Tag Archives: Bee Inspired

Tu-Na Quilts: Now, We Have an Elephant Parade

With the sudden and speedy delivery of the baby elephant, Lily Rose, last week, I can now officially say we have an elephant parade.

The happy new family is snuggly stitched together.

Notice that Lily Rose has her mommy’s nose. I am making this quilt for the baby of my best friend’s daughter.

When my friend called to tell me that the baby had arrived she said, “And she has her mommy’s nose.” Sounds like a good name for this quilt.

I’ve even sewed some of the blocks into rows.

I will be adding side pieces onto the elephant row. And where are the missing rows?

I’ve still got three rows to sew.

They are sitting beside my machine to remind me to sew them first before other things.

I sure am glad I took good care of those blocks while traveling. It’s making sewing and laying out the rows so much easier. I’ve had to do some playing around with my sewing machine and moving the needle to make sure the scant 1/4″ seam allowance matched the ones made on my sewing machine at my other house.

If you missed all the excitement of her arrival last week. catch up here with

Tu-Na Quilts: Let’s Make Elephants (Here I describe how my pieces traveled from one house to the other).

Tu-Na Quilts: We Have an Elephant Parade (The happy couple is expecting)

Tu-Na Quilts: ’s Arrived!!! ( Tu-Na, DOQ {Doctor of Quilting}, helped with the delivery of this wee one)

However, much of my time and writing this month is being used up over on the Bee Inspired Blog where I’m sharing some of my adventures and misadventures of my trip to Paris as well as some construction tips and trials as I sew another poodle block for myself using this pattern from The Objects of Design.

You are welcome to stop by:

Tu-Na Quilts: All Aboard. Fasten Your Seatbelts. We’re Taking Off for…

Tu-Na Travels: Day One in Paris

Tu-Na Travels: Day Two in Paris and Poodle Block Cutting Tips

Tu-Na Travels: Day Three in Paris and Prepping Those Furry Pieces You will never guess who we meet today.

and do check back on Bee Inspired all month as I’ve got more funny and interesting Parisian stories to tell and see some gorgeous French Poodles heading my way.

What I Learned Today:

There’s been way more writing happening than sewing in my house lately.
The poodle block is actually quite easy when separated into steps.
I do miss being in Paris.
Beth, over at Cooking Up Quilts, mentions my coneflower double star block that now belongs to Cathy, on today’s Main Crush Monday post. I miss that stunning block but I have those fabrics safely tucked in their own bin for a quilt using that same block pattern for me. I stop to admire and pet them every now and then. Anyway, Thanks Beth!! I’m honored!!!
I “pet” fabrics? Hmmm, this household is going to the dogs.

Question: Where have your travels taken you? I’ve been to London. I’ve been to France, and Germany, and traveled the U.S. extensively. But we honeymooned in Canada.

Linking to Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving It Forward, Design Wall Monday, Let’s Bee Social and Midweek Makers, Jo’s Country Junction, Mama Spark’s World, Katie Mae Quilts, Silly Mama Quilts WIPs, Wednesday Wait Loss

Tu-Na Quilts: A French Poodle for Moi

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June is my month in the Bee Inspired Group to be the Queen Bee or the Hive Mama or the Bee Boss or whatever we call ourselves when it’s our month to ask our Bee mates to sew a block for us. I gave them all a heads up last month to check their quilty passports because we would be heading to a destination far away. This is so exciting!

I got my inspiration for a block from several sources, one of which is this lovely piece of fabric I happened upon while my mom and I were fabric looking (not shopping since I never intended to buy anything) early this winter.

I could also title this post “How a Free Fat Quarter cost me $68.00” because this was not the only piece I found.

We each had coupons for a free fat quarter (no purchase needed) which is why we happened to be in that quilt shop in the first place. Well once I spied this piece on the clearance shelf I just had to have it as it was perfect for my Parisian themed guest room. At the time of purchase, I had no idea how I would use it. But you all know that’s just how it is sometimes…a lot of times.

I remembered seeing a poodle pattern on the blog The Objects of Design. If you haven’t had a chance to check out her blog, you are definitely missing some real talent and some other fun free block patterns.

Isn’t she cute!! I want to make a few more.

I posted the links to this free pattern and tutorial, some construction tips, some pics of the room where the quilt is intended, and the inspiration behind this block on the Bee Inspired Blog. You can find it here.

There will be a pack of proud French poodles posting my way soon. I’ll be sure to take some pics of them when they arrive.

What I Learned Today:

A group of dogs is called a pack or kennel.
A group of crows is called a murder—I actually learned that last month from Velda and her crows so I guess I learned today that I still remember that little piece of trivia.
I only have to mail out two blocks for the other two Bee groups to which I belong.
June will go very fast anyway.

Question: Let’s have a little fun with groups. Pick out an animal or a group of people or group of something and tell us what a group of them is called. Here’s another one to get you started: A group of elephants is called a parade or herd. Speaking of elephants, I better get busy sewing a little parade of elephants on that baby quilt soon as that baby is not getting any younger or smaller!

Linking to Monday Making, Moving It Forward, Main Crush Monday, Sew Fresh Quilts, and Midweek Makers, Katie Mae Quilts BOMS Away,

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate and read all your comments, suggestions, and questions. I reply by email and often here on the blog as well as time permits. But sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I get behind. Just know that I value your taking the time to comment. Until next time, keep that needle flying!

Karen

Tu-Na Quilts: The May Bee Blocks Were on Their Way Before Month’s End

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May’s Bee blocks were so much fun to make and again were hard to send away as I wanted to keep them for myself. I thought by doing these Bees I would be able to narrow down all the quilts I want to make but instead I’ve lengthened my list.

I may not have made much progress with the elephant quilt this last week as I was busy with cleaning the sewing room and organizing the stash but the May Bee blocks are done and gone. I’ve also made my own block to request from my Bee mates which I will reveal on another post.

This 16″ faux nine patch in a nine patch block went to Irene in North Carolina.

Irene, who is a member of the Bee Inspired Group wanted pale grays or soft gray and white fabrics with no other colors. Yes, that itty bitty 9 patch almost in the center has pieces that finish at 1/2.” The slightly larger 9 patch in the center of the block has pieces that finish at 1.5.” I find it amazing how big 1.5 inch pieces are after working with 1 inch pieces. You can read Irene’s story and get the pattern tutorial here if you’d like to make some for yourself. She’s making this quilt for herself and I also included a little reading material within that block just in case she can’t sleep.

Since it was quite large, I carefully folded it and put it in a small manila envelope. It mailed for 70 cents.

The next block I tackled actually took longer to pick out the fabrics than to sew it. I had pulled so many different fabrics but finally settled on this.

These cats went to Jan in California.

Each cat block is 9 1/2 inches so she asked for two sewn together. I’m glad she did as they look so cute next to each other. Jan’s post and simple tutorial can be found here. The pattern comes from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. If you’d like to make a batch for yourself, you can watch Jenny demonstrate these Pins and Paws Blocks here. Jenny is fun to watch and she makes sewing anything seem so easy.

I put these cats in a legal size envelope but they were overweight so it cost 70 cents to mail with a word of caution from the postal worker that fabric gets caught in their machines. So I’m hoping these little beauties make it safely to California.

Finally, the last block for the month was completed and I had a really hard time sending it off. Luckily for me, I have at least a yard of each of the fabrics and they have been set aside so I can make a stunning star quilt for myself.

Cathy in Montana is the recipient of this beauty.

The pattern and tutorial for this 12 1/2″ unfinished Double Star block can be found here. While it looks complicated and I dreaded doing it for a long time, actually almost all month, it really went together well. I learned a new way to make those flying geese that didn’t waste fabric. I was really leery about that method on the tutorial but it worked really well. I followed Cathy’s advice to increase the 2 7/8″ pieces that are used for the half-square triangles (the teal dot and navy on my block) to 3″ and trim after sewing.

Cathy asked us to choose a fabric to fussy cut for the center and then match another fabric for the accent points. She’s hoping for a rainbow of colors. To round out the quilt and to provide some color consistency to it, she asked for navy, white, and gray fabrics and told us where to locate them in the block. I can’t wait to see her quilt as I think it will be stunning. It mailed for 49 cents.

I must admit that when I first pulled that coneflower fabric off the shelf, I thought it to be rather ugly but I needed something that could be fussy cut. So I looked at what I had for the accent and settled on the teal dot. Wow! Now I want to make a whole quilt of teal coneflowers.

Oh, and I have ugly yellow coneflowers with a green background and ugly pink coneflowers with a brownish background. I wonder what I could pair them up with?

What I Learned Today:

There’s always more than one way to solve a problem or make flying geese blocks.
Joining three Bees might have been a mistake as it was supposed to help me narrow down the list of quilts I want to make but has instead increased the list.
Sometimes the things or projects I dread the most actually end up being the best.
I need to be sewing in my sleep or hire someone to sew for me so that I can start and finish making all the quilts I want.
My quilting life is so full of choices, decisions, and endless possibilities.

Question: Have you ever had any difficulty mailing fabric or hearing that it got caught in the postal machines?

Linking to Sew Can She, Monday Making, Em’s Scrapbag, Main Crush Monday and Sew Fresh Quilts. Katie Mae Quilts BOMS Away