Tiny Needle Tuesday is here and I have progress to show!

It’s not as much progress as II might have planned on – that quilt top ate up a lot of time. Still, progress is progress…

And now my little Queen Bee has a couple flowers beside her, and is happily encased in her border. There’s still lots more to do, but I’m not in a terrible hurry to get this one finished. I’m just thoroughly enjoying the process.

In addition to the baby cardigan, I wanted to make my coworker a quilt to welcome her impending arrival. So when Dave asked me what I planned for my weekend, I told him I was spending it in the sewing studio, and wasn’t coming out!

And other than taking him out for lunch on Saturday after he did the brakes on Dory, I was true to my word.

I’ve had a particular panel for ages, and I thought it was time to put it to good use.

As you can see, Burton agreed. It’s a horizontal panel, which makes it a little more of a challenge to work with. I could have cut it apart, I suppose, but I decided to use it as is.

But I needed to make some geese.

Eighty-four geese to be exact!

They attached quite nicely together, and then to the panel. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that’s only 42 geese…. Before I got to the other 42, I had to make some stars.

Fourteen friendship stars in total. They were strung together, and the attached to the rest of the geese. And then all that was put together…

To create one fantastic quilt top, if I do say so myself!

Mother nature continues to play games with us in terms of weather, but there’s still signs that Spring is truly on your way, if you look hard enough.

Spring thing#1

One of the houses on the way to the post office (in the dead centre of town) has two Maple trees on their front lawn. And I’m guessing they are sugar maples, because they are both tapped! Pretty smart if you ask me – Maple syrup is worth a mint!

I’m guessing with just two trees, it’s only for personal use, not commercial aspirations, but still! My Grandpa used to tap his trees when we were kids. He had a bit fire pit outside and he’d have the sap boiling over it to make his syrup.

Spring thing #2

Although Cardinals are not necessarily Spring bird (they are here all year round), their mating calls are certainly a sign of spring. And boy-howdy, are they getting busy out there. This lady came by for a snack the other day – probably to refuel for another long day of being wooed.

Spring thing #3

More and more green things are popping up in the bulb box. The tulips (far left) are biggest, and I need to take the fencing off before they get much bigger.

Ah spring… how I love you so!

The time has come…you can get your hands on this beautiful quilt!

“Home is Where the Cat Is!” Quilt Raffle

DRAW will be held Sunday, April 10, 2022

OPEN TO CANADIANS AND AMERICANS!

The quilt is 64″ x 72″(small twin/large lap-size quilt)

Top and backing are 100% cotton. Inside batting is 80/20 cotton/polyester. Machine wash and dry

NOTE: I will mail this quilt to the winner anywhere in the US or Canada, so Americans and Canadians can play along. Americans, please message Natalie @ Bee Meadow Farm (info@beemeadowfarm.com) for Paypal transfer info!

TICKETS are 1 for $2, or 3 for $5, or 8 for $10 or 20 for $20, and anything over $20 is $1 per ticket.

All proceeds to the foster felines and rescue animals of Bee Meadow Farm!

When you pay for your tickets, Natalie will send you your ticket numbers (tickets are virtual – She will record your numbers with your name on an Excel spreadsheet.) On the day of the raffle, the winning ticket number will be chosen by a random number generator, and the winner will be notified by email or PM the day of the draw.

E-TRANSFERS can be sent to: info@beemeadowfarm.com

Make sure you include your email address in a message with the EFT – sometimes the e-transfers come from a bank email address that she can’t reply to. You will save Natlalie a lot of time and effort by including your email address.

Natalie is running the raffle, so if you have any questions – reach out to her at info@beemeadowfarm.com

Here’s to my favourite April Fool!

Have you every joined something, knowing it wasn’t really your thing but you did it anyway. Remember my Blockhead Sew-a-long? Well, they just started another one. A new block comes out once a week for 28 weeks

Life is really keeping me too busy for a sew-a-long, and I’m not really a fan of sampler quilts.

So why am I doing it? Three words. Lord. Burton. Bearbottom

During Blockheads three he became somewhat of a celebrity on the Blockhead Facebook group. I think I had more fun making up silly posts than I did actually making the quilts (and I did mostly enjoy making the quilts).

So, Burton and I are diving in with both feet. I don’t have a lot of large fat quarter bundles in the stash. In fact, the only one I had with any decent amount of fabric (that wasn’t slated for another project) was the Mod Cat bundle. You can see above it’s got a lot of fun colours and prints in it.

We might not do all the blocks, but we have gotten the first one done so far. I’m quite pleased with. And Burton’s happy to be in the spotlight.

I’m making good progress on the baby cardigan. As you can see, the body is done and I’m ready to pick up for the sleeves.

The pattern is Little Pearl, and the yarn is Ice Yarn Glamor Sock. To be honest, I almost ripped it out. It just wasn’t what I had in my head when I first started thinking about what to knit for my coworker.

But I decided to just keep going. I could always knit another one and send her both if I wanted. But now that I see the body complete, I love it. It’s not what I had pictured, but it’s darling none-the-less.

And it’s so easy. The yarn does all the work. I think one ball is going to be enough. I have a second ball to make a hat and booties if I so decide. I do need to get into the studio and get started on her baby quilt though!

This weekend was another busy one. No traveling, just lots to do around the house. Still, I managed to get a couple nights of stitching in and as a result….

I’ve completed a little Queen Bee!!!. There’s still a million and one things to stitch around her, but for now I’m enjoying this small accomplishment.

Here we are, almost the end of March…

And it probably doesn’t seem like it to you, but I have not had much time to sew this month. The last time I actually sat at the machine was when I put together ONE block for the motorcycle quilt. That was back at the start of the month.

Oh sure, I got several quilts actually quilted, but that was all done in one weekend.

The problem is, I don’t like sewing at night. My brain turns to mush, and I mess things up if I try sew after dinner. Normally, I could sneak in an hour or two here and there throughout the week while waiting for colleagues to send me stuff at work. But work has been absolutely hopping lately.

That means I only have weekends to sew. But March’s weekends have been jammed packed with other activities too!

Still, last week, I managed to find a couple hours one afternoon to get into the studio. I really wanted to get my March Rainbow Scrap Challenge block done.

March’s colour was yellow/gold.

Despite the fact that I love putting yellow in quilts, I didn’t actually have a lot of yellow scraps. I had to raid Mom’s scrap bin when I was there.

Burton was otherwise engaged when I was finished, so Relic kindly stepped in for the finished beauty shot.

I gave him a few treats for his troubles, and THAT got Burton’s attention.

He was none too pleased that he missed out, so I got out January and February’s blocks too.

That’s one quarter of the year wrapped up already. I’m ready for April… are you?

Remember those nightstands I got for free back in December?

They’d been covered in chalk paint, and were in rough shape. The weekend I was at Mom’s quilting, Dave worked away sanding them down and repainting them and surprised me with the finished product when I got home. So this weekend, while he is at his grandma’s, I’ve rearranged the bedroom and put them into place.

Naturally Burton was extremely helpful with the whole process…

Previous to this I had a barstool for the lamp on my side, and one of my dressers of Dave’s. This looks much nicer and is much more practical. Now I’m on the hunt for the perfect headboard/bedframe. When we moved to the townhouse, ours got broken. Our box spring and mattress are really tall, so it was never much of an issue to have them just sitting on the floor, but I would like to get a proper bed one of these days.

And you may notice that the stands have different colour handles. This is how they were when I picked them up. We’ve left them as is for now, because at some point, Dave is going to redo my dressers

I have two of them. Mom and Dad bought them from a used place when I was about 14 or 15. As you can see, they could definitely use some work. But other than the cosmetics, they are really sturdy. I’m more than a little attached to them. It will be nice to give them new life.

And speaking of dressers, I have another surprise for Dave when he gets home. You may recall, we have two full bathrooms here. But the upstairs one only has a tub, no shower. It’s perfect for me, but it’s much too small for Dave’s tall frame. So he showers downstairs. But all his clothes are upstairs. So I found this nice little dresser on Facebook Marketplace

It’s just the right size for holding a few t-shirts and pairs of shorts. It can also hold a few towels, because the linen closet it up stairs too. This will certainly make life more convenient for him.

I wonder what I’ll find on Marketplace next!