Birthdays Birthdays

Two of my older sisters both have birthdays within 10 days of each other here at the end of August/beginning of September.  Normally, I usually just send along a birthday card wishing them a happy birthday and another good year.  This year however, I wanted to make a little something extra for them to send along to let them know that I was thinking of them.  Luckily, Kelly of Kelbysews just posted a fantastic little Instragram tutorial showing how to make folded hexagon coasters!  Perfect!

 After a quick trip to JoAnn's (because most of the fabric in my stash is no where close to their personal tastes), I whipped up 2 sets of 4 folded hexagon coasters - one for each of my older sisters having birthdays.  Love how they turned out and especially love how the different fabric combos make them look so different.
Not wanting to be left out and tired of the sad sad coasters we were using on our dining room table, I pulled out some favorite fabrics and whipped up a batch for myself as well.  yum!

 And I also made a couple of Hexagon Fabric Trays (tutorial by Spoonful of Sugar) for myself.  Squee!

 And then not to be left out, my sweet sweet husband was sitting at breakfast admiring the new coasters I had made and wished that he could have one for his desk at work so he wouldn't have to see those pesky rings left by his coffee mug any more.  Well, darling, you are speaking my love language and before he had barely left the door for work that morning, I had whipped up one more just for him.  I pulled from my Carolyn Friedlander stash to make his so it would be a little more masculine for him.

 But I did have to add in a secret little love note on the back for him. :)

Anyways, tons of hexagon fun going on over here, but I think I'm done for a bit as I'm gearing up for craft shows and holiday sewing (yes, all ready!).
Oh, and speaking of birthdays - today's mine!  Happy Birthday to me :)

Buzz Buzz - August

Last catch up post I promise - well at least for my bee hive block anyways.  For the month of August, Michele S. (yes, there were three Micheles in a row!) was the lovely queen bee.  She was super gracious to all of us swamped by summer and picked the new, fun and super easy bonus block - Checker.  Oh my, what a fun block! And then she made it even more fun by asking us to pick any single saturated color of our choice for the half square triangles in the block.  She also asked us to name the blocks after food - pretty sure she was hungry when she was making up a few sample blocks. hehe  I also discovered that we both have very similar fabric crushes which made it all the more fun to have an excuse to pull out some of my most loved fabrics for Michele's blocks.  Yes - blocks as in more than one.  At one point I had fabric pulled for 6 blocks laid out on the bed, but my husband told me to calm it down a bit.  I ended up making three blocks because when the block is this fun and easy, one simply isn't enough.  Here is my Mango Muddle block:

 Here is my Saskatoon Berry block:

 And my Cheetos block:

 Wanting to include an extra special little extra into Michele's package since she has become such a fantastic friend through the coarse of this bee hive, I pulled out a pattern I've been wanting to try for a while.  It's called the Two In One Pouch by S.O.T.A.K. Handmade, and it's a super cute little double zippered pouch.  I pulled out some mutually favorite fabric and made the smaller size from the pattern.  Oh, so cute!!  Knowing it was going to a special home made it more bearable to part with.

 Overall, August was a lot of fun.  The package I put together to send to Michele was especially special to put together, and when Michele got the package, she was ecstatic!  Love it when everything I so carefully picked out and sent, ended up being just perfect including the little "Keep calm and..." sticky notes. hehe

Buzz Buzz - July

Playing a little more catch up on the bee blocks from this summer today.  For July, Michele M. was queen bee for the month.  She picked a block we hadn't done yet called the Autumn Chain block which turned out to be a pretty fun block.  The flying geese on this block didn't give me the problems that they had on the previous month's block - but then again they were bigger and constructed differently so that helped.  

Michele wanted us to pick whatever color we loved, mix it up a bit using warm and cool tones in that color to make a mono-chromatic block.  I couldn't go with just one color, so I ended up pulling my to favorite color crushes at the moment which are dark teal and dark pink/purple.

 I LOVE love love how the teal block turned out.  Pretty sure I could make a whole quilt out of just this block in just those colors.

 I love this purple block to and it was kind of fun to make a block that felt more girly than my normal personality.

 Since I had a bunch of little half square triangles left over from the flying geese made in these two blocks, I made a little mug run out of them.  Not gonna lie - it was hard to send along with Michele's package.  I also decided to try a new pattern called Pouch With A View by Three Owls Handmade to make another little extra to send along.  It was definitely fun and bonus - it used it some of the clear vinyl that I've had floating around for forever.

 So much prettiness in that package - it really hurt to send this one off, but soon enough it will be my turn to get pretties in the mail. ;)

Buzz Buzz - June

Yes, I know its like September all ready, but since I'm the Queen Bee for September, I thought it would be a good chance to catch up a little on the last 3 months of bee blocks that I made and sent out.
The month of June was a bit chaotic for us since we moved and had 2 road trips all within 3 weeks at the start of June.  Needless to say, my bee blocks were made at the very end of the month and sent out a tad late.  Thankfully the queen bee for the month of June was Michele E. and she was super gracious about it.
Michele picked the double star block for her block.  It was the same block we had made in May, but Michele's color scheme was totally different.  She wanted super saturated shades of eggplant, magenta with accent colors of chartreuse and coral.  Yum!  I didn't realize until I pulled together some fabric for her block just how much I Love these colors!  I see some serious stash building of these colors in my future. ;)

 Here are the two blocks I made for Michele.  I was pretty thrilled to get my hands on some brand new not even released to stores Cotton and Steel fabric to include in her blocks making them a little extra special.  And hopefully that made up for the fact that my blocks turned out a bit wobbly - the flying geese in these block just did.not.like.me.....

 I might have had a little fun checking out Michele's Instagram feed and noticed that she loves sharpies.  Yup, that meant that I just had to get her a sharpie in each of the colors she had picked for which she was pretty thrilled about.  I also sent along the left over scraps I had of the brand new Cotton & Steel which Michele promptly included into one of her projects the same day she received the package I sent her!  Love that!

I do love how each month, the blocks are so totally different (even if we do make the "same" block) since each queen bee has different picks in fabric.  Can't wait for more. :)