November & December Quilting Bee Blocks

Good evening, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We've been snowed in here in NC since Friday night, which has proven to be incredibly productive for me. Here are just a few things I was able to get done this weekend:

• Made 102 blocks for Rachel's Modern Siggy Block swap (a process I can only describe as mind-numbing ... but I am glad they're done. Pics soon.)
• Pieced the top for my Doll Quilt Swap 8 quilt (again, no pics yet. It was storming here, remember?! : )
• Finally finished hand sewing the binding on a quilt that will make its debut soon. I don't even want to tell you how long it's been finished and sitting here with its binding half sewn on. Glad that one is done!
• Finished one piece for the Hoop Up swap and started another.
• Cut up all of my fabrics for my friends in the Bee Imaginative group, and made a few sample blocks. It's going to be a good one! Stay tuned for more on that.
• Finished book 8 of the Sookie Stackhouse series. Anyone else reading these?
• Hung out with the kids and played a lot of Wii Sports Resort.

Wow, I should get snowed in more often!

I seem to be falling way behind on posting all of the blocks I've been making. Here's a quick rundown of my November & December blocks:

SewConnected

In November, Meg sent out a selection of solid fabrics and requested blocks inspired by Kaffe Fassett's Forget-Me-Not Cabins quilt (from this book). Here's my interpretation:



And for December, Audrey assigned each member a letter of the alphabet and asked for an i-spy block containing the letter itself. Here's my "F" block featuring fish, frogs, fire hydrants, some fellas playing football, and a fire engine. This is going to be a really cute quilt for her beautiful newborn daughter. Read more about it here.

SewConnected 2

November was Sudi-Laura's month in SewConnected 2. Coincidentally, December was her month in another bee that we are in together (Buzz Cuts). For both, she sent out some white fabrics and requested wonky stars in a variety of sizes made from our scraps. Here's what I made collectively for both bees:



December was a catch-up month in SewConnected 2, so it wasn't assigned to any of our members.

SewConnected 3

Over in SewConnected 3, November was assigned to Sara. She wanted geometric blocks made from her selection of Mendocino prints and some coordinating solids. I followed a pattern from the recent Quiltmaker Magazine "100 Blocks from today's top designers" issue.



December was also (thankfully) a free month in SewConnected 3.

bee inspired

November was a great month to work on some holiday-inspired projects. Stacey designed her own block to be made from holiday prints for her bee inspired quilt. It was a very cool design that combined a pinwheel with string-pieced corners. Here's my version:

I was kind of angry at myself for trimming it up crookedly. I hope it won't be noticeable when the entire top is put together.

We took December off in this group, too : )

Buzz Cuts

Stop the presses. Have you heard? I'm paper piecing these days. That's right ... after years of resisting, I've finally succumbed to peer pressure and taken the plunge. This next block is perhaps the main reason for my change of heart.

Here's the block I made for Julie for the month of November:

I love this pattern, and it was bugging me to think that I couldn't make it ... so I jumped right in, and I was very happy with how the block turned out. Of course, the fact that it's made with the amazing "Neptune" line helps!

For December, I made the wonky stars for Sudi-Laura that I showed above.

Cottage Quilting Bee

Oh, I just realized that I already shared the block I made for Tacha for her November Cottage Quilting Bee project:



Still love it, though! And, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, December was an off month for the Cottage Quilting Bee, too!

As of tonight, January's in the books and you know what that means ... my monthly round-up of bee blocks should be coming soon. (It helps that I actually got them all done on time this month!)