Well folks, this is the bee blocks post that has my first real mess up in it.  So lame.  Let's get it over with...

April was "sewtobed's" month in Quilting newBEES and she requested this simple block that was supposed to be 25 squares with a simple wonky star placed anywhere in the block.  Simple right?  Yes, it seems the simpler it is these days, the more I mess up.  I had it in my head that it was a 16 patch, so I started making 2 wonky stars in order to make 2 blocks, only to realize I didn't have enough solid purple to finish the second star...what was going on?  Oh crap.  So I did what I could and am one row short on the block.  I am truly sorry, and hopefully you have plenty more of this awesome Kaffe Fasset fabric in order to finish it up.  On the bright side, using the pieces I made should make that next block go together really quickly right?

Now that my mess up is over with, here is a graphically stunning Carpenter's Wheel for "Mad Maddy" in Always Bee Learning.  It measures a large 24.5" square and the color scheme is one that I have not worked with before.  Very pretty!

Does this block look familiar? I made one in March for another member!  It is called "Potager" and is from the Modern Blocks book, and can be found on page 146-147.  Requested by "marycatharine" in the Modern Blocks Bee, she sent some Nicey Jane and asked us to make this one block!  Easy peasy, it measures 12.5" square!

These two lovely blocks are for "wendydi1" in Bee Connected.  She requested two asterisk blocks, and we were given the freedom to make whatever we wanted and were able to work with these wonderful Reunion by Sweetwater fabrics.  I am especially proud and in love with the first one.  The second one was a challenge to squeeze another block out of the fabric I had left, but I had just enough.  This quilt will be so great, and I have decided that I love when we get to be creative with the blocks!

Now it is time for May's blocks!  This is the Greek Cross for "tadams in texas" in Quilting newBEES.  Simple enough, measures 12.5" square and is made of some lovely Batiks.  This is the first time I worked with Batiks, and I loved the "crisp-ness" of these fabrics.  So fun!

The Single Girl by Denyse Schmidt!  I always wanted to make this block, but not the whole quilt, so this block scratched the itch for sure!  "Watch Meesh Run" painstakingly cut all the pieces for us and all we had to do was sew them together.  We had the easy task, if I do say so myself.  Cutting all those 31 different pieces was the hard part.  This block was part of the Always Bee Learning group, and we learned curves with this block.  For some reason all my blocks look way more wrinkly in photos than they really are, I promise!

This block should also look familiar, if not, you should check out my Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry!  The "Set Sail Block" from the Modern Blocks book, found on pages 166-167 was requested by "Jensen.elizabethann" in the Modern Blocks Bee.  It measures 12.5" square, and she sent the sky and water fabrics and asked that we use our scraps for the boat.  It is fun to see how different everyone's blocks are turning out, and I can't wait to see this quilt as a whole when she is done with it.

Last, but not least is a gorgeous Swoon block for "Meredith Daniel" in Bee Connected.  She sent us this lovely Echo fabric and requested one block.  I believe Swoon measures 24.5" square and is a rather large block.  i took my time and tried my best to orient all the fabrics in the correct manner, and was totally successful with the purple stripes!  I love this fabric line, and think this will be a stunning quilt.

I know this was a super long blog post, and appreciate you hanging in there and checking all these blocks out!

The greatest quilt I have made to date!  Oh how I love it, my precious Macaroni Love Story in the perfect pattern.  Measuring at 40"x40" it perfectly showcases the great Heather Ross fabrics.  Now I just have to decide on the perfect way to quilt it!

What was wee man doing?  Watching the quilt and mommy!

This quilt was finished before Christmas, and I took the pictures back in January when I was pregnant, just never got around to writing about it.  I figured the Blogger's Quilt Festival would be the perfect time for this little guy to make its debut!

Now that the gift has been received by my son, I am free to show you guys how his pirate ship quilt turned out, without fear of him seeing it prematurely!  This is a quilt of many things, first off, I learned a new technique along the way (free motion quilting.) I let go of all my "perfectionist ways" and just went with it, imperfections and all that would normally drive me NUTS (the sky being several different fabrics.)  This is the largest quilt that I have done all the quilting by machine, to date, and this quilt is also made of nothing but scraps.  The only yardage was used on the back, and I had just one yard of it, so that tells you that this little quilt is 36" x 36."

I embroidered his name on the flag, sorry folks that is for our eyes only!  You can also see here an example of some of the free motion quilting that I did on this quilt.  How do you like my clouds?  Not bad for the first time and very little practice before hand, if I do say so myself!  Can you tell how proud I am?  I was so annoyed that I didn't have enough of the seagulls to do the entire sky, but in the end I decided to use a matching solid for the rest and I pretended that the ship was sailing into a "patch of seagulls!"

I used the small bit of "my precious" Heather Ross mermaids and fish, which I had to piece together like crazy to make it long enough for this quilt.  I figured if my own son didn't deserve this precious fabric, then who does?  I also did a bit of FMQ as the "waves in the water."  You can also see that I used a large ric-rac for a dimensional aspect and that "wave" effect.  You can also see some precious Denyse Schmidt fabric that makes up the body of the boat!  The outer border consists of a bunch of pirate and skeleton prints, all of which my son loves, and even though it creates quite the tacky effect, it is perfect for a 4 year old.

The backing is a great "pirate dogs" print, and I think my son likes the back just as much as the front!  I actually used a floral B&W print for the binding, but since it was a large scale print, you can't really tell that it is floral, which worked out quite nice.

The pattern for the ship can be found in the Modern Blocks book by Susanne Woods.  It is found on page 166-167 and is entitled the "Set Sail Block."  The pattern is for a 12.5" square block, so I doubled all of the dimensions, making this ship block 25" square.  I used a high loft polyester batting, so that it would be "extra cushy" and soft.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting during the festival, make sure to check out the other entries over at Amy's Creative Side!

Hi!  It's me, Mama Marci, as my son now affectionately calls me, which I think is possibly the cutest thing in the world.  I am modeling my brand new Tova top by Wiksten that I made for myself.  Technically this is a muslin, made of a cheap print from JoAnn's that I liked and since it fits, I am wearing it!  The contrasting collar and front details are up-cycled from a top of mine that no longer fits, but I loved the fabric, so it lives on!  It really is quite comfortable and I am so pleased, I will be making quite a few more.

This is a quick sew top, whipped it up in a few hours, which is nice since my time is so limited these days.  I made it in the XL, and the body fit perfectly, the length was great, and I shortened the sleeves for a summer top.  My only problem was the bust line.  I tried it on originally without the sleeves and I quickly realized that the bottom of the inset fell dead center of my boobs and was WAY too tight.  I hadn't finished any seams yet, so I let the underarm seams out as much as I could, but it still wasn't enough.  What to do???  I decided to add in a triangular "extension" of sorts underneath the arm.  The triangle measured 2" across by 7" long, tapering down into the original seam close to the waist. This busy print hides it completely.  Since I extended the sides that much, I had to add the same 2" into the sleeve as well, which also worked out perfectly because the sleeves would have been too tight as well.  Not as bad as the bust, but not exactly comfortable.  The fit is much better in the bust, not perfect, but on the next I will try to fix the minor problems I have with it.  The sleeve is too big around, so I will also try to correct that in the next go around also.  In essence I will be making another "muslin" just to be sure I can get a great fit before I start making the "real" ones!  I have some great voile from Anna Maria Horner that I just can't wait to make into this top!

This top is super easy to make, and I think the hardest/longest part was printing the pattern and taping it together!  I am linking up with verykerryberry, who hosted a lovely sew-a-long and has step by step instructions for this top and some variations.  If you are considering sewing for yourself, this is a great starter project!

P.S.  I asked my husband what he thought of the top, and he replied, "Yeah, I like it."  So I responded, "Can you tell that I made it?"  His response, "Really?  I didn't realize that you made it, I thought you bought it!"  That simply made my day!

Having every intention of making this a wordless Wednesday, I quickly realized that it wasn't wordless when I promptly began typing.  I guess I am unable to be wordless?  Maybe it is because I don't have any adult interaction during the day! Oh well....

I bit the bullet and cut into my precious Macaroni Love Story by Heather Ross.  I had a plan and a pattern for quite some time now, spent an enormous amount of time doing the math and changing the pattern a tad bit, but finally last night I cut it out!  It felt good and rewarding.  Can't wait to get stitching!

Just a super quick pop in to show off two little rompers I finished this past week.  I signed up for the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side last Monday and set these two rompers as my goal to finish this week!  Goal accomplished!  I am going to post more about these adorable outfits at a later point, but I will say they are super easy, super cute and the pattern is by Patty Young and is the Natalie and Nate pattern.  LOVE IT and can't say enough great things about this pattern!