Dish Towel

 Our family is getting larger these days (2 adults, 4 kids and one dog) and our dishwasher gets run daily.  It is filled mostly with sippy cups and bottles that don't ever get completely dry and end up being set on the counter to finish drying.  SO, I've made a couple of these towels to put on the counter.

 I started out by just piecing the top with strips of Amy Butler fabric-- because it's so pretty!

 I placed it upside down on some terry, sewed together, leaving a hold to turn it out again.  Then I flipped it right side out and sewed down the edges again.

I used some terry cloth that I already had on hand, but you can also just use a dish towel or washcloth.

Feature!

My Blockwork Orange quilt was featured!

Feeling Inspired

 Since having Mason two months ago, my quilting time has gone down a lot.  It's sad, but I also get to spend time with a really cute baby.  Nonetheless, it seems most of my quilting now is making sure my bees are caught up and working on quilts made from beemates.  Well, I am starting to feel like I need to do a project of my own.  With a couple of swaps and bees ending soon, I am starting to think about what I would like to work on.  Here are a few quilts that I saw at the West Houston Area Quilt Show that are inspiring me right now:

 I love the perspective on this block one above.  Though I can already tell that is a whole lot of little pieces and I am not sure I am up to snuff for something like that quite yet!

 This one is certainly doable.  I pretty easy pattern actually it seems and very bright... I think that is why I liked it.  Most of the quilters for this particular show (when I went back in April), are more traditional quilters.  Which I love and appreciate, but just aren't me.

I have yet to do a circle/drunkards path quilt and I am actually really eager to try it out.  Perhaps this will be next on the list!

Rainbow Tutorial

For Stashtacular, we are supposed to do up some of the given tutorials and post our pictures to flickr in order to win prizes--- FABRIC!

Here we have Mason sporting the first tutorial found at bluebirdsews.blogspot.com.  It was for this rainbow onesie.  Hope I win! (doubt I will, I am usually good luck for EVERYONE else!).

July for Aqua and Red Bee

 July is my month to send out fabric for the Aqua and Red Bee.  I have been drooling over Riley Blake's The Quilted Fish Sugar & Spice line for forever and chose that as my fabric.

 I recently bought a dresden template and since I love the look of a dresden, I decided that is what I wanted from my beemates. 

 Since I asked for two blocks-- I bribed them with a free fat quarter-- I went ahead and cut all the blades myself.

This is what the dresden looks like after it is completed.  I went for the smoothed edge dresden this time around.  I think it makes it a little more modern.  I have big plans for this quilt and am anxious to get them all back!

WIP- Basic Ease

I joined the The Quilting Book Club a month late, so I am still working on catching up on May's quilt.  Here is the layout for the Basic Ease quilt from the "Modern Basics" book by Amy Ellis.

Hope to finish it up by next week!

A few July blocks

 July isn't over yet and I am not done with all my blocks yet.  But, I have finished most of them so thought I would go ahead and post what I have finished.

 First off is the Fat Stash Bee.  The blue fabric was provided and she asked for blocks for her husband's quilt.  He works with horses and cows and such in the country so all I could think of was "I need green and I need pinwheels"...so that's what I did!

 For Christmas Fabric Bee, Corley asked for improv Christmas blocks.

 In Honeybees, we did these strip star blocks.

 For Aqua and Orange Bee, Alix wanted these square in a square blocks-- the one above and below.

 In Twelve Month Quilting Bee, Cassey asked for these strip square blocks.

 For another Christmas Fabric Bee, Marci asked for strip star blocks as well... I did a lot of strippin' this month!

In the Aqua and Red Bee- Lynne asked for a block of our choice.  I have been having a thing for stars lately so I made a star... of course, right after I posted the picture on flickr, another group member made a WAY better star.  Oh well!

JUNE ALFALC Swap Received

I received this little package last month for my A Little Fabric A Little Chocolate swap.  We said extra fabric instead of chocolate since it is like 100 degrees here in Houston.  More fabric is better anyway!

4x5 Kickoff!

The new 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee is kicking off and soon the 3x6 will be back in full swing.  These groups have me making a block for each person in my group within approximately 3 months or so.  The idea is that after participating in a couple rounds, you should be able to make a sampler-type quilt out of all the blocks you have received.  I had to come up with a collage that represented the colors and types of blocks I would like.   This is what I came up with:

1. Corey's bee block - "Sew New to Me" vqb, 2. Caitlyn's Quilt Block Detail 8, 3. July Block Party, 4. Caitlyn's Quilt Detail of pieced quilt, 5. bee beautiful March block, 6. If it's a boy quilt - front, 7. Layouts, 8. Quilting Divas - block for mamamary2, 9. Pillow Swap 3, 10. 3x6 Q1- melinda, 11. 3x6 Hive 25, for Neet Designs (Nita), 12. Blue, green, and gray, 13. Dresden plate block for joanna, 14. IMG_3317, 15. [3 x 6] Bee Quilt Block, 16. Circle of Geese block for Renee

Alzheimer Quilts

 The West Houston Area Quilt Guild, which I just joined in (my momma's a member) is very active in making charity projects and asks their members to participate in one or two every year.  Well, I was excited about the Alzheimer quilts charity because these small mini quilts are just like mug rugs which take hardly any time at all to make and they are for a good cause!

I used my fabric and pieced them and my mom did the quilting... so it was a duel effort and both our contributions to the guild.

Quilt 1:

 I got a new dresden template a few weeks back and I LOVE it.  So, I used the mini dresden for the first quilt.  I used Riley Blake's Sugar & Spice fabric.  I also used a fabric from the same line for both the backing and the binding.

Quilt 2:

 Awhile back I participated in a string block swap.  I didn't make enough of them to make an entire quilt, so I have been using them in various projects that need a little something.  So, I sewed four of them together for the top of this quilt.  I also received some fun japanese fabric from my May ALFALC swap and chose to use that for the back of this one.  I bound this one is plain Kona White.