3X6 Bee Blocks

My creation
Originally uploaded by AmieJ Designs

I have finished my blocks for the 3X6 mini bee on Flickr. I'm kind of sad about it. They were a lot of fun to do and the next round doesn't start until January. I should be glad they're done, I have a lot of work to do. I am just finishing up my bag for the bag swap, have my xmas present quilts to quilt and am thinking of doing a craft show in December so I need to make stock. Here are the blocks that I made for my group.

New Exciting Books

I bought two new books today.
One is Amy Butler's Style Stitches, 12 easy ways to 26 wonderful bags. I have been waiting for my local bookstore to get this since it was released. Today was finally the day. I only had a chance to glance through it briefly before going to work. I'm very excited about this. Why? I don't really know because I normally hate bag patterns and always design my own. I think it's the pink cover. I just signed up for the bag swap at Sew Mama Sew, so I'm thinking I'll try one of these great bags for my swap pattern.
The Second one is Dare To Be Square Quiting by Boo Davis. Again, I have only briefly flipped through this book but already love it. I don't think I've made it a secret that I love straight lines and a clean modern look. I still have to make my moms Christmas gift quilt so maybe I'll try one of these.
Does anyone else have any new or old favourite sewing books they'd like to share?

Cupcakes

I realized I write mostly about sewing but I do a lot of other things as well. Baking is one of them. I love to bake and I do it quite often. I just made 4 dozen cupcakes for my nieces 3rd birthday party. This was a lot of fun. I sure love pink frosting!

Messenger Bag....And This One's Mine!

Messenger Bag
Originally uploaded by AmieJ Designs

This is my new favourite bag and I'm keeping this one. I rarely keep any that I make. It's not that I don't want to, but usually someone else wants them more. This one is made with 15oz Organic canvas and lined in one of my favourite Erin McMorris prints from Park Slope. I am still debating about making these for the shop. The organic fabric is really expensive but it feels really great and durable.

String Quilt

I have finished the top and back of my first quilt. I have moved on to my sister's quilt. I wanted to make it really scrappy and a little crazy, which suits my sister. I used this tutorial from Film In The Fridges' blog, which I read daily. I am addicted. This is so much fun. I am doing 5 1/2" blocks then sewing 4 together to make a large block. These sew together very quickly but I still have quite a few left to make. I am going to put sashing around each large block instead of sewing all the blocks together. I wanted to break up the pattern a little bit. I can't wait to see the finished top on this one. This is not going to help my scrap hoarding though. Instead of throwing out the little strips like I used to, I now realize you can use even the smallest pieces for these blocks.


I have also decided to redo the block I showed in my last post. It is going to be a pillow and I have decided the blocks not matching up really bother me a lot. I will show the pillow and hopefully the finished quilt top when I can get a decent picture of it.

Sewing through the heat wave

It is sooooo hot. I am not a summer person. Anyone who knows me, knows this. I like cool weather and I even like snow. So it probably goes without saying, I am not doing very well in this humidity.

I decided to try sewing this quilt square the other night when I couldn't sleep. The tutorial is from Little Miss Shabby and it's the stash buster block. I actually really liked that it was a lot of 1.5" squares. It let me use my very small pieces of fabric that I couldn't throw out. My first attempt was a little wonky. I think I may have had a few squares that weren't cut exactly the right size so they don't line up as they should. I still like it though. I am going to make this square into a pillow to go with the pink coin quilt I am currently working on for an xmas present. Although it is a little time consuming, I am thinking of using this block to make my sisters quilt which will be a true scrap quilt.
(If you look at the corners, you can see where the squares didn't line up)

Planning Ahead

So I might be a little ambitious. I have decided to make 4 different quilts for xmas presents this year. Not only that, I am going to try to make them out of my very large collection of scraps. I have already started one for my brother's girlfriend. By start I mean I have cut out (for hours) pieces for a coin quilt. I have also cut a couple hundred 1.5" squares to do a matching pillow. Her favourite colour is pink and I have a lot of pink so that's why I started with this one. I'm just waiting for my solid colour which I had to order. The only other one which is somewhat planned in my head is my sister's which I think is going to be a true scrap quilt with a little bit of everything.

I have learned a couple of things from my quilting in the last couple of years. One is that I really like really simple designs and I also prefer straight line quilting. I still am going to practice some more free motion quilting but I think my stuff is nicer when I do what I like to do.

Here are my scraps cut up and ready to go for quilt one.