Bee Pillow

I found this embroidery pattern by Gail Pan and offered free on a facebook page called Love and Hugs from Australia.  I joined the group as I do admire the Australian designers.  This pattern was perfect for a friend of mine facing heart surgery next month.  She loves all things "Bees" and I have always heard it helps to have a pillow to hug when you have had heart surgery.  I did modify the embroidery a little, maybe too cutesy.  It had the sayings " Bee Brave, Bee Strong,  Bee Together."  I wanted to let her know she had friends and family that love her and will be praying for her.  

Wish You Well - Starting the Hand Quilting

I have been looking at my Wish You Well Quilt (Gail Pan BOM) for several weeks now trying to decide how to hand quilt it.  Finally, I decided to just do quilting on a block by block basis and each unit in the block inspire what needs to be quilted.  This is turning out to be more fun than I realized.  I guess it is kinda of like doing custom quilting when you machine quilt.   The following are just a few pictures of different areas I have quilted.  So far I have 2 of 12 blocks completed.

I am getting some ideas from these books:  (I have quite a few others to look through, but these are a good start.)

Gentle Gems - March Blocks

 This morning I finished the March blocks for the Gentle Gems Block of the Month by Val Laird.  I am enjoying this BOM as Val uses lots of different embroidery stitches in her designs.  In this one, the outline of the Beehive is a Palestrina stitch and the flowers are Bullion stitches. She refers to one of my favorite sites, NeedlenThread for guide on how to do the stitches.

Bobbin Lace

 I asked and received a beginner's bobbin lace kit for Christmas.  I have been interested in this craft for quite a few years and was excited to learn.  I know no one that makes bobbin lace, but I have been watching YouTubes and also purchased a Beginner's Guide to Bobbin Lace by Gilian Dye and Adrienne Thunder.   I have not gotten very far in the book, but have learned some basics.

My work so far is very much the work of a beginner, but someday I hope to have become more proficient in making this lace which I have always considered works of art.

So, I am going to show some of my beginner works just so hopefully I can look back someday and see improvement.  

These are the bobbins that were in my kit.  They were not marked in anyway, so I purchased some 1/8" color tape to mark pairs.  The patterns I have been starting with have you work with pairs of bobbins that stay together throughout the project and I was getting them so confused....so I marked them and now I can keep it straight much easier..

One of the first projects in the book was this little bookworm book mark. this was my third attempt.  Still far from neat or even close to perfect - but I learned a lot in making it.  I need to go back and try again just to see if I have improved any.

This morning I started another bookmark (actually my second attempt of this pattern,)  

I found the progress going so much better than the first one I tried (I will spare you how that one looked)

Here is is finished.  I actually did pretty good although I seem to have dropped a stitch somehow on the left side.  I did not master how to finish it off.  

One more try and maybe I will get it right.

Bring Me Flowers - Gail Pan BOM

 Completed Row 1 this morning.  Enjoying the Block of the Month by Gail Pan.  My favorite so far is the whimisical bird.

Lone Rose Star - Completed!

 This past week I finished the hand quilting and binding on my Lone Rose Star quilt.  The binding was a challenge for me as I decided to use some of the left over strips from the Lone Star.  There were so many seams that I could not get the mitered corners to look nice.  They were like big wads of fabric!  Lucky for me the binding is bias, so I took it all off, then curved the corners and sewed it back on.  I think it did pretty well with the curve in the corners.

The Lone Star is machine pieced following instructions on On-Point TV with Nancy.  She is a great teacher and has tons of YouTube videos.  The Rose Stars are English Paper Pieced and then hand appliqued to the quilt top.  The quilt is hand quilted.

I guess you could call this my own design, at least the layout  of the quilt, although it is basically a traditional Lone Star with the addition of the Rose Stars.