ALOYF May Goal

Last month I did't meet my goal =(  I did work on it quite a bit, but in addition to getting sidetracked by the Modern Traditional Challenge and Sarah's play, I also had thread issues and had to go out and find some new stuff.  Combine all that with nice weather and trying to get outside more and that adds up to significantly LESS time at the sewing machine.

Modern Traditional Challenge

I stumbled across this challenge that was posted at the beginning of this month.  When I saw the theme, I had a couple of ideas about what I wanted to do.  I went to my LQS in search of the right fabrics and fell in love with Dear Stella's Spring Street.  I've been using Sketch for quite a while now as accents in my bee blocks and round robins.  I really like the feel of solid movement that the screen-like tone-on-tone lines create.  A lot of the time they have the same overall feel as quilters linen.

It does happen ...

I sent in my charm swap package complete with charms and self-addressed-stamped-envelope.  Then ... A couple of days ago, Rhett was sorting out the mail and this was at the bottom of his pile:

I couldn't believe it.  My charms that I had secured in a re-used ziploc baggie.  (It had my address on it because a bee block had been sent to me in it.  I figured it would make it easier to return my charms to me when that time came.)  I had mailed them a week ago and assumed that they'd already gotten to their destination.  I quickly e-mailed the intended recipient to let her know what happened and that I would re-send.

She returned with an e-mail saying that she had gotten the two envelopes last week.  The original packaging contained my self-addressed stamped envelope and was perfectly sealed.  Somehow my little packet of charms escaped and decided to find their way home ...  Too bad for them that I really want to trade up =)

My April Master List

Making a list worked really well last month, so here we go again =)

Sarah's Primary Bee Block--the Pennsylvania

Of course, my child is the one who doesn't want to select from the list provided =)

ALOYF April Goal--Sam's Trek Quilt

This one I've been putting off not just since January, but for about two years now.  This month I'm going to tackle the first quilt I designed and executed--before I had a clue about what I was doing.

Just in the Nick of Time ...

My ALOYF March Finish (barely)

March Stash Bee Blocks

I finished my first block right at the beginning of the month, but because it was realitvely small, I wanted to do two, plus I'm just plain bad about mailing anything.  So it sat, and it sat ...  But I was so UNinspired for some reason.  It wasn't the block's fault--it's one of my faves and I hope to make a whole quilt of them someday.  It wasn't the colors that were requested--bright, colorful, happy colors.

Triple Zip Swap

This post is a bit late ... I received my pouch a two or three weeks ago now and I've been enjoying it without sharing =(

Thanks so much to Mary Moon Designs!  It doesn't have to be purple for me to love it.  So many little touches that add to the fun and make it "me".  How did she know?

Star Light Star Bright Top

I've had a rough couple of weeks!  Although I haven't been working too much during the day, there are so many other things cropping up to keep my mind, body and emotional cups full to the brim.  Without going into details, I had one child home for almost a week, one car accident and another fender bender 10 days later (both times our car was rear-ended), and several back-to-back appointments for several days in a row.

By some miracle, I've managed to stay somewhat on top of things at home and also with this quilt along.  I finished this top this afternoon just as another storm is rolling in and it got dark and windy outside.  Not the best for pictures, but this is too big to even attempt to get a picture inside the house.  I love the size and can't wait to get going on the quilting.  I've drawn out what I want to do for each of the nine blocks, but the sashing is stumping me a bit.  I guess I'll have to see what I end up with ...

And here is a quick peek at my  ALOYF progress for this month.  I still need to press, trim and sew.  It's a good thing I don't have any other plans for spring break :)