Bee busy

My July bee block went in the mail today. This Busy block really is fascinating looking, and I love the fabrics the queen bee picked. It sure is easy when her tastes in fabric and colours are the same as your own! As always, I included charm squares, a signature block and fabric basket.

The first block I made was a bit of an oopsy. I was so careful to get all the colours placed right, but forgot the pesky fact that paper piecing blocks are reversed. Not to let the block and beautiful fabric go to waste (I used up all of that awesome black and white print), I made it into a pillow for a present. I added a thin strip of the black and then flying geese for the outside border. Can't go wrong with flying geese! Then I finished it with spiral quilting in a variegated thread that matched perfectly.

I love how this pillow turned out and kinda want to keep it, but alas it's earmarked for a birthday present. I admired it for a bit on the bench in my front hall.

Next month I'm the queen bee! I had picked out the block I wanted, but then I saw Fizzy! Wow! I'm a recent curves convert and just couldn't resist this one. I made four sample blocks to help guide my swarm members. I can't wait to see what they do with this. Also it's gonna be awesome getting a bunch of packages in the mail when the blocks start to arrive.

The Hazel block I made recently for my mom to turn into a zippered pouch was a big hit, so I had to make more. I was a bit disappointed when I got these together to see the Hazel body disappeared into the newsprint background. I put them aside and later had a brainwave to add a decorative stitch in black around the body. That was just the contrast needed! I stuck with the wavy quilting, in purple and pink.

This past week had some real sewing drama. I took three days off and planned to spend much of the extra-long weekend sewing. I went to my machine the first morning, turned it on and nothing. The machine came on, but that's it. Eek! After a meltdown (I'm not too proud to say there were tears), I enlisted my mom's backup machine and took mine in to the repair shop. They weren't reassuring it can be fixed, but we'll see. Here's where it gets exciting - I bought a new machine! My first new sewing machine ever! It's nothing fancy, but has everything I need. And oh boy have I put it through the paces already. I can't wait to see what we make together.