Mashaa Monday: Y's, Bees, and Quiltspam

Mashaa Monday time! I should probably just rename it Mashaa Tuesday at this point, though. I'm finding it more and difficult to get around to doing it on Mondays. It might just be because I'm stubborn and don't like to do what I'm told, even if I'm just telling myself. :P

This week I conquered the 'Y' seam!

Well, I wouldn't say "conquered", exactly. As soon as I started to think it was easy I kept messing it up. :P But here's the back of my first focus hexagon for 'Pretty Little Half Hex'.

And then because I never know when to stop and hate following patterns I added a little something....

I traced a little tiny bee from the Saffron Craig fabric I bought the other day, and embroidered it with a little help from Sarah Fielke's instructions for the big bee in her Honeycomb quilt in the 'Little Quilts' book. So it's like a two-for-one deal for my swap partner. :D

I loved handsewing with the gold and silver metallic threads. I thought they'd misbehave but they worked really well.

I haven't had any feedback from my swap partner so I hope they're okay with this! I worry because some people like things to be exactly like the pattern/picture and if she prefers that then she'll be disappointed. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes in hopes she'll love it.

On Friday it was my 5th wedding Anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Mr. Strange!). I wore a dress for the first time since the wedding. My sister who lives in the UK sent me the dress. It reminds me of a quilt so it's my favourite thing right now. Best hand-me-down ever! And the wooden ring Mr. Strange gave me for our Anniversary matched perfectly with it. :D

We went to Oktoberfest for our Anniversary. Vegans, look away now!



I machine-appliqued for the first time this week, as well. This will be a cushion for my bedroom where I plan to have a little nook for sitting in and sewing/quilting/embroidering by hand.

 I found out that the pattern from one of the Japanese prints that I used for the layout is a popular one in sashiko embroidery. So now of course I want to learn sashiko! :P


I also worked on a 24" Sawtooth Star block yesterday. The flying geese were huge!

I took this picture at around 10pm when I'd finished the whole quilt-top so the colours are wacky, but mainly I just wanted to show off my points. I'm so happy I didn't cut any of them off! My piecing with the Beast is certainly improving.

In case you missed it, I've run out of fabrics I'm willing to sacrifice for practice quilting sandwiches so #projectsnapandquilt is on hold for a week or so until I manage to go buy some cheap fabric for it. I may change it to only a couple of blogposts a week, too because it interrupts my mojo if I have to stop and blog about things.

On Sunday I visited the Brisbane Craft And Quilt Fair and saw some amazing works. Here's just a fraction of the pictures I took. I tried to always get the label in so the maker is credited. You'll probably notice in this picspam that I'm mostly drawn to vibrant colour and amazing quilting.

On some of those quilts there was a sign for the 2QMod modern quilters guild. I visited their table last quilt show I went to and they were a bit scary and rude.
So this time I visited the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild's booth instead, and the experience was a bazillion times better. Both the ladies there were really welcoming and lovely. I'm even considering joining. You know, because I'm challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone by joining ALL the things.  Eek! :D

While at the quilt show I also managed to find a few fat quarters to add my collection for the two large quilts I'm planning. That kind of purple is very difficult to find. I now almost have enough to begin the quilts. I even started doing the maths to figure out what size pieces to cut for the aqua/coral one. 

-Strange.