Unscripted Quilting Bee - A Fish in The Water

I found this great quote the other day:

"For me, it's the imperfections that make music and people so interesting and so amazingly beautiful". In my case not music, but life.

I particularly loved this quote it because I'm always messing up. I try hard not to but it seems I'm always stepping in it, which, I have to admit makes for some pretty good stories. Well, more interesting stories than, I did it and it was great-the end.

  
Early in the Unscripted Bee I got my months all mixed up. Donna was supposed to be August but switched with Holly (Holly was originally July) but then I got Holly mixed up with Tara's September block... yada yada yada. Which wouldn't be that big of a deal except of the whole calendar drawing thing... but,  I decided to just go with it. I did finally get myself all untangled (a little embarrassed) but no worse for wear!

Block, signature block, drawing and note card

Holly's (A Fish in the Water) inspiration for her blocks were from Oh, Fransson  as seen here. It was an eye opening experience that felt like all my cob webs were being cleaned out of my closet. Something felt like it let go and I was free just to sit back and enjoy myself!

Signature block and drawing

Unscripted Online Quilting Bee - Kindred Spirit

How was your February? Our family played strep throat tag all month. I narrowly escaped with the mildest case in the house.Finally everyone is healthy and I can get back to business as usual!

Way back in May of 2011 Cynthiaf posted on Facebook about an online quilt bee on Flickr.

Quilt bee! I've always wanted to be in a quilt bee! I quickly sent off a message and snaffled one of the last spots.

A note card, a signature block and  a drawing

This quilt bee group is hosted by two co-bloggers, Donna and Sara, of  Kindred Crafters. The official name of the quilt bee is "Unscripted" and focuses on improv piecing.

The packages for the first blocks were received back in July, which may lead you to the same question I'm asking myself... why haven't I blogged about it yet? Two words: Back Bloggged! But, I'm hear to set things straight!

Donna, from Kindred Crafters, was the Queen Bee of July (the person who sent off all the fabric to everyone else). It was so exciting to receive that first little package in the mail...but also a little intimidating sewing for someone else (at first anyways). However, I persevered!! Donna's inspiration was stacked book blocks and I have to admit it was the biggest block I had ever made, 24" tall, and while I'm confessing it was pretty fun working that big!

A signature block

I thought in addition to the blocks I'd like to do small 6x6 drawings each month. I checked with Donna and Sara if that was cool and they were great about it, and even suggested I do a calender! A brilliant idea don't cha think?

Hey, hey good lookin'!

Last post about pot holders, promise! However, before I do that I just want to pass along my many  thanks to Krista from the VMQG and Eryn (the Hammer!) from the FVMQG . They were the ones responsible for the excellent and smoothly run inter-guild pot holder swap. As you can tell it left me inspired to make more pot holders then I ever imagined!

The last two I want to tell you about:

I fell in love with this fabric, not only because it's Cosmo Cricket (whom I first fell in love with because of their papers!) but for the quote "Hey good lookin', what you got cookin'?" There were two songs my Dad would sing to me when I was a kid, either, Hey good lookin' by Hank Williams or Tip Toe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim... but really he'd just sing the main verse over and over...and over! If you ever come across any fabric quoting Tiny Tim, please let me know!

Last but not least,  I made these for a very special lady named Lee. Lee is the mother of my husband's best friend, who we affectionately call Nodnarb. My husband honoured Nobnarb by making him a character in GnomeD, a game he made for the iPhone. Don't be fooled the real Nobnarb doesn't have a beard or wears a hat like that!) We've known Nodnarb since high school and have been enjoying his mother's baked goods ever since. However Lee's ginger snap cookies, I declare are the best cookies in the W H O L E   W I D E   W O R L D!




















Whenever we are in Alberta we make sure to visit Lee! We always meekly ask (okay maybe not so meekly) for a bag of cookies to take home with us. These cookies are then guarded and sparingly doled out. Our kids even know you HAVE to ask for a ginger snap cookie (actually if I was being really honest, I'll admit, we hide them! Oh I  know, we're slightly evil! ha, ha!) What can I say, they are just that good and need to be savoured for scraped knees or broken hearts.
    

 

So that's it for the pot holders! I went on a bit of a rampage over Christmas making them. They were so addictive to make but you know what, I forgot to make us a pair! It figures ;)

Three of Three... Bananas and juice, which makes banana juice!

Yesterday and the day before I posted about how tickled I was  to be blogged about by Keri from Iron Mountain Movement  and Berene of  Happy Sew Lucky . Earlier this week Carol Browne (who I declare has one of my top two favourite laughs in the whole wide world!) posted about me. However, she not only posted about me, she gave me super powers! Now, I know there are some people who claim they too have super powers but can they also say they have been made into a planet as well! Other than Unicron (can you tell I have two boys?) not many could claim to be made into a planet. Carol made me into a planet! See!


Now, I'm sure your asking yourself, um, okay what does that have to do with Banana juice? Carol did a post a while back about her juicer and that she tried juicing a banana. I chucked to myself as I read this because she then proceeded to say how you can't juice a banana. I loved this post so much because it is something I would totally do. So I thought Carol needed some pot holders with Bananas...

The back of the pot holder with the word "banana" over and over.

And  juice! A nice chilled glass of banana juice that is!

And the back of this pot holder is quilted to say "juice" over and over.

When I originally gave these to Carol I didn't have the binding finished (hmm sensing a theme here? Christmas was just so crazy what can I say ) After Carol opened them and had a look at the pot holders she giggled and said "I have to finish my own binding?"  The answer was no, you don't but I do have to take them back to finish them, which I did last week. And I'm pretty sure they didn't have any pins or needles left in them!

Two of Three...Happy Pot Holders

Yesterday I posted about how tickled I was that Keri from Iron Mountain Movement blogged about some pot holders I made her. How nifty it is to be posted about! It has never happened before but last week I was blogged about twice and then once again this week! So as not to make one big, super-duper rambling post, I've broken my post into three separate posts. Dare I say a trilogy...


Last week Berene from Happy Sew Lucky did a lovely post about some pot holders I made for her!














Berene was my pot holder swap partner from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I was just thrilled when I discovered she was who I was making pot holders for! I've admired her stuff for a while now and I hoped she'd like what I had planned. I was saving some Suzy Ultman fabric that I bought  in LA at Sew Modern for something special and I figured this was it.

An ode to Berene's Senor Party lights Mustachios!

One snag, Berene had written she didn't really like orange. Wha? People don't like orange? How can that be? However after meeting her at our November Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild she confessed she actually didn't mind it. Phew!
 



















But then, I got to thinking, I also really wanted to try out something kinda like I did for the sketchbook project but with fabric behind it (minus the naked people). I borrowed this tea pot of my in-laws (bought at McKinnleys in Berwyn and made in Ireland as they always mention) for inspiration.














 My pot holders were embarrassing late but Berene was very patience and understanding of why. So I figured she deserved both! Then of course with the whole hoopla of Christmas, it felt like forever until I got the darn things done and sent them off....




















  ...er, I assumed they were done. I ended up sending off one pot holder with pins still in it AND it still had a needle and thread in it! How's that for an exchange, here you finish it, ha, ha! I was slightly... well okay a lot horrified that I did that but Berene and I had a little laugh about it. I guess once I take a photo of something my brain declares that it's done, whether really is or isn't.  Thank god I whipped up a little mustached cup cozy for good measure-phew!

One of Three..."Pot" Holders!

I've realize this has become a super long post, so I'm going to break it into three parts. This is part one of three.

Having someone comment on your blog leaves you all warm and fuzzy feeling but having three people blog about you, well it's warm and fuzzy times 10! And when I say all warm and fuzzy inside it has nothing to do with the bottle of Jack Daniel's on the potholder, I swear!

Twice last week and again this week I've had the pleasure of being blogged about. Three times! Can you believe it!? They say all good things come in threes, or is that bad things...hmm let's say it's good things!



















First, last week, Keri Cawthorne from Iron Mountain Movement mentioned me on her blog. How nice is that! Keri is our resident (neighborhood) rock-star, so it seemed only fitting that she have rock-star "pot" holders (get it, heh, heh, she even calls me witty on her blog!)



















Keri ignited the runner in my husband, Chris. She has, along with her most awesome run group, been a huge encouragement to him. Chris ran the Canadian Death Race last summer in Grande Cache... a feat he wouldn't have been able to do with out all those Saturday morning runs! So we figured she deserved some ROCKSTAR pot holders!

Paul's potholders ROCK!

Ta DA! Look at these amazing pot holders made by Paul from the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! Aren't they AMAZING? I am yelling because I am just so thrilled with them!

Not only did Paul outdo himself with the pot holders, he also sent along COASTERS made with the same incredible material!




















The quilting on them was quite phenomenal! My Mother-in-law was with me when I opened my package and she lost her mind when she saw the pot holders and coasters! You should have heard the pair of us!














I'm from the prairies, how did Paul know? I love the wheat print! My Dad was a flour miller and he worked for the mill that made Sunny Boy Cereal. Have you heard of it? We have a retro Sunny Boy poster in our kitchen, so these will fit in quite nicely.

Can you believe how perfect they match my bowl set?

What can I say? I'm so tickled with my pot holders, the colours, the quilting  but especially by Paul's generosity. So I say to you Paul, Thank you, thank you so much! These are so appreciated!