FAL 3 List. Let's Get 'Er Done!!

It's that time again!! Time to sit down and make a plan for this coming quarter. And this time, I'm gonna stick with it! ;) 

(At least, that's the plan, hahaha!)
Here are some of the exciting quilts and projects I am planning on working on. And of course, there will be plenty more as I go along!!! Check out the linky party and see what everyone else is planning. Fun!!!! Many thanks to the gracious and spunky Katy of The Littlest Thistle for hosting the Finish Along!!

Alison Glass Designs. What a FABULOUS QUILT!!!

SewSweetness is hosting a quilt along for the Tesselations Quilt!
Come Join us!!!!

My fabric pulls for the Tesselations quilt.
You like??

Number two in the Yellow and blue
Bee-Inspired Quilt Pillows. Scrap Busting is so much Fun!

Ok, I admit, there is almost no likelihood
that I will get to this, but I really really want to!!

Did you know that you can knit Hexagons??! Me Neither!! FUN!!!

FAL 3 list
Pillows:
Scrap pillow in yellows and blues
Scrap strata or other improv pillow in yellows and blues

Quilts to start:
Baby Quilt in pink and brown for a gift
NoodleHead Designs 241 Tote (in my dreams!!)
Tesselations quilt as part of SewSweetness quilt along
Xmas quilt
Design Girl Power quilt

Quilt to finish piecing:
Bikini Quilt
UR Sew Loved
Crochet Knit Hexagon Quilt

Quilt and Bind:
Seascapes
Labyrinth
Kirsten Camper quilt
Sarah's Quilt
Jonathan's baby quilt
Granny Squares Wall hanging. Ok, so these are left from last quarter, but a girl's gotta dream, right??!

Now get out there and take on the World!!

XX!

Lori

Pollen-Nation or The Bees Knees!

We truly are a Pollen Nation. Not because we’re mucus mongering eye- itchers. No! But because ALL of our major crops are pollinated by… BEES. The humble honey bee serves as the backbone of our veg food chain, and I am heartily glad to have them. Here are a few of the things that we eat that depend on honey bees: Okra, kiwi, onions, cashews, almonds, apples, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, apples, caraway, papaya, COFFEE, lemons, limes, persimmons, cotton, lupine, any tree nuts, and all grains except corn *rice is a seed, not a grain, smarty pants. Come to think of it, corn might be, too...hmmm...   (I know I said apples twice, but, really, who wouldn't??).

A complete list can be found, here.

Did you know that there are 20,000 known species of bees, but only 7 of them are honey bees? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much only interested in that 7... and maybe Bumble Bees. Because, ... they Bumble!!

Here in Alaska, we have no native honey bees. So I import mine from Russia. Historically, as in Prehistorically, bees all came from Southeast Asia. Only one specimen of a honeybee native to the Americas has ever been found. What does that tell you about the foods that we eat here in the USA? They all come from far flung places! If you are in the UK or Eastern Europe, or Asia and are eating a potato, you're welcome. Otherwise, we thank you thank you thank you, because without the foods native to your regions, we wouldn't have cereal in our boxes in the mornings :)

 Pssst...! I am dying to go to an apiary where they gather the bees to send to me. What does it look like? How in the heck do they get my 15,000 bees into my box?? Is it just an enormous Indiana Jones warehouse buzzing with gadzillions of bees, and guys in bee keeping suits running around with nets trying vainly to capture them (probably not, he he!). Or enormous vacuums to suck them up and spit them back out into my little screened in box? Hmmm! I can tell you one thing, I'm gonna find out. And when I do, I'll tell you, too :)

But I digress;)

This post is about Honey Bees and Pollen and a celebration of Mid-Summer. So let's get to it!

My bees bring several different varieties of pollen and nectar home from their foragings. They use the pollen as a protein source when they're feeding up babies. And as anyone who has ever breastfed knows, babies take ALOT of feeding. Only baby bees don't have teeth. Which is nice.

My Alaskan-Russian bees have been bringing home a truly lovely assortment of pollens in the high light sweet yellow to the golden yellow and nutty brown range. I think I'm gonna have to make a pillow to go with the Bee-Inspired Quilt and Canvas Pillow, in celebration of the Gals and their work. Woohoo!

My worker Girls brought home Alder and Willow pollen in the early spring,

Alder Pollen

Willow Pollen

And Lots and Lots of Dandelion pollen and Nectar,

Dandelion Pollen

Woohoo! dig in, Grrrl!!

See those thigh bags??
She is stowing away pollen!

Now I don't know about you, but now that I find that honey bees stow their pollen in bags on their thighs, I feel ALOT better about those bags under my arms. I figure, they must be for stowing grapefruit when I go shopping and need someplace to put things while I search for my keys...right??!

My honey bees do not multi-task. Each girl has her job and she sticks right with it. I have been watching, and I have noticed that the more mature bees seem to be the ones who are collecting nectar, while the younger ones seem to be collecting pollen. How do I know how old they are? Well, I would never ask a lady her age, so I check out their posteriors!!!!! I'm admitting it right here. 

Can you see that some of the bees are darker than the others? They
are the more 'mature' ones. The new bees are all yellow :) how cool is that??!

And of course, the whole object of the beekeeping game is to gather HONEY, sweet honey, and here is what it's from,

This is Nectar. Sugary goodness and a lot of water! (water after nectar's broken down by... do you really want to know???)

I thought you might like a tour of the MidSomer hive :) So come along!

Here is the first layer, just for honey.  Hmmm. Looking suspicously
empty :(

But wait! Someone is starting to store nectar in there! Yahoo!
See the shiny parts? That's the nectar. :)

This is the Brood/bottom section of the hive. The picture where I showed
you the color of the bees is in between the honey and brood sections.
I have removed it now because I want the girls to stop goofing around
making all of the extra wax/brood/pollen chamber and get cracking at honey!!

And here is a frame removed from the hive so you can see that everyone

is hard at work. The shiny stuff is honey that they will cap when it is dry enough,

the yellow covered parts are baby bees, getting ready to hatch, 

and you can see a few larvae in the upper center in hexagons

 that are dark and uncapped.  They are being fed royal jelly by the new worker bees. 

Can you see that the honey comb is different colors? The yellow comb is for honey, 

and the brown is for brood. Any honey 

stored there later will be a darker color when I extract it!!

And Now, on to the pillows...

Do I add the blue for the MidSomer Sky??

Or not??

XX!
Lori

So lovely to see you again!!

Glow in the Dark Universe

Today begins the linky party over at The Littlest Thistle, where we all show off what we have accomplished this quarter... well, what we have accomplished that we MEANT to accomplish, anyway!! 
In this post, I will feature my nephew's Glow in the Dark Universe quilt. Made especially squishy, especially warm, especially soft, and especially glowy... just for you, ne-phew!!

Glow in the Dark fabric is from
Northcott Studios

 Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and so I had to stop by Michael's and pick up a glow in the dark fabric pen and write secret glow in the dark messages all over it!  Do you think he's found them all, yet??! Hehe! It is just possible one of the words is 'Smooches'. Now, I don't think that will embarrass an 11 year old, do you??!!

All said and done, I finished 3 items from my original FAL2 List, found here. 
HAHAHAHA! How many items did I originally think I would finish?? Ahem, well, a few more than that ;) I did not know until I joined the FAL, that I had quilter's ADD. Now I do! And so for this coming quarter, I have resolved to finish one item from my list before beginning any new project... at least, right after this next one...!

Here are the items I completed for the FAL2:

The Bee-Inspired triangle quilt (list here)
The Glow in the Dark Nephew quilt (this post, above)
The Pillow covers, which turned into two different pillow covers, and which didn't end up being made with the material that I had originally planned... you know?! So they don't count as part of the FAL2, but you can take a gander at them all in one place, below ;)

The items that I completed that weren't on the list and may have had to do with an interesting idea that caught my eye, or a passing need, or just because, are:
Well, those pillows!

Arrow Pillow from my own design, I'm working on a tutorial

Canvas pillow pattern by She Can Quilt. Blog link here. 

And then these scarves:

Hee Hee! Whos foxy now??!

And then this quilt:

This quilt is in memory of my fabulous friend, Sarah, who just passed away from brain cancer.
We miss you, Sarah! I will be embroidering birds and flowers and such that she loved, in each
of the pink blank spaces. Then it will go up for auction, or become a much beloved porch huggy.

Whew! Now none of this includes the two quilts on my design wall and the quilt I am designing (my first) or any of the bajillion things that are being plotted!! 

Tune in same bat time, same bat place, and see what's happening next!!

Please go and check out the FAL and see what everyone is linking up. They are all astounding!!!

Have a fun day!!
XX!
Lori

New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop!!! Come on by!!

Welcome to Sew Psyched!!!!! 

 I am so glad you have stopped by on your way around the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop :)

When you come to SewPsyched, you will find lots of Stories about Alaska, HoneyBees, Quilts, Gardening, and Travel.

Today is a Story Day. An Unexpected Story Day. Did you ever have one of those? Where you go to bed thinking that the next day is going to be ordinary, and you wake up having it be extraordinary??!

Image by greatbigcanvas.com

Here's what happened. No S**t, there I was, as we say here in AK...

The Time: 4:40 am

The Place: Bed. Warm. Toasty. Dreamy...

The Event: 

Noise!! Rocketing me out of sleep. 

I grip the hubster in the Grip of Death (usually reserved for a glass of wine at the end of a day with freshmen students or possibly, preteens). The Dawg is asleep.

The Hubster Yelps. I whisper, "There's someone in the Garage." the Hubster goes back to sleep. He is just not patriotic. 

I barefoot tiptoe into the kitchen to inspect the door to the garage. Which is shaking. There are slurping noises. 

"Not the Neighbors", I think. 

There is no window into the Garage. Just the door. Solid. Shaking. Mysteriously Huffing.

I very slowly, and very gently, craaaack open the door. 

I am sorry that I did.

On the other side of the door...

Is a Grizzly Bear! Licking the door!!!

I close the door. Quickly. You know.

I lock the door.

I have a brief convo with God. 

I get the airhorn.

I blow the airhorn.

Bears (2) saunter out of garage and down road. In absolutely no hurry at all...

Since I am now wide awake, I briefly ponder pie.

I go back to bed and plot applying cold feet to hubster... 

HAHAHA! and so it goes, a livelier beginning to the day than I had planned.

What stories do you have of things that can only happen to you??

Here is what I've been up to lately:

Please check out my Terrible Triangle Trauma Tutorial for tips on sewing Triangle quilts. You'll be glad you did! ;)

Fun!! Read all about This Bee-Inspired Quilt and Bees and Sunshine in Alaska,

All I have left is to BIND this quilt, at laaast!!!

Have you stopped by the Granny Squares Quilt Along?? you have ta check it out!!

This Seascapes quilt is a commission. Next, binding!!!

There are 80 participants in this blog hop, can you believe it??!! 

I always love supporting folks who are being courageous and trying new things, and I bet you do, too. So be sure to click the links at the end of this post, and give this group some love!! (just sos you know, all 80 bloggers aren't linking today).

I hope you read some of my other stories and join in some of my giveaways. I'd love to hear from you, come by and sit awhile :)

XXOO!

Lori

And here they are!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lovely! The Magnificent!

Jill @ Pie Lady Quilts

Chelsea @ Patch The Giraffe

Daisy @ Ants to Sugar

Rachael @ The Floral Suitcase

Elizabeth @ And Pins

Jennifer @ Never Just Jennifer

Alice @ Blossom Quilts

Megan @ Sew Stitching Cute

Stephanie @ Late Night Quilter

Kelsey @ Lovely and Enough

Also Linking up with:

and,
Fiber Tuesday at Quilt Story

WHAT COLOR IS YOUR SUMMER? A Winner, and a Blog Hop!!

What color is your Summer?
When I think of Early Summer, I think of wild sweet peas, growing in glorious profusion alongside country roads…

 I think of Johnny Jump Ups waving cheerily from secret nooks and crannies where they have grown from seed broadcast by their parents, the year before,

You never know quite where they will spring up, but it’s always a delight.

I think of Soft greeny greys of willow catkins cavorting in the breezes,

I dream of long green days punctuated with delight by dandelions,
     

And of the HEADY scent of wild roses spreading
Along sunny woodland paths,
                 

And I SHARE the joy of the new green shoots on Celery and once bare roots.
       

If you were making a quilt to celebrate Summer the Whole Year Round, what Colors would YOU use? What pattern? A Lattice? Improv? Grandma’s Flower Garden? I would love to see your quilts!!

Hope your Summer/Fall is going FABULOUSLY!!!

The Winner of the Canvas Pattern and two fat quarters is....

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:18Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Emily Carnes!!!! I have emailed you, Emily.

Please check out the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop
The participants are astounding!!!

XXOO!

LORI
linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday,