Rainy Sunday Sewing Honey Pot Bee Style

Hooray for a three day weekend. If you think I wouldn't be ready for one, only one week into the new semester, you would be wrong! It has been raining off and on all day, and except for a short patch around noon, cloudy and rather gray. I'm not complaining, we don't get the rainy days that other places get, so it is nice for a change, and the water is always welcome. It also makes for a great day to sew as I finished up laundry, and let the crockpot do the cooking. (MMM, and a perfect day for 15 bean soup with sausage.)

So the day of sewing meant that I could work on my Honey Pot Bee Blocks. I sewed together my January Star Flower blocks.

two blocks!

Half square triangles are a challenge for me because of the precision that well-made blocks require. One of my personal philosophies of sewing and crafting is to NOT be a perfectionist. The finish is important, and I know myself that the quest for perfection can stall a project. Still, the technical challenge of them is also important in the learning process. Mine are not perfect, but they aren't bad, either. Extra bonus that even having done those, I'm willing to practice with half square triangles again soon.

Another Honey Pot Bee finish is the mug rugs that I wanted to make. I got them Machine quilted today. I just used a long stitch and followed the shape of the tree. Usually I use the multiple layer stitch,, but since I was planning to use more stripes of quilting, I just went with the regular stitch.

Ready for a cup of anything!

Something I learned from these was that I should have quilted these to the batting, and then added the backing. Then quilting off the edges would have been covered by that sewing. Still, I like the effect of the quilting showing up on the back, too, so...

Finally, the last Honey Pot Bee block for January is a Strawberry block. More half square triangles. This time there are 2 inch and 2 1/2 inch blocks. Almost too small of a scale for me. I know there are quilters who do an AMAZING job with teeny blocks (not that 2 inchers qualify for that) but those just seem too fiddly for me. But there are fewer half square triangle on the strawberry, so I think I will attempt it. Oh, yeah, my stash is not so full of pinks and reds to make that strawberry. Oh, but some of the others in the bee have posted blocks made in blues and purples, and they are gorgeous. I ran across some scraps today that inspired my strawberry block pallete, and here's what I came up with...

Berry block fabrics

The fabric I'm using for the background is a vintage remnant that I think I inherited from my mom's stash. The purple weavey one is from her too. It makes me happy to be reminded of my mom like that. I'll work on cutting out the blocks later, and may get a chance to sew up the half square triangles at least tomorrow.

Progress definitely made today!