A map of my childhood

Anne requested "Map" blocks which we could interpret as loosely as we wanted, and she said the same goes for technique. I really hope mine's okay... it feels pretty loose!


This is a map of my neighborhood as a child. We lived on 40th Avenue South.


My house is at the bottom of the cul-de-sac (Jeff is my brother). There were a number of families in the neighborhood with kids-- those names penned in the houses are theirs. There was always lots to do in the 'hood... playing ball, dance parties over at Stephanie's house (thus the music notes), climbing into the treehouse over at LeighAnne and Johnny's, or racing down from the top of the cul-de-sac on our bikes and big wheels (I'm not so good at drawing those-- but I tried!).


There was often baseball action too-- home plate was always in front of our house, the pitcher would stand on the blue reflector in the center, first base was the ever-present truck, second was the manhole cover, and third was at the mailboxes. When I was little, we also had a cat named Sammy... she's hanging out near Ben's house.

I used a number of techniques in this one, including some that were new to me.

• I started by using a Pigma pen to sketch out the cul-de-sac and things I new I wanted to embroider.
• Then I colored in sections with crayons (using Carrie P.'s tutorial for coloring on fabric as a guide).
• Next I used fusible web and did the "Sketchy Stitchy Applique" technique, as described at Bloomin' Workshop. I really loved how that worked! The look really appeals to me, and it was so simple to do.
• Then I went through and embroidered all over the place, mostly with two strands of floss, but sometimes with one.
• Lastly, I finished the trees. I used two different colors of green thread and threaded both of them through the needle on my machine (so two threads were going through the needle). Then I freemotion stitched the treetops. Using two threads gave it a nice thick look, and the different colors gives them a little more dimension.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it all came together. The only bump in the road was my inability to do math. The block is supposed to be 10.5" x 14.5", including 1.5" borders. Mine ended up 12" x 15". Whoops. I'm really hoping that Anne won't mind it being a little big, or trimming it down and ending up with slightly narrower borders. I blame my baby-brain! (I wonder how long I can get away with that excuse?) :)

I can't believe it has already been a year of Snip.Sew.Send.! I've had so much fun making blocks for all of you fabulous bee buddies, and I've learned a lot too. This virtual quilt bee really gave me a chance to push myself and try some new things. It has been fabulous! I'm looking forward to participating in another, once life settles down again.

Thanks so much, ladies!

Tragically Late...

...but made with the sincerest of apologies. I am so terribly behind on making bee blocks. It is disgraceful. Rebecca, here are 3 (well, 2 1/2) blocks for you. I misread the instructions and two of the blocks are only 9". One more was started, but I didn't have enough long strips to finish it.

I received your SSS2 fabric Saturday. The plan is to finish those this week, too. I'm going to send them all together if that's OK with you.

These colors and fabrics are so happy and cheerful together! =]

Film and Thread

Anne from Film and Thread asked us to make a block with the theme of maps. She said it could be loosely interpreted. My first idea was to do a treasure map but that was quickly vetoed when I thought of this block which plays of her blog title.



Everything but the border was hand stitched because to me inset seems are easyier to make by hand then on the machine.





The block went together smoothly until I got to the end I realized that I made it too big and that adding a 1.5 inch border would make it bigger than asked for. I emailed Anne and she was very nice and said it would be ok. Then when I went to add the borders I once again made a math error and made the border to small! This whole fiasco sums up this month for me. Oh well, in the end I love it. It is so fun imagining something in your head and seeing it come to life.

Retracing My Steps

I loved Anne's map idea and for this one, I thought it'd be fun to retrace my steps around the country. I grew up in Minnesota and if you follow the arrows around, you can see that I moved to California for college and during college spent time living in New York City and then outside Philadelphia. After returning to California, I moved back to Minnesota and then to upstate New York where I am now.





It's kind of crazy to see where I've lived on a map like this. I hope Anne likes how it came together.



I also can't believe this was my last block for this bee! It's been a great year and I'll post pictures when I get my quilt put together. Thanks to all of you lovely ladies!

Round 2 ~ RTG (aka Ready to Go)

I know we aren't quite finished with the inaugural round, but we do need to get the schedule set for Round 2. If you are participating in Round 2 (so far it is Zonnah, Anne, Rebecca, Lisa, Gretchen, Tina and me) please choose which month you would like us to make your blocks*. Just leave a comment on this post. If a huge issue comes up where two ladies want the same month, I am sure we can work it out.

Monthly Schedule (check back for updates)
July ~ Rebecca
August ~ Tina
September ~ Lisa
October ~ Anne
November ~ Gretchen
December ~ Zonnah
January 2011 ~ Adrienne

*Rebecca and Anne suggested keeping Round 2 smaller but make two blocks each. I didn't see any objections, so for Round 2 we can either make 2 blocks for the month or put a little extra into one block such as embellishments, more intricate patterns or extra large blocks, etc. We'll make it the fabric sender's choice. =]

Pinwheels in green

I was excited to find some time last week to go into the quilty room and actually use my machine! It gave me a chance to make my May blocks for Rebecca. She sent an array of fabulous greens for me to work with.


I enjoyed making it so much, I had to make a second...


It was hard to send these off, as I really love the look of them. But I did keep one of the scraps of leftover fabric to use in my Jane Stickle quilt. That definitely made it a little easier to give them up (and it will be so cool to have a sort of SSS memory/keepsake in my Jane). :)

I'm really excited to see how Rebecca puts these together as all of the blocks I've seen so far look so cool!

Orange Pinwheels for Rebecca

I loved working on these blocks for Rebecca. I got orange and I'm really excited to see this quilt come together since it looks like she had a great vision.