited with each posting that says "Quilt block for Rachelle or Hive #2?"  It is like Christmas but only better since it lasts all month!!!!!!!!

Below is an example of one of the blocks created....

Note: Created by Carol who is in Hive 4 but wanted to join in the fun.  Isn't this awesome?

A Typical Tuesday....

Yesterday was going to be a quilting / sewing day but my neighbor called in the am and asked if I wanted to go traveling to do some shopping.  Of course, who was I to say "no" to such an adventure.  As a newbie to Michigan I often rely on others to show me the good spots to go but I am usually faithful about carrying my GPS....not so yesterday!

We started out going to Dundee and checking out a candle store that specializes in soy candles, Swan Creek Candles (http://www.swancreekcandle.com/).  They have a couple new scents that I really liked including Vanilla Oak so I had to get something there.

Then we decided to find this outlet mall in Monroe, Michigan which was supposed to be very close.  Where we actually ended up was Lake Erie at Luna Pier.  It was actually a great thing since my cousin had sent me a bear to photograph at a Michigan landmark as part of her school project

 

 

Also since I had a Michigan bear on hand, I decided to give her bear a traveling companion. They are in front of the Luna Pier lighthouse.

 

 

Luna Pier was a cute town which would be fun to visit in the summer and maybe do some fishing out on the pier but I really did not see any good beaches even though their website said they had some.  May need to go exploring again there.  (http://www.michigan.org/property/city-of-luna-pier-public-beach-and-pier/)  From Luna Pier, we finally saw a highway which we knew would get us close to the mall so back on the road we went. 

 

After about 30 minutes (we went South instead of North on the highway first and almost ended up in Ohio) we did find the outlet mall which was almost empty and whose biggest store was Bon Worth......The clothes were stuff my grandmother used to wear and all the pants were made out of polyester.  (I think you can see their advertisements in the Sunday circulars.)  Obviously I did not get anything there even though the prices were unreal but it was interesting to know about it.  On the way home, my neighbor and I were "winging" it again and got lost AGAIN!  Ended up having to stop and ask for directions on that sidetrip, the guy we asked could not believe how far we were from where we needed to be. 

 

So after about 20 minutes of traveling backroads, we were back on track and back home in time to make dinner for the hubby.....Turkey Tettrazini. 

 

I did get some work done on my Christmas scarf that I am knitting which I should have done by the end of the week if not sooner.  Now I just need to find a cute easy pattern for a hat and/or gloves.

 

September Block Headed to Russia

This one is called Storm at Sea.....The instructions were slightly off so truly a stormy block....

Headed to Russia in tomorrow's post

Stash Bee September Block

 

My September block for Stash Bee.  It is called Converging Corners and is actually going to a hive member in Ireland.