Stacked Windmills quilt

I joined the virtual, or online Modern Bee quilting bee in 2014.  There were 12 of us in Hive 11, and we could choose whichever quilt we wanted to make, out of 13 quilts in the Modern Bee book by Lindsay Conner.

I chose the Stacked Windmills block.

I asked my hive members to choose pink for the center block, then yellow and gray for the rest of the blocks, and I wanted a text fabric for the background.  I think they turned out so cute, each one is so unique :)

The blocks are sewn with just 5" squares.

Now it's time to see the sashing, I chose a charcoal solid.

Yay, it's finished! Now I need to prepare the purple free spirit fabric I purchased for the back and machine quilt it. I took a Jackie Gehring class on Craftsy about machine quilting and want to use the skills I learned, on this quilt :)

Embroidered Mini Quilt

I love embroidery, and was asked to do a swap with a friend on Instagram.

Her name is Leanne and she lives in Tasmania, Australia.

This is her blog, Lizzie the quilter., she blogged about the mini quilt I made for her.

The embroidery is by Sarah Jane, I bought the pattern and used my own colors.

I embroidered in the car on one of our road trips :)

I chose a white printed quilt cotton to use as a base for the embroidery.

I have a thing for detail, I love it!

I have a box of little l l/2" squares that I've been collecting from my scraps.

I used the prettiest, brightest, happiest colors I could find.

I love pinwheels too, so I used a lot of those.

More little squares in deliciously cheerful colors and prints!

Excuse my stained ironing board cover, it's from the spray starch (Mary Ellen's starch press) that I use on my blocks.

Cute little pinwheels, I love them!

I enjoy designing quilts, I always feel a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

This little quilt measures approximately 16" X 24".

It's so feminine, and I had a really difficult time giving it away :)

I contemplated long and hard, about what color to use for the binding.

I always like the binding to pop, and with so many pretty colors, I thought that black would do the job.

I really like the effect.

I used a jigsaw quilt pattern for the machine quilting, and tried to make it as small as I could, to match the teeny measurements of the quilt.

I used a yellow Tanya Whelan print for the back.

I wanted the little embroidered girl to stand out, so I machine stitched pebble quilting around her.

She is smelling a bouquet of flowers, and Leanne loves flowers!

Check out her blog, she has a genuine green thumb :)

I hope you like the mini quilt I designed as much as I do.

Sew Together Bag - Thimbleblossoms

I made another sew together bag for my friend, for her birthday :)

My friend is an author and a playwright, so the typewriter is meaningful!

My friend always lets her light shine wherever she goes and with whomever she meets.

She was so warm and pleasant and friendly when I first met her, over 4 years ago, for the first time.

I'll never forget how thoughtful she was to me, when I first moved to California and didn't know anyone.

She treated me like a long, lost friend and I really needed that.

My friend is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, just like me!

I looked all over the internet until I found a cute zipper pull of the Salt Lake temple.

I loved making this bag for my friend, she's always so happy and so thankful!

My friend's name is Joni Hilton, and you can read her blog here, it's called Joniopolis.

Joni has a great sense of humor :)

This bag is a little difficult to make when it comes to attaching the sides, that's probably the hardest part.

The best part is choosing the fabrics and the zipper colors.

I chose Thimbleblossom fabric, because Joni loves turquoise and these are such vibrant colors, just like Joni's personality.

Each of the 3 zipper pockets has a houndstooth print, matching the colors of the zipper.

The sections between the zipper pockets are pretty roomy.

I thought of Joni the whole time I made this bag, and I knew she would love it.

I was right, Joni was so complimentary and looked at every single compartment of the bag with great care, and kept thanking me and making a fuss.

Who wouldn't want to make a sew together bag for such an appreciative person?

The bottom of the bag has a pretty print, and you can see my machine quilting in this photo.

I love making time consuming gifts for people who treasure them.

I'm so blessed to have such a good friend :)

Joni is also called the You Tube Mom.

She made all sorts of short videos showing how to do really useful things, I've learned a lot from watching them.

You can see them here.

Snapshots QAL

I love the Snapshots Quilt Along, designed by Bonnie and Camille, and sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop!

They suggest you make a donation to the St. Jude foundation.

This is Block #7, Up Up and Away!

This is definitely NOT a snapshot of my life, as I will not be caught dead in a hot air balloon!!!

I sure enjoy watching them in the sky though, some are really colorful :)

On the other hand, I really love my bicycle :)

I patterned this one after my beach cruiser, which is green with orange rims, and a cute wicker basket in the front.

I went on a trail with my son a few years ago when we lived in Florida.
It was a mountain bike trail and it was so bumpy, that the screws that held the basket to my handlebars completely rattled off!
That was a memorable ride as a huge storm rolled in and we were soaked to the skin in seconds.  LOL

Aren't the pinwheel flowers happy, coming out of the basket?

I've been using all of Bonnie and Camille's fabrics for these blocks, instead of Daysail which the pattern suggests.
It's really fun choosing colors and prints.

In the middle of the camera, is a print from Lori Holt's "Modern Mini" collection.
It's perfect, isn't it?

This camera is huge and will go on the back of the quilt. 

I have a Pinterest board where you can find all the blocks.

Sondra Davison from "Out of the Blue Quilts" has designed each block in a mini and they are all on my Pinterest board too.

See you next week :)