Summer Biking

Over the Spring/Summer, with more time at home/out of the office, I had more time for biking this year. It's a favorite activity in nice weather, and gives some much needed stress relief & mental refocusing.

 I spend a lot of time on the local Greenway trail, as it's close by and a good distance, with views along the riverfront too. Going further afield, I enjoy the Tunnel Hill trail in IL, and made it my goal to ride the whole trail this Summer - instead of the same sections over and over.

 It's a rail-to-trail, so has a relatively flat & well maintained path with minimal elevation gains. As an added bonus, it's very scenic through the trees, has trestle bridges and even some tunnels. Driving out to some of the parking lots had me exploring some new countryside views, and hitting some back roads too.

The trail runs 45 miles from Karnak to Harrisburg. I did it in sections, from one parking lot up to the next then back each trip, so I guess I've done a round trip of 90 miles overall! 

The namesake tunnel is roughly the halfway point, and runs 500+ feet, making it eerie to ride (or walk) through! The elevation is the highest at this point too, so it's beautiful scenery being up on the bluffs and tree tops. Though it means one part of the trip is uphill...ha!

My favorite sections were the scenic ones around the main tunnel. The sections nearer to Harrisburg were closer to the roadway, so there wasn't as much quiet while riding the trail. Exploring new sections of this trail and getting outdoors was a wonderful part of this strange year.

Trail Complete!

social 

 

Seeing Stars: 100dayproject

94/100

So on my birthday I decided to start my very first 100 days project!

My goal was simple: sew a star block every day for 100 days. 

Checkout #bumblybzs100days to see all the blocks.

1/100

Stars are my favorite shape, and I knew there were a lot of star block designs/patterns out there, because it's a fairly classic quilt block. The main guideline I had was to keep the blocks 9" or smaller, and I was working from my fabric stash.

50/100

77/100

My timeframe ran March 27 - July 4, which meant this became the perfect project to work on through the craziness of the pandemic. When I started, I was still at work but we were closed to the public, than I was furloughed, than brought back via the PPP & working from home, then work reopened and we had a rotating in-office schedule. Phew!

23/100

48/100

Starting with known designs at the beginning made it fairly quick each day to stitch up a star. As days went on, I spread my search to Google, Pinterest, Instagram tags, quilt books & patterns I had on a shelf, and even had friends & coworkers & fam messaging me blocks and ideas! 

37/100

51/100

I tried to pack in a variety of techniques including: hand applique, machine applique, paper piecing, EPP, reverse applique. Many of the blocks I re-drafted to make them fit into my size requirements, some are original designs, and others I crunched the numbers to do the quilt math to be able to size it correctly. 

15/100

Choosing fabric combinations, diving deep into my scraps and fabric stash was really fun. It gave me a chance to look through all of my fabric, re-sort or organize some of it, and to use loads of fabrics that I had forgotten about, or hadn't used before, alongside some of my favorite pieces.

87/100

3/100

It was fun to have no idea what the next days' star would be, and also fun to stretch the idea of a star, or to coordinate it to a holiday/special event.

65/100

100/100

After finishing the full 100 days, I took all the stars and pinned them up on the wall at work. I'm not yet decided on a layout - originally I planned to split them into 2 groups and make this a double sided quilt. However, once I saw them all together on the wall, I like the idea of them all being on one side of a quilt for the extra wow impact of 100 stars!

Birthday Bee Blocks

So last year I was part of the #birthdaywishesbee on Instagram with a great group of quilters. Each month each of us got to be queen bee and request a specific block, with everyone else making 2 for the queen. 

In March, I requested these purple & blue curves with low volume background drunkard's path blocks. Everyone did such a fab job with the curves!

Watching the mailbox as these started to roll in was exciting and so was choosing a layout. To give the blocks some room to breathe, I added a low volume border, adding in extra length with the top and bottom. No clue how I'm going to quilt it yet, but I love it!

Harry Potter Swap

Recently I received my mini quilt from the #harrypotterswap2020 and was super impressed! This was a swap hosted by @kcswapshost and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to join in when I saw it.

I was on #hpsfawkes and my partner wanted something that encompassed the series as a whole or the friendship of Harry, Ron & Hermione. Coming up with an idea was a bit of a challenge, but once I decided on a design it was fun to make. I used a solid teal fabric for the top and a Hogwarts Houses print for the backing.

I basted the entire thing first, then raw-edge appliqued/quilted the heads & hair first and used fabric markers for the faces. Then I quilted in the quote, which my partner had in her mosaic, added the stack of books, then finally quilted in a few extra details and the background lines. A darker teal worked beautifully for the binding.

With swap quilts, I like to include hanging corners so that it's easier for the recipient to hang on the wall. They also double as a label: win-win! It's nice to know my partner loves it too.

Here's what I received: my very own Hogwarts!! My partner paper pieced this phenomenally well and I just love it. The backing fabric is the Marauder's Map - perfect - and I can't wait to get this on my wall. Thanks M - mischief managed!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was over the weekend - and due to all the coronavirus changes to our daily norms - I celebrated at home alone. I have dubbed this birthday as my 'Quilting Birthday' because there are 36 inches in a yard of fabric! :D

I kicked off with a pancake brunch and orange-pineapple mimosas.

I'm working on quilting a pair of commission quilts and am loving how they are coming along so far. My go-to when quilting/sewing is typically TV shows or movies, and currently I've been rocking some Bones and Tangled the Series episodes.

I watched the live stream of the Pope's Urbi et Orbi blessing from Rome, which was beautiful. Aside from the visuals of the rainy evening in an empty St. Peter's Square, his meditation on the Gospel reading of Jesus calming the storm at sea is worth reading: find the full full text here.

The weather has been alternating sunny and rainy it seems here, but I've been getting out to walk around the neighborhood almost every day and mixing in some yoga too. Pulled out my clarinet too and having fun going through some of my old music and things. 

Instead of cake, I made a pavlova and it turned out so great! It's meringue on the bottom, homemade whipped cream, then homemade lemon curd, and fresh raspberries, blueberries and mango. Finished up the night with a family video chat to celebrate. As a fun twist, my parents also made their own pavlova, so we could have dessert together-but-not-together! Brilliant!

block 1

I also decided to start a #100daysproject which I've seen over the years, but never committed to for myself. Starting on my B!day, I'm making a block a day and my theme is Stars because it's my favorite shape.

I'm logging my blocks on my Instagram and Twitter (@bumblybzs) with the tag: #bumblybzs100days so check it out.

Leap Day Scrap Happy

Surprise! What better time to jump back into posting than Leap Day! :D I'm of the opinion Leap Day should be a national holiday, so having it on a Saturday has been quite nice. Thought it was a perfect time to finally share this quilt with you.

This is Scrap Happy my version of the National Quilt Museum's Block of the Month Club Round 1 and it's currently hanging in the National Quilt Museum! Eeeee!

Part of my job is coordinating this Club, which includes making the blocks & full quilt - so cool. Round 1 ran April 2018-March 2019, and each month featured a new pattern, by a guest designer, inspired by an exhibit at the museum. I pulled fabrics from the scrap bins at work, and a few favorite bits from home as well and had fun testing and stitching these all year. {the purple was really hard to photograph consistently!}

crack in the wall inspired

Definitely learned some new techniques: sharpie dying, in-set circles, bias stripes, and pinecone (pine burr) quilting. Each block was fun and a creative challenge in choosing fabrics to keep them looking like they belonged together with a color scheme.

 

In September, I was able to design a paper pieced pattern and loved seeing how everyone in the group interpreted the design in their own fabrics! It's called "Gliders" and was fun to create.

Gliders before quilting

Gliders after quilting

The purple is Moda Grunge, which I chose after a bit of debate on which color to use that would coordinate with the blocks themselves, and am really pleased with how it works. I really wanted to add a piped edge with the binding, so even though I was pressed for time, I'm proud that I could work it in, because the pink flange pops so well against the polka dot grunge binding.

Quilting was a different challenge - each block was in-the-ditch stitched first to stabilize it. Then I could go block to block and quilt each one individually depending on the design. Some favorite ones were the Van gogh inspired block and the outer space Moon - I quilted in a tiny Apollo capsule! (hard to see it in the image, but it's on the way to the moon)

Then I free-motion quilted in a spikey-swirl design in the purple, with 3 bees added in for good measure. I used Aurifil threads for all the quilting and love how smooth it is when free-motion quilting!

Having it hang in the museum gallery last Fall with the Block of the Month Club mini exhibit was an awesome feeling. It's been fun when visitors or tours ask if I have a quilt here, or 'where's your quilt?' and I can say, "Right over here!" So cool.

I'm still working to finish up the blocks for Round 2, which finishes this March, so I better get back to sewing those up and turning them into a full quilt!