Bitties and Calendar panel....

 Gosh, it's been a long time.  I haven't done much of anything lately but I have read a lot of books this winter!  Nothing exciting enough to recommend, but they kept me entertained while I huddled around the wood stove during our long cold spells.

I did sew a little- the bitty theme was "sewing" so I made this for group 1, a sewing bird, it's an antique gizmo also referred to as a 3rd hand.  The beak opens up in a real metal one and pinches onto your fabric, while the base clamps to your table.  This gives you a 3rd hand, basically.  Google it if you want to see a real one.  :)

 For group 2, I made a cat stealing fabric off the cutting mat.  

This has happened to me several times!

 I owed Kimmie a block so I made her a scarecrow for her Oz theme and 

thought he turned out pretty well.  

 Next up was the laundry theme- I made tiny little feedsack clothespin bags and hung them from a piece of rattail cording with 2 tiny clothespins.

 As you can see, it's March (banner above) and I made these 8 bitties for the new panel. These bitties came from all over the world, UK, Brazil, US, etc. 

 And this is the event tag for St. Patrick's Day on the 17th.

 Other than that, there's not much going on around here.  It's a warm sunny day today, in the 70's, but dropping down to freezing tonight and maybe a few snow flurries.  Spring can take it's time, I'd rather have a long, cool spring than jump right into summer!

Oh, and I joined a group on Facebook for decluttering the house, so I've been having lots of fun going thru things and getting rid of junk and donating good stuff to the doggie store!  That's time-consuming but rewarding!  I love simplifying the house.  Still have lots to do, but I have really pared down my clothing and the kitchen junk. It's like Spring Cleaning, only different.  That'll be later, after all the extra stuff is gone!

Bunches o' Bitties! And a great swap all finished up!

Lots of bitties to show off, since it's been so long....

This is for my friend in Brazil, Sil, she chose doors and windows for her month in the bee swap- I made her a little tree trunk gnome house, the doors open up to reveal the occupant.

And her other one is a taller block, a screen door that opens on to a nice beach.

In the bitty block swap, we did chickens one month- these are mine, everyone got to choose their color. 

 And one month, we did bees- this is my bee. 

 And in the interest of keeping it real and showing what a dumb butt I can be- I give you this- a perfect example of how reliant I have become on spell-check!  I made this block for the Sept banner for my perpetual calendar and after making it and writing the words on the test and giving myself a big fat red A+, I realized the next DAY that I had spelled "committee" incorrectly!  I showed this to my husband and we both
had the best laugh we'd had in a while!

 I ended up remaking the tiny notebook so no one would be able to rub my nose in it forever.  And then, I ended up putting the tiny pencil right over where the mistake would have been, anyway.  Geez.  I hope you're laughing at me, I know I would be if it was YOU!

Then, Ruthie picked Harry Potter for her bee month- I made her Luna Lovegood's SpectreSpecs....

 ...and Harry's cupboard room, under the stairs.  This pattern is from fandom in stitches, a great site full of fun free paper-piecing quilt patterns.  I shrunk it down to fit a 3.5" block.

 And I made the door 3D.

 And I received this wonderful package of goodies in our swap- FLiRTS- a quilted tote bag made by Julie, jgmehlin at Flickr.  She went crazy making me the most wonderful things in the whole swap!  Tote bag, sketch book with quilted cover, tissue holder, a piece of manatee fabric, just so much great stuff!  Thanks, Julie!

I love both sides of the bag!  Little cats are all over the place!

 The top zips shut.

 Inside, my initials!  No, I'm not into S & M!   And pockets, 4 of them!

 Sketchbook with pencil!

 The bag hadn't been out of the package for 10 seconds when Bizbee jumped into it!

 And this is what I made for the same swap, for my friend Kimmie.  She wanted a sewing machine cover really badly, and loves Wizard of Oz.  So my friend Jennifer thought I should adapt the Sew Out Loud block by badskirt amy block and make it a ruby slipper instead of a boot, a brilliant idea on her part, and that's what I did.  And I love how it turned out.  We had found some great pin fabric in TX in January and we knew that this would be the perfect use for it. 

 Pockets on both sides- in the rainbow spectrum.

 And the little electrical cord attaches to scissors and they store in the purple pocket. 

Kimmie really likes it and it fits her machine so all is right with the world of quilting and swapping.  :)

Thank you all for the nice words about my mother.  I was over there this morning and gave her a shower, she now has a really cool sliding chair/bench that sits half in the tub and half in the bathroom, making bathing so much safer, it even has a seatbelt.  My brother and her caregiver Nancy were both there, too, so we all had a nice visit after the shower, while Mum napped.  We kind of wore her out.  

Sorry for the marathon post and million photos! I think I'm caught up now, so I won't put you thru this again!

Long time, no post, lots of photos!

 We had a new round of pincushions in our FLiPS swap, this is the one I made for my partner, craktpot/Teri...

 It's a little caravan/trailer and I used a tutorial from The Quilted Fish      

to start it off and then made some changes.  I altered the shape just a little, then

 I added a rear bumper and a license plate and "tail lights" and made the door so it could open, it's now a needle holder. 

 The little hitch thing on the front is actually a small pair of scissors that slides into a 

pocket and supports the trailer.  Car not included.  LOL

 The scissors work, just slide them out of the wire wrap.

 It even has a tiny TV antenna for those lonely nights at the campground.  ;)

 I received this wonderful rainbow turkey pincushion from my partner, andrcarl!  She also included a beautiful coordinating dishtowel that she crocheted for me.  Love that, too.

 One of my pincushion bebes didn't receive the pincushion that was sent to her, so I made her this one, totally copying it from one made by Little Miss Shabby.  I changed it slightly- made it taller, added ground walnut shells, etc, but it's so not original by me, but she liked it.  :)

In the mug rug swap, I made and sent off this one, which started with a bitty block...

... and this one- my partner liked "Kitschy" things....

 And I received this one from Jan/Stampqnjlr, isn't it cute?

 The Bitty Block Bee Queen is my friend Kimmie, and she loves The Wizard of Oz. 

 I made her this Horse of a Different Color... heavily inspired from a photo of an embroidered horse.  I used embroidery floss in 8 or 10 colors for the tail and mane.

 

...and the Medal of Courage.   This little medal was a real challenge, because it's so small, about the size of a half-dollar, maybe.  It's 3D and hangs loose from the ribbon. 

 The month before, the theme was sewing so I made a large fabric button and put it on 

sewing themed print fabric, and a steam iron.

 Did some bitties for winter and some for aliens...

 And some pelicans for a bird theme....

 And Medusas for the Fantasy theme....

 And Bizbee made a full and complete recovery from his illness and is doing great, but breaking things a lot and acting like a one-man demolition derby!  We love him madly.  :)  On a sadder note, we lost Shanzie Fyne, our last remaining collie, in early November to an enlarged heart.  Poor silly thing, we miss her.  She'd had lots of physical ailments in her 8 year life span, but she was a dear dog and lots of fun.

And now I think we're all caught up!  Phew.  If you read all this and looked at all the photos, give yourself a reward, you earned it!