Santa

Will Santa be bringing you guys any fun stuff this year?

Any fabric?

Any linen?

Santa let me shop early this year.  I spent more than my share this year back in the fall on a (used) Bernina and many accessories to go with it...  Hubs got an IPad, so I felt less guilt after that...

I am expecting some fabric from my sister and a dozen bobbins for my new machine from my mom.  I've been making ends meet with 6 bobbins and it's so annoying to need another color bobbin and not have an empty one...

I've been sewing some zippered bags for gifts for my nieces and nephew.  Here are a couple pictures:

Have you guys made any fun crafts this holiday season?  If so, share!

Our bee will start soon and I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited!

Finding Inspiration

Just a few short months ago I never would have given using linen in a quilt a second thought. I was a cotton snob and that is all I would consider. Then I went looking for a quilting bee to help occupy my time and give me a reason to try different things. After finding and joining a couple bees I got an invite to the Lovely Linen Bee. At first I thought I might pass, after all I'd never sewn a quilt with linen before. Then I started to look around flickr and the blogosphere and found a lot of beautiful items using linen. The more I looked the more I loved about it, so I happily accepted the invite and have been waiting in anticipation of the first project to begin.

While waiting for the first month of our bee to start I've been collecting links and pictures of quilts that inspire me. The more I see the more I love and thanks to all the wonderful people who take the time to share their work, I've found tons of inspiration and reasons to love linen.

1. Field Day Linen Quilt with Striped Binding, 2. Modern Linen Quilt, 3. Mini-Pinwheel Quilt, 4. Spring Quilt, 5. Katie Jump Rope and linen pillow, 6. mini quilt sparkle binding, 7. Quilt for baby Britton, 8. Art quilt, 9. Vespa Quilt Finished, 10. UHG item #2 - hotpad, 11. G&H's Wedding Quilt back, 12. Close up of Quilting, 13. Spiderweb Mini Quilt, 14. Modern Linen Quilt - Front, 15. Pop Flower Quilt - Urban Home Goods Swap - starting to quilt, 16. Pacific NW calm quilt top, 17. Mini Quilt Sparkle, 18. purple green orange quilt, 19. Flutterby reversible mini quilt, 20. mini quilt

Noodlehead's Lovely Linen Coasters

I just love the stuff that Anna at Noodlehead does. She just posted this linen coaster set. So cool! I can hardly wait until we start our BEE!!!!!

http://noodleheads.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-heart-linen-coaster-set.html

New To Linen

I'm a linen newbie.  I have almost zero experience sewing with it.

Here's the extent of my use so far:  I am making lots of hexagons with cotton fabric.  I thought it'd be beautiful to make a zillion hexagons out of linen to put between the flowers on a grandmother's flower garden quilt...

So I bought some.  I think I got 3 yards.  I tried to make a 1 inch hexagon out of it.  Not so good.  The weave was really not tight enough to hold the knot that I used when trying to baste.

:( Very sad.  Must come up with another plan.

But the bright side of this story is that I have almost 3 yards of linen... It's lost in my sewing room at the moment, but I know it's in there somewhere!  I'll find it before January...  If not, I can always buy some more!

Badges anyone?

Does anyone know how to make a pretty little badge for our lovely little linen bee?  I'd love to have one as a link on my blog!  How about you?


xo
Michelle

Linen finds

I found some lovely black linen (about 3 yards) at a thrift store for $1. So with my savings I purchased some tan and white linen from JoAnn's (the only place I could get to with a limited amount of time!). The fabric is calling to me. I can hardly wait to get started with our bee!

Moving Into Our New Blog

Hello, ladies!  Thanks for agreeing to participate in this upcoming adventure...

I want us to make our blog reflect who WE are, so please, by all means, make yourselves at home.  If you've got the html skills or knowledge, knock yourself out. :)  Make any changes you'd like.

We have 7 of our 12 members moved into this blog as of now.  My plan is to make us all administrators so that all of us will have the power to delete spam comments and do all the other maintenance that blogs require.

How about we start posting some pictures and links to quilts that inspire us?  Especially quilts made with linen?

I'll do some surfing and see if I can find pictures of quilts that strike my fancy...  You do the same!