Who?

I've been doing patchwork by mail! (I talked about it a while ago)
Last spring Cynthia Frenette invited me to partake in a quilting bee she started, and it's been really fun! Each month, one member of the Fab Bee sends out a request and some fabric to all the participants, and we all follow the instructions and use up the fabric and send a finished block back to it's rightful owner.

the fabrics and request for hearts

the block I made for Cynthia and Norm

Cynthia started it off with "hearts" in April, and explained that the quilt was for her hubby Norm, who chose the colours and fabrics. Some of the pieces are Cynthia's own designs that she printed at Spoonflower, and since this time, she has had her own line of fabric printed by Robert Kaufman!

In May, we used a spark of colour and neutrals to make improvised blocks for Holly.

the fabrics....

and the block I made

June was my month. I sent out neutrals and asked for stripes. Such a fantastic array of stripes I got back! I decided not to worry too much about putting them together - and I just went ahead and did it. I am still mulling over different ideas for the quilting design. You can see I have a grey thread laid out there - to see if I like vertical lines on it ... hmmm, still thinking.

July was fun too! Darlene, who is a lover of all things vintage, asked us to do a "stack of books" block. I slipped in some vintage fabrics - and I sent along a bundle of coloured plastic knitting needles for her.

 

What I didn't know about Darlene is that she is generous to a fault! She sent me two lines of bunting that she made as a thank you! I hung them up at our house during our Quilt Forest event. 

Then came August....

and the request from Ellen to make..... an OWL!

Here are things I have rediscovered about myself this month-

I don't do representational art, and I especially don't do animals!

I live in a wonderful natural environment, surrounded by trees which are full of birds, including owls.

barred owl, photo taken from the porch at dusk. "Who Cooks For You?"

I am surrounded by this natural wonder and I really feel like I could not do it justice by trying to make it into art. It already is art. I can't dream of improving on it, it's perfect.

Winging it - free piecing, applique, embroidery and machine couching

So, I let most of the month slip by. I picked up Jan Mullen's book Reverse Applique With No Brakez and read through it. That helped a little. Then I drew an owl. And I waited some more. Then I realized the month was almost gone, so I just went ahead and did my block. Here it is. I'll mail it to Ellen today. Hope she likes it!