Happy 2018 to everyone. We have been seeing lots of snow here since before the holidays, it looks beautiful. We have about a foot on the ground and another 8-10 inches expected today. The temperature has been near zero or below most days, but we are having a heat wave today, 10 degrees.
The surgeons, foot and sinus, both say I can get back to walking, so I am starting this year like 2017. Getting 10,000 steps in before I can sew. Kind of my reward system. It worked for half of 2017, then foot issues slowed me down and came to a halt in the fall. I walked 3,520,738 steps which is 1,612.39 miles in 2017. Need to up my game for 2018.
Now let’s talk about that sewing. I wanted to get my Bee Hive blocks done, so New Years Day I started.
The first was for my IG Honey Bees 2018 queen, Mary. She chose Autumn Chain Block. It turned out pretty cute. But wait, I got it in the mail, then Mary messaged me my light and darks HSTs are flipped. Yuck!! Ok, I will hold all blocks for a day or two before I mail them. She is going to flip them, but I think I owe her a bonus block.
Cyndi is the queen in my Stash Bee: Hive 2 group. She chose Jedi Craft Girl – Sparkle, using navy and pinks. This should have been as easy block, but I didn’t have any navy. I headed out in the snow to the LQS and picked up some navy, a FQ of each piece of navy they had in the store. It was only 4 FQs. The only other navy they had was civil war prints, no, not for me. This block has been mailed too.
As I was reading blogs over the holidays, I came across one from Tu-Na Quilts. She was talking about her Hive blocks for 2017. She was in two hives and they both seemed to fall apart. She received 3 of 10 and 5 of 11 blocks from her hives. I commented and asked if I could make a couple for her. She was thrilled, but wait she wanted orange. I had very limited amounts of orange, so she said to send them disassembled, that way she could put them throughout her quilt. These went out this morning.
I was in a hive last year that was good, but several member weren’t coming back in 2018. We had tried to get more members, but with the holidays, it didn’t happen. On January 1, it happened. We now had a full hive and needed to put things together quick. I stepped up to be the January queen. I had planned on searching out a new block and making some samples, but that wasn’t working. Not sure if you can consider it cheating or being efficient, I decided to use the block I used last year, Blossom Heart Quilts – Homebase.
Now that I have my blocks done for January, it is time to go start my QALs.
Happy New Year again and thanks for following me on my journey of quilting.
Linking up with:
Quilt Fabrication – Mid Week Makers
Sew Fresh Quilts – Let’s Bee Social
You have made some beautiful bee blocks. I really love the Sparkle block. Great minds think alike, I made a block for Tu-Na too! I haven’t got mine mailed yet. The weather has been so icky and cold. I hope we both see the sun and warmer weather soon.
Goodness, all your bee blocks made and it’s still early in the month! I really like the fabrics you’ve chosen for all your blocks and I checked out the block you’ve asked for – it’s great and should be really effective.
Hi Jan,
I’ve never been in a Bee, but that is too darn bad that people don’t keep their commitment. That is so nice of you to sew some blocks up for Tu-Na! That is funny – I have a ton of orange/red in my stash, but other colors like yellow I have hardly any. That snow looks so pretty but I am glad it is not here. I drive 100 miles a day and would prefer that it just stays away for the rest of the winter. I know, I’m dreaming! ~smile~ Roseanne
How do you get involved in the hives? I’ve always wondered. It looks like so much fun. I made a block for Karen (Tu-Na) as well, crashing her poodle quilt. It was great fun to make! You have the snow we usually have here. We have had very little snowfall this season so far, but we have had bitterly cold temps.
Love your blocks – pretty fabrics and color combos! And good to hear your back to walking – you go girl!
Jan, I’ve just come in from getting the mail and your letter with the blocks arrived! Thank you very much for the lovely orange and white blocks! Your choice of orange fabrics are so pretty. I don’t have any of those fabrics which makes them all the more special as I’m going for the scrappy look for this quilt. The blocks are perfect and just what my quilt needs. Yes, I will be able to incorporate all of the blocks into my quilt easily and they will help make it look wonderful.
I can’t thank you enough for picking up and helping out where my bee group fell short. You are so very kind and generous. Your generosity moved me to tears. Thank you for helping with this quilt project.
Last year I joined 3 bee groups, two of which fell through which you talked about above. The other one, Bee Inspired, went marvelously and we’re all continuing another year but I promised no more poodles. That’s the one that Wendy, commented above, made the poodle for. Wendy, is another example of a very generous quilter. Thanks again, Jan. Karen