Holidays - a time to catch up

The holidays.

...a time for catching up.

With friends, with family...

With quilting bees?????

 You betcha.

 What better way to say you care?

 After all, the bobbins have been wound, the machine has been oiled...

 You're working on finishing all of your hand made gifts, right?

 So - thank you, all of you in beebeautiful

for a wonderful year of new techniques, new fabrics and new friends.

Happiest Holidays

and

Happiest Days.

Natalie Barnes.

Quilt it!

Another month.

Another technique.

Before you know it, your month has come and gone, 

and it's time to work with Erica's fabric, Erica's project - - what fun!

I am nothing if not resilient.

No matter how many needles I break.

(I'm up to three snapped needles, and I've only finished two blocks)

And of course the fabric - - most of it vintage

is nothing to experiment with.

I have stacks of feed sacks I have never been able to cut up...

But that's the great thing about being in an online bee.

Stretching your limits.

Learning new techniques.

And finding those quilting muscles you never knew you had.

Thanks, Erica.

natalie.

(it's off to put in another needle and finish the last block)

pieced & quilted with 

Weeks Dye Works hand over dyed Quilting Collection

size 40 - 100% cotton thread 

quilting bee beautiful friends

quilting bee

bee beautiful

beautiful friends

I recently purchased a small farmhouse table

from a friend's shop in LA

I recently had friends come and stay

at the house - they brought me sunflowers

I recently found on sale

two great big deep transferware plates

I recently found two packages

in my mailbox

And so I created a still life

full of friends

thank you

natalie.

I LOVE snail mail!!

While I love receiving mail

in this mail box

While I love how email has reunited me with so many

and flung my doors wide open

to others

I do

LOVE

snail mail

Just LOOK at what Chuck the postman

brought me today!!!

Thank you Angela.

(no siggy block?)

BeginAgain

Natalie.

To Julie with love...

These are not my colors.

This is not my fabric.

It's hard to work with OPF sometimes.

I know, you've heard me say, it's such a treat to work with OPF.

But.

Now you all know I love Julie.

She's one of my peeps.  She is a great help in the booth at beyond the reef.

She is a fabulous quilter, designer, she has a great 'style' of her own too.

So.

I just gotta go with this project - in I go...

I cut the fabric - well most of it.

I start sewing.

I have to cut more fabric.

.....daaaang.....

These blocks are looking pretty great!

(the colors, you guys - not the blocks, well, the blocks are coming along too)

But, daang, Julie!!!

These are coming together!!!

So I decide to keep sewing.

Then I think - wait.

"Punch Drunk Love"

Hmmmmm.

Now I'm not sayin' anything here - not promoting the use of any distraction while using heavy machinery...

But I just couldn't stop sewing!!!

I did a partial punchdrunklovewithpiecedcenterblock

just because at this point

I'm lovin' this project - I'm lovin' the tulapink fabrics

I'm thinking,

Yep.

this Julie knows her stuff!!

Thanks for letting me out of my box.

Out of my comfort zone.

Again.

Natalie.

Happiness is a Bloomin' Flower

I didn't want to do it.

The block.

Then when I did,

I didn't want to sew it down by machine.

Especially with white thread.

(I didn't even HAVE white thread)

And then?

I fell in love with it.

It's a great block.

And I, for one, can't wait to see all the blocks together

in a quilt top!!!

Again, here I go down this same path - now, I want to make my own 

big old bloomin' blocks!!

Thanks Penny for broadening my horizons.

natalie.

Tool Time Girl

Lookey what I found!!!

The story goes like this:

I wanted to try Julie's hexagons, so I purchased this template.

Wrong one for Julie's blocks, but lookey, lookey - right one for this month's blocks!!

So I trimmed the strips to 5-1/2" inches (actually just a little greater than...)

And went to town on - oh, sorry, LAST month's blocks.

Here are the blocks - - in tomorrow's mail, I promise!!

Thanks for waiting.

Natalie.

Few more Stars

I finished up my fun stars!

Right Angles.

Right Angles in the Garden.

(thanks for a great March challenge, and for the chance to work with such fabulous fabrics!)

"Other Peoples' Fabrics"

What IS it about other peoples' fabrics?

bright, shiny, crisp, fresh

all that stuff

this month brought a bee beautiful package full of my favorite colors

colors that were already sitting on my counter

kona crush in that yummy blue

the exact shade of grey in plain kona

but yet these were

other peoples' fabrics

and then it hit me

that feeling we have all had, as quilters

"It's so beautiful, I can't cut into it"

Cmmon.

You've all done it.

Admit it.

Tell me your 

'I just couldn't cut into it' 

story

and maybe Angela will get her blocks!

Happiest Days.

natalie.

Once you start....

...you won't be able to stop!!

have fun.

natalie.

ps - nine blocks later.....um, er...

A New To-Do List, thank you...

I received an incredible rainbow collection of strips

to make this great strip block

made from four strip blocks

(yea, yea, I know...)

so

I figured I should practice

...now I want a string quilt.....

...and a scrappy log cabin...

...and a Liberated Quiltmaking star quilt....

thank you.

natalie.

(and yes, now that I have practiced, I can get started on rachel's blocks)

Happiest Valentines Day to all!

Happiest Days.

Happiest Valentines Day

from

natalie

beyond the reef

bee beautiful - bee creative!!

bee beautiful

how nice it is to walk to the mail box

and find an envelope filled with fabrics

things that you might or might not have in your own collection

but things that someone has selected, cut, packaged

things that carry the energy of another quilter

right in to your own creative thought process

how nice it is to put a nice hot iron on the fabrics

and sort them by color, then value, then shape, and size

cutting, sewing, pressing

putting your own energy into the project ahead

starting with what is a given, what is known

(take these fabrics, make log cabin blocks)

and then letting your mind wander and your ideas take you to other places

and finally

how nice it is to have just a little extra

to give back

either from the garden or from the fabric stash

or from the hours in the day

www.alzquilts.org/paq.html

is where my scraps will end up

begin again

2010

natalie.

thank you, julie, for including me in this group

thank you, rebekah, angela, michelle, amy, penny, vicki, erica, stephanie, rachel and audrie 

for including me, as well