Birds for the Bee

 Sue asked for these cute birds for her month of May in the Modern Stash Bee. I guess I didn't follow the instructions very well on the first blue bird, and his legs were a little off.

Riiiiip, and resew. Better?

 

Sue asked for low volume or text print for the backgrounds, so I used one of each. This text print is so busy, I needed the bold red to stand out against it. I wish I had made his beak yellow.

 

The birds and bees are certainly busy now that Spring has finally sprung. I'm looking forward to the return of the Baltimore Orioles. I might need to make one of those for Sue, too!

Really Random

 Pete is home from Nicaragua! His team had a fantastic time- everything we had hoped and more. He really didn't want to bother with a camera, but I convinced him at the last minute to pick up a disposable one. This is the best of his 24 shots. Spectacular!

 A man working at the hostel in Leon made this knotted necklace for me and wire rings for Julia. Pete really enjoyed talking to him as he worked.

 On Friday, I had the pleasure of taking a class with Cindy Needham. If you are not familiar with her work, spend some time browsing her website. Her work is absolutely stunning! Stay tuned for more on my project using my grandmother's linens.

I couldn't resist the colors of this grocery store bouquet. Check out the fluffy green thing in the front. It is a Green Trick Dianthus. Who knew?

This zig zag row will be shipped out to the February Modern Stash queen bee.

 I'm going to try to play along with Karen's BOM on Sew Many Ways. I don't have a great track record with BOM's, so we'll see how far I get.

I figure if I make them in the same fabrics that I started using for Jackie's BOM last year, I can combine them at the end. Of course, they are different sizes, so that will just add to the challenge of putting them together.

 It's time to start thinking ahead to our guild retreat next weekend. I can't wait!

Two Blocks and a Pillow

 Just a quick Sew Modern Monday post. It's Girl Scout cookie season, so I'll be trying to squeeze in a little sewing whenever I can.

I finished my first bee blocks for the Modern Stash Bee. Mo Stash, for short. Tom Selleck is the poster boy, and the hives are named after his TV shows and movies. So silly!  I'm in the Three Men and a Baby hive, and Kelleigh asked for bright solids on white to use in a charity quilt. The tutorial for the block on the left was part of Jackie's Bloggers BOM last year, but I had to scale it up to make it 12.5". And I used flying geese units instead of HSTs to eliminate some seams. The block on the right is the Spring Blossom block from Volume 1 of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.

Julia finished up a pillow she had been working on for a friend's birthday.  She had seen the quote on Pinterest and drew it on a piece of linen blend. She had to watch some Youtube videos to remember how to do a stem stitch. (She's always been a redwork fan!)

Instead of piecing a border around the embroidery, I had her cut two 15" squares of the Amy Butler print, one for the front and one for the back. She pressed under a seam allowance on the embroidered piece and basted it to the center of a print square. Then, she trimmed it out with the ric rac and stitched it down. Quick and easy!

Have a great, quilty week!