Sewing Along

I’ve been trying to get some sewing done on commitments that I have made. They are all things that I am excited to be working on, but it’s funny how hard they can be when they turn into obligations. Suddenly that fun task can seem daunting.

I was contacted by a show on the Food Network who was interested in my first set of dishtowels. Those towels were not the right size and I didn’t have enough quantity of certain types, so a new project began. I was happy to finally finish these towels and have to admit that I needed some help especially with all the ironing (just too sick). But I think that they turned out really cute.

It was fun to delve back into my own fabrics and come up with new color and fabric combinations. I liked each set for totally different reasons. I was also trying to think about what might look good on television and what would get lost in translation. But I’m kind of out of my depth there! 🙂

After that project was sent off, I could finally focus on my July Blocks for the Bee Modern Quilt Along. This month we were given free reign to do anything we wanted in a 12.5″ square size. Of course this is a modern quilt along, so everyone tends to like that kind of inspiration. I felt like I was being a bit of a dissenter by making one of the blocks I made, the Dresden Plate.

The fabric she selected was called Hello Betty and it just begged me to make it into this block. She also sent us a lot of skinny strips of fabric, so it was hard to figure out what I wanted to make. I didn’t want to make a bunch of log cabins this whole Bee, so I was trying to think outside the box.

I used an invisible thread on the front for the applique and a white thread on the back. I actually loved how beautiful the back looked. Something so pretty and simple about it.

My second block for her was much more improvisational and “modern”. It gave me more problems than I thought, but in the end I really liked it as well. I think that both blocks will work with her other blocks.

After finishing those blocks, I began work right away on my next row for the Row Robin Quilt Swap. This month I was working on Tacha’s quilt. After she lost her first row in the mail 🙁 she decided on a color theme of red, white and blue. It may seem all American, but she’s living in Germany! I really liked what others have done for her so far and it was a much easier quilt for me to work on. I even broke out some of my favorite fabrics for this one.

Here’s all the rows together! They look great!

And if all of that was not enough, I’m getting ready to start right in on the August blocks for Bee Modern. We’ve been given free reign again and whole bunch of beautiful fabrics to use. My package came in the mail the other day…