November Quilting Bee Blocks

This month I have managed to finish all my quilting bee blocks before they were actually due! Yay!

Do.good. Stitches:

This month we got to make some bottled rainbow blocks following Rachel's tutorial. I have been wanting to try this for ages so I was so super excited when Becky chose this as her block for the month. Here are my two blocks:

Kona Berry Block (dark purples)

Kona Raspberry Block (dark pinks)

I loved making these blocks and see more of them in my immediate future...and there is something to be said for the quilt-as-you-go method that these use.

Sew Bee Beautiful:

This month it was Ella's turn to send out fabric and she requested some wonky stars. At first I was a bit nervous to make these, having never made a wonky star but I am pretty pleased with how these turned out. I'm sure her quilt will be quite beautiful! Now please don't mind the severe lack of ironing in these photos, I'm still looking for an iron...

Mod Mosaic Charity Quilt

This isn't a "bee" parsay, but earlier this month Kelsey asked for some help in making mod mosaic quilt squares using gray, orange and blues for a family who has had one bad thing after another happen to them -- house fires, hospital stays, car accidents, etc. You can read more about her request for blocks (and sign up to make one) here. These blocks are super easy to make and are excellent for using up stash. I enjoyed making this block and wish that I had time to make more.

Sew Bee Blissful - October

Celynn, who blogs over at The Sunflower Patch, is one of my friends from the Sew Bee Blissful quilting bee that I am in. I love participating in this bee. For those of you who don't know, it is a group of 12 of us from all over the world who make 2 blocks for a quilts per month for a year. It's a load of fun.

Anyway this month, Celynn asked us to make these adorable owl blocks.

She sent us a bunch of excellent fabrics, including some of my favorites from DS Fairgrounds. I really enjoyed making these blocks and if you want to make them, I suggest checking out this blog for the instructions. The directions are really easy to understand and you can easily adjust the sizes for whatever size block you want.

Celynn asked everyone to include their favorite holiday recipe so I figured I'd share it all with you. Every year my mom bakes dozens and dozens of cookies of all different kinds for the holidays, and these oatmeal are some of my favorite. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cups of Shortening

1/2 cups sugar

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup cinnamon chips (made by Hershey's...found in the baking aisle)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups oatmeal 

1 cup flour

dash nutmeg + cloves

Beat sugars and shortening together in a mixer. Add egg, water, and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl. Mix. Add to the egg mixture. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment papered cookie sheets. Bake in the oven at 350 F for 10 min (or until done). Store in an airtight container.

Also, don't forget to check back tomorrow for Stocking For Kids Tutorial Tuesday from none other than Cluck Cluck Sew!

Sew Bee Blissful

This month is Jenna's month in the Sew Bee Blissful group that I am in. You should check out her awesome blog -- she has tons of great ideas and projects -- beware, you might lose track of time looking all all her stuff.

 This is the first month of the bee and I've been so excited to start because it is full of quilters from all over the world and I love meeting new people.

Jenna asked for double pinwheel blocks following this tutorial. It is pretty straightforward...I didn't want to ruin her lovely fabric so I made a test block for myself first...good thing too because I discovered that I might want to cut my half square triangles a bit bigger and then trim them down for perfect points.

Anyway here are the blocks I made with her wonderful fabric -- I especially like the purple fabrics. She asked for some blocks for the back of the quilt if we had any fabric left over so I made a few of those too.

All in all, I'd say the first month of this bee was a success!