Peas In A Pod

Bear's Paw Block for Mary B

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I did.  Got some rest (much needed), got the house cleaned (sort of, much needed also), and got some quilting done (much needed).

One thing I accomplished this weekend was to make my block for the March Two's Company Quilting Bee that I'm in.  Mary B gave us this block to make.  She sent us the background fabric and asked us to contribute some blue fabric for the Bear's Paws.  Mary B gave us lots of options...go scrappy, use the same fabric throughout...whatever!  See her samples here, if you'd like.  She said she wasn't worried about the "directionality" of the background fabric, which was good.  As you know, I am the same way about stuff like that.

I had a hard time finding a blue fabric in my stash that looked good with this background fabric.  Everything seemed too busy for this background fabric.  So, I chose this solid navy blue fabric.  I thought since the block was fairly traditional, it might be good to go with a solid.  But it has this wonderful texture, which I thought would add a nice element of surprise to the block.

I had a lot of fun making this block.  I have never made a Bear's Paw block before, but I've always wanted to.  I would make more of these.  But I would use my paper piecing to make all the little half-square triangles if I made a bunch more of these.  I do better with those for accuracy on the half-square triangles.

If you want to see what others are doing in the bee, go check out the Two's Company Quilt Bee blog.  I have been having a great time with this bee.  Next month is my month.  I'm nervous about putting it all together!  I'll show you soon what I'll be doing for my month.

Hope you had a great weekend, too.  The weather sure has been beautiful here.  Just unbelievable.  I hope you have been enjoying some great weather, too!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

February Two's Company Quilting Bee Blocks

This has been such a crazy busy month for me with traveling and goings-on at work.  I went to Florida the week before last for a few days to help my dad, who had surgery.  He's doing well, and the surgery wasn't serious.  He just needed some help for a few days.  I came back to Michigan, and we had graduate student interviews for two days, which was crazy.  Then, I had one day free.  During that day, I took a breather and sewed up my February blocks for the Two's Company Quilt Bee.

Jackie sent us the paper piecing pattern and the pre-cut background fabrics.  We were to add our own reds.  You might recall I said she had told us "the wilder the better" for the reds.  I took that as an excuse to go buy some nice wild reds, because I really didn't have many in my stash.  I blogged those purchases here.  I also picked up a couple more while I was in Florida, when I visited the Quilt Lover's Hangout again.  (See my blog post about that shop here.)  I think I got the wild fabric on the top triangle in the upper left-hand corner there, as well  as the middle triangle in the upper right-hand block.  I especially like that fabric.  It's reds, oranges, pinks, etc.  Cool.  It was fun to add these to my stash.  Makes my stash a lot more playful.

The only one I felt was not so effective was that cool oriental fabric I had gotten in that last major splurge.  When I cut it, it came out as sort of a solid red.  (It's the bottom triangle in that block on the lower left-hand corner.)  Oh well, a place for the eye to rest.

After my one opportunity to sew, I had to get on a plane to CA, which as I mentioned is where I am now.

If I haven't depressed you all enough, I thought I'd just let you know that another hard thing we've dealt with is that one of our cats died a couple of weeks ago.  When I was down in Florida, Papa Pea and Sweet Pea called me.  Sweet Pea was crying, because she and Papa Pea found her dead next to our shed.  It appeared she had gotten hit by a car, dragged herself home, and died next to our shed.  We are all really sad by this, because PJ was a really good cat.  Sweet Pea just loved her, and so did we.  PJ is the cat in the left-hand corner of this photo.

This photo was taken when we got home from Florida after Christmas.  We were having unseasonably warm weather, and Sweet Pea missed her animals so much while we were gone.  I was inside, unpacking, doing wash, etc.  I looked outside, and there was Sweet Pea, laying on the patio, snuggling with all of her animals.  She did this for about a half hour.

She and Papa Pea buried PJ out back, right next to poor old Piper.  We will miss PJ a lot.  Now, I wish we had one of her kittens that we gave away last year!

Maybe this gives you further insights into my melancholy mood lately.  I'm hanging in there and really appreciate all your kind comments.  Trying to keep in mind that life is really good, overall.  I really had a wonderful time spending some quality time with my dad in Florida.  How often to my dad and I get time together, just the two of us?  That was really nice.  Papa Pea and Sweet Pea are the lights of my life, and I do miss them when I travel so much.  I know that's contributing to my mood as well. 

And I need more sewing time!!!!

Have a wonderful day.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

Fabric Diet

I've had myself on a fabric diet since the first of the year.  I'm really trying not to purchase so much fabric this year.  I have so much cool stuff.  I really need to use it. (I'm pretty sure I've said this before.)

I've done really well, overall.  Well, I did have one big fabric binge, when Kate Spain's Good Fortune came out.  I told myself that was the one big binge I'd allow myself.  No more for the next few months.  (Let's see how that goes.)

But in the last couple of days, I did have one more small binge.

For my Two's Company Quilt Bee, most people are doing red and white quilts.  We got our February challenge a few days ago from Jackie.  You can see it here.  More flying geese and paper piecing.  Love it.  Jackie said the more wild the fabric we use, the better.

I have not always been that adventurous in my fabric purchases.  I'm not sure I would say I have a lot of wild fabric...especially red.

And I'm trying to get out of my box a little.

So, I figured it was time to do just a small amount of fabric shopping to add some wild reds to my stash.

Here's what I got...The flowers in the front are certainly wild.  I think the red with white flowers in the back is also sort of wild.  The mushrooms aren't really that wild, but I sure love them!  (Sorry they are upside down.)  I also thought the red toile was pretty neat.  I hope Jackie likes these. (I took these photos at night...the lighting isn't that great.  They are brighter than this in real life.)

This fabric isn't really all that wild, but I loved it.

I think these are still pretty tame compared to Jackie's fabric (which is a lot of Kaffe Fasset).  But this is out of the box for me.

Okay, I have to get back on the wagon now.

Fortunately for me, my weight-loss diet seems to be easier for me to maintain than my fabric diet.  When did I ever believe I'd be able to say that?!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Spinning Geese

I finished this block for Mary in the Two's Company Quilt Bee I am in.  Mary sent us all the fabric and a paper piecing pattern.  I enjoy paper Piecing, so I thought this was really a fun block.  I think her quilt will be beautiful.

Mary had blogged some suggestions for us for paper piecing.  (Here is the link to her original post, if you want to read more about it.  She gave some nice links to paper piecing tutorials, if you are looking for those.)  One of her suggestions was to make a paper copy of the pattern, cut it up, and use those pieces as templates for precutting the fabric for the paper piecing shapes, adding extra fabric all the way around for seam allowances and the "fudge factor."  Well, I thought that was a great tip, given all the weird shapes in this block.  I laid out all my pieces, cut the fabric....and then discovered a piece I had forgotten to cut and I had used all the fabric!  Woops!  So, Mary had to send me a little extra fabric.  I blogged my woes, here, on the Two's Company Quilt Bee blog.  But that strategy really worked well, and I will use it again when I paper piece again in the future.  It really made the job much easier.

Also, Mary sent the paper piecing patterns on vellum.  This was the first time I had used vellum to paper piece.  The paper tore away so easily.  I really enjoyed working on it.  It made life much easier when it came time to removing the paper than using regular printer paper (whcih is what I usually do).

The title on the pattern Mary sent us is A Circle of Geese, and she said she got it from Piece by Number.  Piece by Number sells its patterns in their etsy shop.  I was going to link to this specific pattern for you, but I could not find it.  If you are looking for it, you might need to e-mail Piece by Number, or I can ask Mary more about it for you.

My month is coming up soon.  I'm working on what I'll do for this quilting bee.  It has been fun to experiment with all these different blocks.

Our February assignment is up already, too, if you want to see it.  Click here to see our February assignment.

I'm very pleased with myself, as I got caught up on all my blocks for this bee in December, and I'm managing to stay on track!  I am happy to have the January block done before January is over.  :-)

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Jessica's Blue and Brown Blocks/Life is Good

Yesterday I finished up another little project I was behind on....Blocks for Jessica for the Two's Company Quilting Bee.

Jessica didn't want a red and white quilt.  But she needed to finish a project for her son.  So, we helped her with these blue and brown blocks.  She sent me the brown fabric and some of the blue fabrics.  I was to supply the remaining blue fabrics (four to six of them).  Well, I had forgotten to bring those to Florida with me, so....DANG....I had to find a local quilt shop and go shopping!  LOL!  My favorite find was the big blue polka dots.  I really liked that fabric.  I hope Jessica likes this.

By the way, the quilt shop I found here is called Quilt Lover's Hangout.  After I went in there, I discovered they had been one of the 10 shops featured in the most recent Quilt Sampler's Ultimate Shop Hop magazine.  I have that magazine and should have known, but I've been too busy to pay attention.  Anyway, it's a great shop.  I'm going to go back and take photos to blog about it later.  :-)

I brought the little Featherweight on this trip.  Here it is set up in my hotel room on the little desk.  (My parents don't have room for all of us in their condo, so my family is at a nearby hotel.)  It is working out perfectly.  I told Jessica I got to christen the Featherweight with her block.  Had to get a photo for posterity.

All in all, life is good.  I got a pedicure AND a manicure yesterday morning.  I took my niece, who is also my goddaughter, for a pedicure for her Christmas present.  She decided she wanted a manicure instead.  I got my pedicure, but she talked me into a manicure, too.  Afterward, the kids wanted to go swimming.  I thought it was too chilly, so I sat by the pool and did some cutting on my BOM that I'm three months behind on.  LOL.  I was in jeans and a jacket, but the kids were having fun in the pool.  (The pool was like bath water, it was so warm.)

We might hit Sanibel Island today.  Looking forward to that.

Until next time,

Mama Pea