Busy Bee

Today has been a productive day catching up on blocks for one of my bee's - Bee Europa.
I love being part of these bee's as the blocks really challenge me to try new techniques and ideas that otherwise I would not even think about!
Here is May 2011:

Here is July 2011:

 

I was June so more of that to come later!

New Bee on the block!

Taking part in a new Bee!




This looks so exciting and different!

Bargains!

I love TK Maxx!!
Emma Bridgewater Home Journal and Photo Album for a complete bargain - couldn't leave the store without them!

Mini quilts

At the end of April (Yes it takes me a while to get round to posting about things!!) I took part in my first ever local quilt group exhibition. I decided to enter the open competition for a journal quilt.
Sadly I did not know what a journal quilt was!
Sadly I did not get placed anywhere but I loved taking part and producing these mini quilts!

Number 1
"Springtime" - the inspiration came from April when we had a lovely spell of weather. The summer in the UK usually arrives for a few weeks at some odd time rather than in the summer!

 

Number 2
"To Do" - I'm a list maker. I have them everywhere in the kitchen, in the office, next to the bed, on my phone (virtual post it notes are fab!). Sometimes it feels like I write one list to tell me to check the other list!
Thankfully this To Do list is pretty empty - if only!!

Sorry first attempt in a windy garden just made me laugh!

Sewing!

Still been trying to keep up to date with my sewing bee "Bee Europa 2011".
Here are the blocks from the last couple of months that I have sent out:

March 2011

March 2011

April 2011

A couple from Bee Europa 2010 January that I never got around to posting!!

Gorgeous gifts

So after sending away my {Urban}Home goods swap to my secret partner I couldn't wait to receive my own parcel!
So when it did arrive I was overwhelmed!
Thanks goes to my secret partner CookieJCreations for a lovely assortment of items. I had given a few hints about the type of item that I would like to receive and this was spot on and soooo much more!

I was so excited opening the parcel I had to capture the moment - it had travelled a long way!

A huge lovely wrapped parcel

 I spy gorgeousness!!

A wonderful sewing mat / mug rug which I have hanging up as a mini quilt - it is too lovely to use!

A wonderful assortment of extra goodies!

An amazing sewing machine mat with fab storage pockets!

If all that wasn't enough I also got this fantastic sewing machine cover!!

I was a first timer {Urban} Home goods swapper and will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next round!!

Don't faint!

Yep your eyes aren't deceiving you but I am posting!
It has been a while and life has been a bit too busy for Pink Stitches so I am hoping things will get back to normal.
Over the last couple of months I've had far too many colds to mention, been ultra busy at work, handed over far too much money to my dentist, had a wisdom tooth yanked out of my mouth (I can still hear the bone crunching sound!!), tried to keep up with my Bee Europa sewing bee 2011, and on the odd occasion managed to get the sewing machine out for a bit of a play! I'll stop the list there for the sake of not boring you all to death on my first post for ages!

Last time I was here I posted a sneak peek photo of my first ever {Urban} Home Goods a modern swap item that I had just posted to my secret swap partner. The items arrived safely with my partner *waving Hi to Sukie* and thankfully she liked everything I had made and sent. Sukie has even updated her profile photo to one of her holding her sewing machine cover! Take a sneak peek up at the follower photos up the top on the left it is so cute!
I was really worried with it being a secret swap and kind of having to stalk your partner to get to know their likes and dislikes! The items made were also a first for me and I particularly liked my first try at a Dresden plate.
So here is what I sent:

 The full parcel of goodies

 Dresden plate WIP

 Quilting around the Dresden plate

 The front of the sewing machine cover

 The side view of the sewing machine cover

A different design on the back of the sewing machine cover

Glad to be back and hello to the new followers!

{URBAN} Home goods a modern swap

I know yet another month has nearly passed by since my last post!!
I have been busy honestly - work, holiday, sewing and a whole lot more!

This is a sneak peek of one of my latest projects:

This is for {URBAN} Home goods a modern swap round 3 over at Flickr. I can not show you any more than this at the moment until my secret swap partner has received the parcel - don't want to spoil the surprise!
What I can say is that it was great fun making the items and tried lots of new techniques and ideas as well which meant building up my fabric and sewing tool stash!!

Fanciful felties

I've been meaning to post about this for ages!
At the end of last year I was lucky enough to be the winner of a wonderful giveaway at The Sometimes Crafter!
A short while later this arrived in the post ~

It is such a lovely book with lots of lovely ideas and uses one of my all time favourite fabrics - felt!
Thanks to Christina at The Sometimes Crafter!

Quilters meeting

Been busy this evening at my local quilters group meeting. This only takes place once a month and I am fairly new to the group but I am loving it!
It was a great meeting with a talk by Amanda Hall of Monkey Buttons. It was fantastic seeing all the amazing products straight out of the catalogue (being able to handle and touch them!) and hearing about the process of setting up the company, designing the patterns, making the products. Very inspirational!
If there is something for sale then I just have to buy (honestly I do!), so purchased this lovely pattern. Seeing the quilt in real life was stunning!

One member of the group also bought along some old magazines for members to purchase for a small donation so picked out a couple. Fab!!

Re design

I'm not sure why but I always have the tendency to tweak my blog every time I look at it!
Think I'm (almost) happy with the look - what do you all think of the new blog header!?

WIP

A little project I've been wanting to get started for ages!

Colour love

On the way home from work the car kinda steered towards the shops! What could I do but get out and have a look around!!
Very pleased I did as I picked up this little lovely ~

A Pantone Compact Maxi shopper in a gorgeous colour.

 Very roomy as well.

Looked up the colour on the Pantone website and its called Purple Magic!! Fab!

Funny how the font colour I use in all my photos is a near match!

Also discovered that the 2011 colour of the year is HONEYSUCKLE. Another gorgeous colour - go check it out!

{Wordless Wednesday}

Bee Europa

I'm so loving my time as a Bumblebee in the Bee Europa quilting bee but it will soon beeeee over!!
Time has beeeeen and gone!
It's beeeeen such good fun!

(OK stop it now *note to self the bee puns are getting a little too cheesy*)

I just have the fabric and block instructions for the month of January to arrive and that will be the last block to complete. I was so pleased to be invited by Hanies to join this group as a quilting bee was totally new to me along with quilting being a new venture it has been such a great learning curve.
Talking of curves .... (someone stop me now with the cheese - comedy central or what!) these were my latest completed blocks.

Although they are not a traditional block we were asked to produce mood curves for a modern mood quilt which will then be made into blocks. I was a little hesitant at first as to what these would turn out like and whether there would be enough of a curve, but hoping my partner likes them.

 The story behind a modern mood quilt originates from here and is quite fascinating in terms of what colours mean and not being too prescriptive in your order of construction. It was such fun!
Fingers crossed hoping there is another Bee around the corner somewhere! (Although I have all my blocks to somehow join together to make a quilt!)

More blocks!

A couple more Christmas themed blocks in the post for a fellow Bee Europa Bumblebee!!

First sewing of 2011

Well I can't quite believe it but my sewing machine has been in action more in this last week than in the last few months! Inspiration and the sewing bug has hit me!
First to finish was a couple of blocks for my quilting bee Bee Europa. The design was taken from the book Material Obsession.

{ Wordless Wednesday}

 Although the Christmas fairy lights have been gone for a while I love having my heart shaped wreath lit up on a cold dark evening! Cosy sparkle!
(Sorry not quite wordless!)

MIA

Hello ....
Sorry - blog has been informing everyone it is 1 day until Christmas for a long time now! That has been and gone and a belated Happy New Year to all!
The start of year has been a busy one hence the lack of posts.
Caught up with Flickr and all my blog reading and amazed at how many projects people have completed already since the start of the new year! No projects here but a lot of thinking! Does that count?

In order to get me and my machine going I took the plunge and signed up for the wonderful {Urban} HOME goods - a modern swap!! Yay so excited about this one.
And because I can't post without a photo here is my inspiration for my partner - so much loveliness!!

Thanks to all these lovely people for such wonderful work and amazing inspiration!
1. Farmdale Quilt, 2. Jane Market Bag, 3. kitchen fun, 4. PTS4, 5. Placemat Swap, 6. patchwork pillows, 7. Full view of DQS7 quilt, 8. Pillow talk swap 3 RECEIVED!!, 9. Mug Rug Swap Round 2 for Emedoodle, 10. savvyseasons1received1, 11. Sewing machine cover in 'Martinique', 12. Tiny Bliss Log Cabin, 13. the finished pillow, 14. Sewing machine cover, 15. Red & Aqua Fabrics, 16. Doll quilt swap 9 finished!, 17. pillow swap d.o.n.e., 18. Scrappy Patchwork Cover, 19. Christmas swap with my friend, 20. 'Hope Valley' pin cushion