Bee Happy Sew Along

Happy Sunday! It is finally cooler here with temperatures in the low to mid-70's and football is back which means I am in my pajamas quilting in my sewing room. At least I was until the cable box died--this also happened last Sunday--maybe we will being switching to another service! I am now camping out in my kitchen and cutting out appliqué pieces. 

I forgot to post this door banner I made for one of my classrooms. I used Lori Holt's free School House Block tutorial and the globe block is from her Spelling Bee book. 

 I have been trying to get caught up with the blocks for the Bee Happy Sew Along. This is also a Lori Holt design and instructions can be found here:

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-fabrics-and-bee-happy-sew-along.html

 I am not using Lori's fabrics, but I have been digging into my stash and finding some backgrounds locally. I really like black and whites with brights as an accent, so I am going in that direction. I will probably be embroidering the antennas on these butterflies this evening for Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/09/slow-sunday-stitching_17.html

 These will be centers of some of the churn dash blocks.

These hexie flowers will also join in this quilt.

 I am machine appliquéing my blocks instead of the hand appliqué Lori is demonstrating. I would never stick with this quilt if I was hand appliquéing. I would rather get this done this decade and use the buttonhole stitch on my Pfaff with Heat & Bond lite. This will be a display quilt, so this method will be fine for me.

The blocks are really cute and this quilt will be precious.  I am working on the spools, cherries, and bumblebees next!

Quilty Fun Sampler Done

 I finished my Quilty Sampler top at the beginning of June and decided to have it professionally quilted as a birthday gift to myself. I have to say this was worth the wait for the professional quilter! I spent this week and this morning slow stitching my binding down. 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/09/slow-sunday-stitching_10.html

 I picked an all over swirl design. This machine is not a traditional longarm machine--it is a full frame computer quilting system. Check out this Youtube video to see how it is done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU7ceMQpu6w&t=170s

My friend and coworker, Glenn, invited me over to watch my quilt being done--it took less than an hour and this is nearly a 60 inch square quilt. It actually probably takes longer to load it on the frame than the quilting. The machine also works vertically and made four vertical passes.

 The machine belongs to Glenn's mom, but her eyes have gotten really bad due to macular degeneration, so Glenn programs the computer and runs the machine for her. It was only $60 for the quilting and I will be prepping more tops and backings for him to quilt for me once he has some time in his schedule.

I am piecing more and more of my backings because it is economical and fun.

 I am spending this afternoon prepping blocks for Lori Holt's Bee Happy Quilt Along. My templates finally arrived, so I hope to get caught up with that soon. I will save my blocks for another post, but you can find details about the quilt along here:

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/

I have stopped buying Best Press for my own homemade version. I use:

1 cup of vodka

1 cup of water

12 drops of an essential oil of your choice (I used spiced pomegranate)

I spend about $14 for the vodka and essential oil, but it makes a lot of pressing spray--if we don't use the vodka for bloody Mary's or sea breezes!