Baby K is finally here! 

A sister for Little D.

********

On another note...

The organizers of the Simply Solids Modern Bee are looking for some more Canadian participants to fill a second group. 

Are you a Canadian quilter?  Interested?

Sign up here.

yes... no...

I should just stay off the internet. 
Really. 
I don't know how I find things I don't mean to find, but I do.  And then I get suckered in, my own fault, to things.

Have you heard about the Simply Solids Swap hosted by Sew at Home Mummy?

Somehow, I did.

I avoided signing up because, well, baby is due any day now and who knows how busy I will be in the coming months.

Then I saw a solids swap that is tied to this bee.

Well, that seemed doable, so I signed up.  No sewing involved, just cutting and sending, and really, I love me some solids.

But now, I am very tempted to join the Bee swap. 

pictures and words

A mini quilt gift - for a book and a quilt lover.

 I started this project in January, and it's kind of fitting that I finish it in December.  

 Most of the little bits were gotten in scrap swaps and other random swaps.

Thanks to all of you who helped me with getting all different bits for this!

 More fabulous mail!  Another scrap + small handmade item swap.  My partner spoiled me and gave me a gorgeous pillow cover and well over a FQ worth of scraps!

My husband is having knee surgery in January to repair a torn ACL, and because he doesn't want to be bored and alone in the living room, we are moving the house around!  I was not excited at first, but then he talked about a real sewing corner for me and a new desk with shelves... then I got into it.  He's also building a new computer desk and two side tables.  

While he will be busy building, I will be busy hand sewing.  Putting the finishing touches on my Hexy MF top.  Still wobbling over the quilting part.  Katy's original quilt has all the flowers quilted individually with a different design... I'm not sure if the local quilter here can do that.  I looked up a few other hexagon quilts and thought that maybe, just maybe I can hand quilt it.  

Any tips for hand quilting before I get bogged down and never finish?

mail overload!

This has been a good mail week. 

Seriously, I received 5 packages this week! And all included fabric!  

Sure makes for good pre-baby distractions.

I swapped some fabric with on Flickr and she felt so bad for her delay in mailing off the swap that she generously included the two fabrics on the right.  

These beauties were received as part of the MFSG for November - 5 FQs of Sketch from Timeless Treasures.

These 1 YARD cuts were a giveaway win from Cathy at Blueberry Patch.  I had entered her giveaway during the Canadian Blogathon.  They are so gorgeous.

The next two bits of mail were from swaps on Flickr as well.  Remember I had made a pillow cover for the Pillow Talk {Swap}?  My partner had received hers a while ago and all these other ladies were receiving gorgeous pillows.  I was beginning to think there were going to be no pillow covers left!  

Silly me.

Look what came to live in my house!

My partner, Miss Emily D, made this gorgeous cover for me using the Honey Bee Block from Why Not Sew?.  Have a look at the tutorial...  All those little honey bees are hand appliqued! 
She even hand quilted this cover for me!

She also sent along some blue and purple scraps for my Feather Quilt project.  

And some paper pieces to make the Spring Carnival pattern, a pattern that is on my 'short' to do list.

Spoiled?  Yes.

Then last, but not at all least because I was really really hoping this swap package would be for me, my Scrappy Swap package arrived. 

I had asked for something very specific in this swap - a hoop that I could hang in the kid's bedroom since I now have an other half to decorate.  I wasn't too picky about what should be on it, only that it was relatively gender neutral because we don't know if #2 is a boy or a girl.  

My partner, Karen, really pulled through on this one, not only with the hoop she made for me, but also with the scraps she sent!

 

Yes, those are goldfish in bags, some Nursery Versery, some text prints, some Echo stuck in on the side, some dots, some bikes, some Lizzy House... I love every one of the scraps she sent.  And she was very generous too as we are required to send a FQ of scraps and these pieces all unfolded make well over a FQ. 

The hoop was much bigger than I thought it would be, and the houses are so perfectly embroidered.

Yup, it was definitely a good mail week. 

Oh, and no worries, I do have something else to show you.  I didn't only open mail this week, I sewed a bit too.  But I'm not quite done yet, so that's for another day.

a bit of this

Did you know that today is Giveaway Day over at Sew Mama Sew?  There are 5 categories of giveaways - so many blogs and so much stuff being given away!  I participated last year, but opted out this year.  Instead of having a 'mass' giveaway, I am planning to have a follower giveaway within the next 2 months.  

Lucky you who follow me.

I actually had a very productive weekend.  Well, weekend is a bit of a stretch, it was more of a day.  Saturday.  I finished piecing together all the hexy flowers for the Hexy MF last week and on Saturday I crawled around on the floor with my 9 month pregnant belly basting the hexies to the quilt top fabric.  My husband kept looking over at me as I grunted and huffed and puffed my way up and down and around.  

But it's basted and I've already secured one side to the fabric!  At least the stitching part I can do while sitting.  

I might even get this quilt done this year!  

One question for you then - 

How would you quilt this?  

Hand quilt?  

Bring it to a quilter?  

Organic straight lines?  

Swirls of some sort?  

Really, I have no idea and could really use some suggestions.

On Flickr, I had posted a picture that I was ISO blue and purple scraps.  Some wonderful Flickr people helped me out and swapped with me for some of their scrap stash.  

This is what is becoming of those scraps. 

I'm making a feather quilt from Anna Maria Horner's pattern.

Originally, I had intended it to be for little D, but now I think she will be gifted the Hexy MF (hubby thinks it's too pink for our bed - I might agree from his point of view) and this might be a long-in-the-making quilt for us.  That means I will have to find a lot more scraps. 

Making feathers from scraps is a lot more time consuming than making them with strips.  I have to make each piece separately because most of the scraps are not long enough to piece together and then cut in bulk.
So far, I'm okay with that though.  I like the idea that no feather will be the same as another, and yet, they will all be blue and purple.
I was thinking of doing a gray stem and putting it all together with something like Kona Champagne. 

Or I'll just have to buy some fat eighths off Etsy along with some scrap packs... 

Or find some more people to swap with... 

Wanna swap with me?