Let's Get This Party Started and Annoucements

Let's start with the first big announcement...I am happy to share that I will be one of the co-hosts for the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop!!!  I'm so excited (and a bit scared I've never really hosted anything) to be participating in this event.  It's one I feel very strongly about and support.  I owe this hop to many of the online quilt friendships that I have.  Participating was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Registration for the hop will open on February 1st and we will be sharing more information and details in the coming days/weeks.  If you have been quilt blogging for less than 3 years I hope you will consider signing up.  It's a great resource to learn more about blogging and make friendships that you will treasure.

Speaking of such things....

I had the pleasure to meet Karen at Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats this past fall at a retreat at Julie at Pink Doxies (who I met from the 2015 NQBBH).  I participated with Karen in the 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.  I discovered when she linked up to my UFO Confessions post last week that she was lacking in some bee blocks and part of her UFOing would be to make additional blocks for her quilts.  I did the only thing I could do...I hive crashed again.

Hopefully, these two Cheerio/Lifesaver blocks and 

this Wanta Fanta block will help a bit.  Another cool fact about these blocks are: they contain a bit of orange fabric that Sandra sent me when we did the Rainbow Rose QAL, it contains an orange bit from a charm pack I won at a give away from Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts (a 2014 NQBBH alumni I believe), and orange from the bee blocks I sent to Helen at Midget Gem Quilts (who I met during the 2015 NQBBH).   

My next bit of New Years sewing was sewing with my dear friend, Sandra at mmm!quilts (you guessed it, I met her during the 2015 NQBBH)  We decided earlier this weekend we would not let the miles that separate us keep us a part.  The Sewcial Bee Sampler hosted earlier in the year by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell has been on our bucket list since it first started.  We vowed that we would eventually make this quilt together.  No time like the present.  Our only rules are we sew the blocks at the same time.  This weekend we texted back and forth with each other as we sewed.  I see Facetiming in our future as well.  As the count down to the new year was on, we found ourselves with block one and two finished.

Then earlier today, we made time to piece together block three.

I look forward to piecing the other 22 blocks over the next couple of weeks with her, as we find time to sneak them in.

I hope you pop back over on Wednesday when I share my latest UFO finish.  I squeaked one last one in at the end of the year.  Then I will officially start the weekly UFO Busting Linky Party on Saturday, January 6th!

The party will be pretty relaxed.  If you are working on a UFO come share it!  Need help with a UFO come ask for help.  Starting to work on a UFO come link up, and lets talk about why it became a UFO.  It also applies to WIP's as well.  I just love talking about UFO's because it always makes non quilters get a strange look on their face.  So I hope you will join me this year on Saturdays and watch the quilting skies to see what we can see.  Was it a bird?  Was it a plane?  No!  It's a Sun Bonnet Sue from 1985 :)

 Today I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday.

Hive Crashing

One of the many things I enjoy reading about in the online quilting community is Hive Crashing.  What is that you ask?  It's when someone who is not in a particular quilting bee hive, decides to make the chosen queen for the month's block and send it to her.  I like to think of it as the quilting version of toilet papering a house, cow tipping or snipe hunting, only its a guten prank (good prank, for those non The Office junkies).

So this month I decided to jump right in and crash Helen at Midget Gem Quilt's bee hive.  Helen is the Queen Sheba of her hive this month and she chose the Quatrefoil block and posted a link to Blossom Heart Quilt's tutorial for making it.  Her colors were blue and orange and the inspiration for this block came from the blue sky and orange light filtering through a window, how cool is that???

I've been online friends with Helen since the 2015 New Bloggers Blog Hop and I've been wanting to do something for her, this block was perfect.

So I ran to my stash and did a quick fabric pull and...

If you look closely, you can see the white backing for Free Fall at the top of the picture.

quickly commenced to cutting and...

sewing.

And in a flash I had two Quarterfoil blocks to send her.

Hopefully, these blocks will work with all the other wonderful blocks that Helen receives. 

A side note to some of the fabrics used in the blocks; I think I used most of these fabrics in my recent 182 Solstice Challenge Quilt aka "the beast."  Last year I followed along as Helen created a wedding quilt for her son and his wife.  She called it Coulter Wedding Quilt aka "the behemoth."  The behemoth took on it's own personality and I called it a ledged.  After her finish, and since I was such a fan, Helen sent to me some scrap fabric from the quilt.  So, after finishing the beast I declared it must be the behemoth's cousin and now Helen has a bit of the beast with her.  I can't wait to watch as her quilt comes together.

Will I join a bee hive?  I'm not opposed to it.  It seems like great fun, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the commitment.  Will I hive crash again?  I think so, when the time is right.  Do you participate in bee hives?  Have you ever crashed a hive?  I'd love to hear about it.

Today I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday Let's Bee Social and Midweek Makers.