These bee blocks are for "toerintx," she had April in the Christmas Fabric Bee.  Her instructions were simple, use a white background and create pictorial blocks, and be creative!  She sent a TON of fabrics!  Honestly since I had just done pictorial blocks for another member, I was kind of burnt out.  So I let them sit around for a few days to get "inspired."  The first idea that I had was to create some pieced Christmas trees.  I sewed together the different fabrics, then cut them at an angle to create the diagonal "tinsel" on the tree.  It appears from the photo that I forgot to trim this block, and if this is the case, sorry Erin, I didn't mean to do that!

After seeing this awesome pillow created by "flossyblossy" on Flickr, I knew I wanted to try my hand at snowflakes.  I am happy with how they turned out considering I didn't have a pattern or anything.  I purposely left them in two pieces, then either Erin can sew them into a long strip, or just add white sashing in the middle to create a square block.

I decided to make a third block since Erin sent so much fabric, and using the tutorial from Lily's Quilts (I also used this tutorial to make my Sherbet Pips quilt) I created a template and made a dresden wreath.  As a last little touch I made the 3D bow with pinked raw edges for a tad bit of texture.  I attached it to the block with a simple sewn swirl and figured if Erin wanted she could always add buttons to the center of the bow.  I hope you like them Erin!  I really enjoyed making these blocks for you!

Wow!  You guys are amazing!  I was thinking maybe I would receive around 200 comments for this giveaway, but you all blew me out of the water, 604 comments!  Crazy!  Mind blowing! Awesome!  Thanks to everyone who entered and welcome to all my new followers, I am glad to have you!  Time for the winner...

And Number 58 was...... SHOLA who said, "My fave movie of ALL time is 'Labyrinth' with David Bowie and Sarah Connoly!"

Congrats Shola!  I have already sent the winner an email, but if I don't here from her by Monday, then I will pick another number!

Ironically, Labyrinth is one of my favorite movies too, and I know that I responded to more than one of you guys (who also said this was their favorite movie) that I thought David Bowie was super sexy in this movie!  But since none of you responded back, I'm taking that to mean that I am the one weirdo in the world who thought that! HAHA!

I plan to do a post in the next week with the results of what you all said were your favorite movies!  I found some clear front runners for sure!  Also a few interesting choices!
Until next time..
and if you haven't seen Labyrinth, you should check it out!

It is Wednesday, and you know what that means! Time for some works in progress!

I finished up my Lisette Portfolio Tunic, I didn't change anything other than the neckline.  Instead of adding the neckband pieces, I just cut a long length of 2.25" bias fabric, and sewed it along the neckline, and then pretty much followed the rest of the directions,  I only used one button instead of two, and I like it much better this way.  Not so close to the throat!  I used Lisette fabric from JoAnn's Fabrics, and it has a great weight to it, so I honestly think it fits better than my muslin simply for this fact.  I put this baby together in just a few hours, making the muslin first really cut down on time, since I knew what I was doing this time (and I knew it would fit!)  I love the loud floral print.

I finished my two bee blocks for my quilting bee, Quilting NewBEES, these two are for "nora303", and are technically for June, but we got a head start.  And yes, these two blocks look identical, but I promise, I made two!  This was technically the first time I made half square triangles (gasp!)  Honestly I thought they were pretty easy, just so long as when you ironed them you didn't "stretch" the bias edges to much.  I think I spent just as much time cutting the fabric as I did sewing them up.  It was fun, and this was the first time I didn't seem to have any problem matching up those points, it is always nice when something just falls into place, it doesn't happen often enough!

No new projects, my list of wip stays the same, seems I am stuck in a stagnate rut.  Oh well, there is always next week!  Lastly, I finished this post with a flower from my yard, and to prove my non-green thumb-ness, I have no clue what it is!  Feel free to enlighten me.

Finished Projects:
Quilt Bee Blocks
Lisette Portfolio Tunic

Ongoing Projects:
Organizing my OUT OF CONTROL Fabric Stash (65% complete)
Bottled Rainbows Ticker Tape Quilt-Along (5 of 16 blocks complete)
Lily's Quilts Quilt-Along  (Using Sherbet Pips)
Making a Light Box (Supplies bought, partly assembled)
Sewing (for myself) a few tops/shirts. (2 down, several more to go!)
Quilt Bees

Other Random Projects: (These are not counted in my weekly stats!)
A Box Full of Alterations and Random "Fix It" Projects.
Roughly 150 + Items that are Finished and Need to Be Photographed for my Shop.

This Week's Stats:
New Projects - 0
Completed Projects - 2 (These stay on the list because I have more to make!)
Currently in Progress - 6

Dream Projects On Hold For Now:
Sock Monkey Quilt
Denyse Schmidt Home Dec Fabric Wall Hanging Quilt
Making a bunch of clutches.

Head over to Freshly Pieced to have a look at what everyone else is working on!

It is giveaway time here at Marci Girl Designs!  I decided to play along with Sew, Mama, Sew! and host a giveaway in conjunction with their May Giveaway Day!  If you are a first time visitor, thanks for stopping by!  More importantly though, thanks to my blog followers and regular readers, your daily encouragement, ideas and comments mean so much to me! Awww...enough of the mushy stuff!

On to the giveaway!  Here is what is up for grabs:
5 fat quarters of Denyse Schmidt's latest line of fabrics available at JoAnn's Fabric Stores.
1 Louise Pleated Wristlet PDF Pattern by Marci Girl Designs, emailed directly to you.
2 fat quarters of Heather Ross's latest Out of Print line from Spoonflower.

Awesome right?  You can't even get those Heather Ross prints anymore, and the Denyse Schmidt prints are rapidly getting very hard to find!  Even better, you get an awesome pattern (from my shop) that you can use all these great fabrics to create a super cute clutch for yourself, or an awesome lady in your life!

The Details (How to Enter!) And yes, I will ship internationally!
1.  Leave a comment, and in that comment answer this question, "What is your absolute favorite movie of all time?"  (1 Entry)
2.  If you are currently a blog follower, and have added your little photo to the Google Friend Connect widget to the right, you get an extra entry.  If you are a follower through Google Reader (and I know there are quite a few of you out there) just add your photo to the widget and leave a comment that you did so. And if you want to become a brand new follower, just add your photo to that same little widget, and leave me a comment that you are a new follower! (1 Entry for Either of These 3 Options)

You have a total of 2 chances to win!  Just leave a separate comment for each.  Make sure you fill in the Email spot, so that I have a way to contact you if you win!  If I am unable to contact you, I will pick another winner.  The giveaway closes on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at midnight.  Thursday morning, I will pick a winner via a Random Number Generator, and will send you an email letting you know that you won, and requesting your mailing address!  Good luck and thanks so much for visiting!

These bee blocks are for "breathe and sew," she had May in the Christmas Fabric Bee.  Her instructions were simple, use a white background and create pictorial blocks, and be creative!  She sent a great selection of fabrics, and as soon as I saw those little Santa's, I knew I wanted to make something special with them!  I decided to make a huge Santa in the same style and then have his little minions beside him.  I then added a wee bit of hand embroidery, and appliqued the little snowflake to the top of his hat.  Piecing the curve that makes up Santa's beard was a challenge, and honestly doesn't look that wrinkly in person, but I love how it turned out!

This next block is the first idea that I had for these blocks, and I am in love with it.  I designed the little light bulbs, used a fusible to attach them to the background, and then went around the bulb with a machine blanket stitch, and then went around the top of the bulb with a simple zig-zag that reminded me of electricity!  I then hand embroidered a chain stitch for the wire!  Kinda thinking I may have to make one of these for myself one day, I am really happy with how it looks!

I didn't really use much of the fabric she sent (other than the white) so I then decided to make a few presents, but alas I ran out of the white background, so I am sending these unfinished for her to use them as she pleases.  The little bows are three dimensional and I think they add that little something extra!

One finish, and a lot of works in progress!  I finished my vintage sheet wreath and rosettes, I love it, so spring like and pretty!  I bought the kit from Ironsea and used the tutorial she created on her blog, In Color Order.  It was super easy, and instead of using tape like she suggested, I just used pins to stop and start each color and to hold on the rosettes.  I also used a 14" wreath form, and in order to cover it, I added two more lengths of vintage sheets to the kit.  It is now hanging on my front door!

Everything else this week are works in progress, still working on the next Lisette Portfolio Tunic.  Working on this months Christmas Fabric Bee quilt blocks, you can see a sneak peak below.  Also working on the scrappy depression blocks for the Scrapbuster Swap, you can see the 5" squares sewn together below!

That is it folks!  Here's hoping you had a productive week!

Finished Projects:
Vintage Sheet Wreath and Rosettes

Ongoing Projects:
Organizing my OUT OF CONTROL Fabric Stash (65% complete)
Bottled Rainbows Ticker Tape Quilt-Along (5 of 16 blocks complete)
Lily's Quilts Quilt-Along  (Using Sherbet Pips)
Making a Light Box (Supplies bought, partly assembled)
Sewing (for myself) a few tops/shirts. (1 down, several more to go!)
Quilt Bees

Other Random Projects: (These are not counted in my weekly stats!)
A Box Full of Alterations and Random "Fix It" Projects.
Roughly 150 + Items that are Finished and Need to Be Photographed for my Shop.

This Week's Stats:
New Projects - 0
Completed Projects - 1
Currently in Progress - 6

Dream Projects On Hold For Now:
Cutting into the stack of Home Dec fabric to make Mary Rose Clutches.
Sock Monkey Quilt
Denyse Schmidt Home Dec Fabric Wall Hanging Quilt
Making a bunch of clutches from a new pattern that I have purchased.

Head over to Freshly Pieced to have a look at what everyone else is working on!

I joined a few more quilting bees/swaps!  Because I don't have enough to do already. Ha Ha, so funny.  The first I shall mention is a bee that needed a "fill in" member, unfortunately someone dropped out, and I stepped in to fill their shoes!  This bee is a Christmas Fabric Bee and only lasts for six months, 2 ladies per month, ending in August.  Since I stepped in late, I offered to make blocks for anyone who had already had their month.  The first person to take me up on this was "spontaneousthreads" and she wanted everyone to make her modern mosaic blocks, using some pretty funky Christmas fabric.  I love it, it is so unique and modern!  These blocks were really easy and fun to make, I love the slight wonky style that they have!

My next endeavor is more of a quilting swap, called the Scrapbuster Swap.  This is their third round, and this time they are making Scrappy Depression Blocks.  The premise behind this swap is that everyone signs up to make blocks in amounts of five (5, 10, 15, 20 and so on) then we all send them to the group leader, she divides them up and then sends you the same amount back, but constructed by someone else.  This way you end up with a super scrappy quilt!  I signed up for 10, did the math and figured I needed 10 white 5" squares, and 70 colorful 5" squares.  I cut up scraps this morning, and was surprised to find that I had a lot of scraps that were just about 5", so that worked out perfectly!  Now, I just need to get started sewing them together!

Christmas in May?  Well, a Christmas quilt anyway!  Oh that rhymes, cool.  Anyways.....I started this quilt back in September 2010. It was the first "real" quilt that I have done in years, and once I saw the pattern I knew that it would be perfect for my son to learn to count down to Christmas, at least give him an idea of how many days are left!

This project took way longer than I originally expected, since I planned to use it Christmas 2010.  Sewing on all those numbers took quite some time (more than I thought it would.)  I used a blanket machine stitch to sew them on, I pieced it, and had it finished around November.  I started quilting (like a tiny bit,) and then it sat there, and sat there and stared at me until I had the idea, send it off to be quilted!  Woo-hoo, best decision EVER (too bad I figured this out after Christmas!)  So In March 2011, I packaged it up and shipped it off to be machine quilted.  A little over a month later, it was back in my hot hands and ready for binding, which I did basically the next day!  I love it and yet I hate it.  I love the fabric, quilt, backing and the quilting.  Why do I hate it?  I'm sick of looking at it, and honestly so ready to pick it up until Christmas, which is exactly what I will do!  Do you ever have projects like that?  The ones you work on for so long, that by the time you are finished you are just sick to death of it.  Well this was that project.  But, I am happy to say that it is complete and ready to fill use this upcoming Christmas!

What did I learn from this project?  First time using Fusible Webbing, that stuff is cool and really easy to work with.  I also learned that sometimes you have to give up control and just let someone else quilt it, rather than have it sit there for months.  Giving up control is a hard one for me, but I am really glad that I trusted someone else to add their creative talents to it, otherwise it would still be unfinished.  Now, I get to fold it up and bring it out this Christmas for my son and family to enjoy, hopefully for years to come!

Pattern Design - by Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson! for Sew, Mama, Sew!
You can find this free tutorial HERE, if you want to make one yourself.
Pattern Changes - I kept everything the same, except I pretty much doubled it in size, or maybe not double, but 1.5x, honestly I don't remember now, but it is a lot bigger, and bigger pockets (around 7" square) make it easier to stuff with goodies!  I used a blanket stitch around the numbers, which was also different from the pattern, the pattern called for either a zig-zag or a satin stitch.  I like the blanket stitch look!
Fabric: Michael Miller's Funky Christmas plus a few solids and prints from my stash.  The white sashing is a white on white leaf/holly like print from Hobby Lobby.
Batting:  High loft polyester.  It is super puffy and I love it!
Backing:  Same fabrics as the front, with several pieced sections.  I love my little row of Christmas trees, though my trunks got a little wonky in spots!
Quilting: Free motion quilting done with white thread by the super talented Natalia at Piece N Quilt.  She did a beautiful job with her long arm machine.
Binding: Michael Miller's Funky Christmas
Timeline: September 2010 - April 2011 (7 long months!)

Head on over to Amy's Creative Side to visit all the other Blogger's Quilt Festival entries.

Look at what was in my mailbox!  My Pretty {Little} Pouch Swap goodies! Can you tell how excited I am?  Well I am ecstatic!  The lovely Jenny (JennyDillyAnna) over at Squawk, baby! had my name, and created this lovely pouch and necklace for me!.

The sheer talent here blows my mind!  The pieced peacock, made exclusively of my favorite color purple!  Then on the other side a piece that Jenny entitled "Be Envied" consists of free motion quilting all those gorgeous little birds on the wire! Amazing!  I love the little guy all the way to the right all by himself, so cute!  Then to top it all off, Jenny included this gorgeous green pearl necklace, with two clasps, allowing you to wear it so many different ways.  Genius, I tell you, simply genius!

I love the fact that I received a pouch that consists of a lot of techniques that I have never tried, it makes it that much more special!  When I originally saw this piece in the Flickr pool, I thought, "Oh goodness, my partner isn't getting anything this fancy, this is artwork, not just a pouch!"  So imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find this baby in my hands!  Jenny, I love it and thanks so much for putting so much hard work and attention into this beautiful pouch!  It will be cherished for years to come.

Happy Wednesday!  I was able to accomplish quite a bit this week, too bad most of it wasn't on my list!  First, I finished my Lisette Portfolio Tunic that was shown cut out last week.  Next, I finished my Amy Butler Style Stitches, Perfectly Pleated Clutch.  Lastly, I finished my Quilt Bee blocks, which wasn't on my list, and now all three Bees that I am in are lumped together as just Quilt Bees, and I guess that won't technically be finished until I am done with all three Bees, but as of this moment, I am caught up!

I started several new projects (is anyone surprised? No, I suspect not!)  I bought a lovely vintage sheet kit that makes up a super cute wreath, and then you can adorn it with things like fabric flowers. you can see my progress below.  I am halfway through my first fabric flower, and now I remember why I hate making those babies.  Needless to say, that one had several spots of blood hidden inside. Ouch!

I started pulling fabric for two of my Bees that my chosen month is quickly approaching (one in July and the other in August.)  The Christmas fabric below is what I will be using for the Christmas Fabric Bee, I have all that I need, except for the main fabric.  I am on the lookout for a great gold print and if anyone has an ideas, I would love to hear them!

Finished Projects:
Amy Butler's Style Stitches Perfectly Pleated Pouch
Lisette Portfolio Tunic
Bee Connected Blocks

Ongoing Projects:
Organizing my OUT OF CONTROL Fabric Stash (65% complete)
Bottled Rainbows Ticker Tape Quilt-Along (5 of 16 blocks complete)
Lily's Quilts Quilt-Along  (Using Sherbet Pips)
Making a Light Box (Supplies bought, partly assembled)
Sewing (for myself) a few tops/shirts. (1 down, several more to go!)
Vintage Sheet Wreath and Rosettes ***New this Week!
Quilt Bees ***New this Week!

Other Random Projects: (These are not counted in my weekly stats!)
A Box Full of Alterations and Random "Fix It" Projects.
Roughly 150 + Items that are Finished and Need to Be Photographed for my Shop.

This Week's Stats:
New Projects - 2
Completed Projects - 1 (The other two weren't on my list.)
Currently in Progress - 7

Dream Projects On Hold For Now:
A Cathedral Window Quilt (Taking this off the list, way to much work and ironing!)
Cutting into the stack of Home Dec fabric to make Mary Rose Clutches.
Sock Monkey Quilt
Denyse Schmidt Home Dec Fabric Wall Hanging Quilt
Making a bunch of clutches from a new pattern that I have purchased.

Head over to Freshly Pieced to have a look at what everyone else is working on!