hello again

Summer is here!  These last couple of weeks I've been feeling all the summery vibes brought on by warm weather & sunshine, the pool opening, last days of school tours and holiday weekends.  Great vibes really and they are inspiring me to make some summer-type plans and adventures.  What they are not doing is making it easy to be inside all day at work and getting things done around the house!

In any case, there has been lots of thinking about chores, hockey playoffs, shopping and a little bit of sewing sprinkled in here & there.  At work I've been making up some samples for our June Quilt Camp and am super excited!  It's always a fun time and I even scored some bating donations too which will make life a whole lot easier. The next few weeks will be prepping materials: cutting fabric, changing rotary blades, cutting batting & backing fabrics and winding bobbins.  Hooray!

A couple weeks ago I also pieced together my backing fabric for my Roman Stripe quilt and got it basted!  This was my May project for the Lovely Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts.  Another month finished & here's my original link up for May. 

quilting in action

 I have started to quilt it and that is taking me longer than originally planned due to all those summer vibes mentioned above.   :)  Perhaps this will be the June project...

I also managed to work in a graduation gift for one of my Junior Quilters who is awesome!  It was fun to pull some purple fabrics together and whip up this oval box bag (using Aneela's great tutorial).  It's one of my favorites so far that I've made.  

It's so much fun to create things for friends and family and a wonderful way to use my skills.  Creating something for others in need, like the blocks for Boston, is just as rewarding and definitely brings the online community together.  This week I sent off a quilt and some pillowcases to the Oklahoma guild collecting for those impacted by the tornado in Moore.  Check it out if you have a quilt that needs a good home!

Giveaway Winner

and the winner of the oval box bag is...... #5:  Georgia who said:

 Georgia said...

My current read is How We Love. One of my favorites is The Oath. :)

peachstateme (at) hotmail (dot) com

May 6, 2013 at 10:14 PM 

Congrats!  I've emailed you and will send out your prize as soon as I hear from you.

Thanks for all for stopping by the blog and participating.  Have a great weekend. :)

WIP :: 5/8/13

Yesterday at work, my Junior Quilters made blocks to send out for the Quilts for Boston collection.  They had a good time and did a nice job putting their blocks together.  There's still time to make and send a block or two to the Boston MQG for their project - check it out here.

After the meeting, I pulled out my Roman Stripe quilt to baste it.  It's so nice to be able to bring my quilts to work and borrow the table space!  I don't think there'd be an easy way to baste anything larger than 20" on my floor!  I'm excited to be able to sit down and start quilting on this - I'll be making designs in each of the grey triangles. 

Well, that's what I'm working on this week and linking up over at Freshly Pieced.  Don't forget to check out Sew, Mama, Sew's blog for all the amazing giveaways as part of Giveaway Day (week)!  You can find my giveaway post here - it's open until the 10th! 

this was the sky today at lunch!

Giveaway Day!

I decided over the weekend that I was going to participate in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day this time around.  It's my first giveaway on the blog and an item I hope ya'll will love it as much as I do.

**  Giveaway now closed - thanks for visiting!**

I'm super excited to have all you lovely visitors stop by and hope you get the chance to look around a bit more here at Buzzing Around.  I live in West KY now and love to quilt so much that I work in a Quilt Museum.  best. job. ever!!   :D  Go ahead and become a follower and come back to visit again soon dear reader.

some of my finished projects!

You can enter to win this Oval Box Bag I made and love.  It's exactly the right size to hold my spools of Aurifil thread and is really cute sitting by my machine.  I used Aneela Hoey's tutorial to make the bag and love how cute it turns out every time I make this pattern.  

To enter, just leave a comment: Share your favorite book/current read.  

I'm looking for some new reads and would love suggestions.

The giveaway remains open until May 10 at 5pm PST.  Winner will be chosen randomly and notified via email.  Please make sure I can email you if you win - otherwise I'll have to choose someone else.  I will ship internationally so all are welcome to enter!

**  Giveaway now closed - thanks for visiting!

Be sure to check out all the amazing giveaways this week and good luck to all!

basting stripes

Since it's already May, that means it's time to choose a project for the Lovely Year of Finishes linky.  I picked up some fabric over the weekend to use on two quilts waiting to be quilted - Momm & I stopped in at Hancock's after Quilt Week.  Things were mostly back to normal inside and it was fun to poke through all the remnants.

PS: please ignore the messy nightstand....k, thanks!

Anyways, I found backing fabric for my Roman Stripe quilt and decided my May finish is to piece the backing together and baste it all together.  One step at a time to knock out these finishes.  I'm planning on this quilt to be good for picnics, movies or fireworks this summer.  I have a plan already for the binding and for quilting so i better get stitching!
Adding my link over at Fiber of All Sorts - come join the finishing party.

the Post-Quilt Show edition

 Quilt week was awesome!  I'm pretty sure I only sat down for meals all week because we were non-stop busy every day.  Always a good sign and it was fun having so many quilters visiting from all over.  It was good to have Momm visiting too - definitely made it more fun in the evenings.  We talked quilty-talk all weekend and had two days after Show to actually quilt!  I'm still tired and am so glad the weekend is here again to catch up on some sleep.  :)

 We also made it to Flamingo Row (my fav. local restaurant), drove through the Dogwood trail and once we put out the hummingbird feeder watched the hummers zip in and out.

Here's what I worked on - finally a butterfly block for my wall!  This is my second time sewing curves and they are fun!  I finished up the binding last night while watching hockey.  Playoffs are on and that typically means nothing gets done except during intermission....ha!  Linking this finish up at Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finish.  

Today at work I tested out our equipment for leaf pounding and it turned out well.  This will be for an upcoming GS program about trees and after the hammering, I'll take them through the galleries to see how trees are represented in quilts.  

Tonight I tested out a few ideas while making several blocks for the Quilts for Boston collection.  I'm planning to have the Junior Quilters make blocks at the next meeting to send out to the Boston MQG as well and participate in a great project that helps spread the love stitched into quilts with those who need it.

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, mint juleps, catching up with chores and more quilting.  What are you working on this weekend?