Sketchy Bee Journal by Heidi

Last week, an amazing surprise came to my mailbox.  

Heidi, from Red Letters Quilts, made...
a Sketchy Bee Journal for me!
Happy Dance Jamboree!

Heidi's Sketchy Bee Journal & Card

... as well as an adorable bee card!  To say I was bowled over is an understatement!  In fact, when I first beheld the package, my first thought was that Heidi was returning the scraps of vintage white on white fabrics that I had recently sent off to her.  Then I realized, it couldn't be, the package was too heavy for that.  (To see what I'm talking about check out Heidi's "Saving the Fabrics of the World" post and her wonderful Summer Gathering quilt.)

Apparently, Heidi's idea to send a surprise started brewing when I flipped over a beautiful Quilted Cookbook Cover that she made for her Mom.  We two hit it off like kindred spirits!  This all led Heidi to make this wonderful Sketchy Bee Quilted Book Jacket... and to her surprising the socks off me!  

As you can see, the journal is the Bee's Knees, with so many wonderful details!  

Sketchy Bee Journal Inside - Love the Handmade Space Label

Sketchy Bee Journal Outside - Hourglass blocks, a hand embroidered bumblebee on linen,
tape measurer fabric, and matchstick quilting!

Another great thing about Heidi's journal is that it holds a ring bound sketchbook.  I don't have to "save it for good use" because the journal can be replaced repeatedly.  I just love that!  I'm going to use this clever journal to practice Quilty doodling, like Lori Kennedy does at the Inbox Jaunt.  Lori has Doodling Tutorials, that are geared toward helping improve your FMQ creativity.

Thank you Heidi for such an incredible surprise!  You are so talented, so very sweet and I am in awe!  

I started "stalking" Heidi immediately (which is really fun by the way!)  and have plans to make her something that I hope she will love just as much as I love my new Bee Sketchbook!  

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YumYum Buttons Needle Keeper Giveaways! 

Buffy's magnetic needle keeper, keeps you from losing the needle ...
Saving feet and fannies, one set at a time!

Needle Keeper set from Buffy at YumYum Buttons

And now, I'd like to announce Buffy's three winners for her YumYum Buttons Needle Keeper Giveaway!  The winners will get to choose their own set of needle keepers.  I'll be contacting each of you and putting you in touch with Buffy. 

Thank you Buffy for such a fun and generous giveaway!  Your needle keepers are beautifully made and make sweet little gifts for friends... and a fun treat for ourselves too! 

Here are the three winning commenters, picked by the random number generator at random.org:
   

That would be....
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29 Maryse7/8/15, 12:04 PM         

Felicitations for your blog anniversary! You know what they say ... Time flies when you're having fun! The Ric-Rac border is so cute and had to pin this one with other tutorials. Love the Yum Yum Buttons ... I am sure my husband will like them too ...

So here is my joke ... well I've got two:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Broken Pencil.
Broken Pencil who??
Nevermind, it's pointless.

Oh and what did the quilt say to the bed?
(I've got you covered!)

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21 Soma Acharya7/6/15, 3:11 PM

Congratulations, Lara! Your blog is lovely. That is a beautiful mini with wonderful embroidery and a very clever border!! Love the idea of a rick rack border. Thank you for the tutorial. The needle keepers are adorable. I will go visit her etsy shop, thank you for the introduction.

-Soma

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42 Zenia Rene7/11/15, 2:58 PM

A duck walks into a drugstore and says, "Give me a chapstick... and put it on my bill". 

LOL ha ha ha! Happy blog anniversary! Thanks for the chance to win!

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Thank you to everyone who shared funny jokes or stories, it added a lot of laughter to our week!  Zenia, my husband cracked up before I could even say the punchline, just with the thought of a duck walking into a drugstore. :)

Thank you to those of you had said such kind things about my Ric-Rac border pattern & tute too!  

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I have one more thing to add.  
Most of you know Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting.  Melissa recently had her wonderful book
"Irish Chain Quilts - Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design" published by That Patchwork Place!  I love her book and it added more than one quilt to my bucket list!  A lot of you also had a ball this spring doing the Irish Chain Twist Quilt Along with Melissa.  

Irish Chain Quilts - by Melissa Corry

  
Well, in case you are not already aware, Melissa holds a giveaway every week.  Wow!   Recently, I entered on a whim was the lucky winner!  I won a copy of "Scraps, Inc.", published by Lucky Spool Media!  This book is has 15 wonderful and scrappy quilt designs for the modern quilter.  The quilts were designed by 15 of our favorite quilting bloggers and is great inspiration!  Thank you Melissa and Lucky Spool Media!    

Thanks for visiting, because...

Click on the pup to leave a comment...

If you are also a blogger, she is highly likely to follow you home!

Ric-Rac Border Pattern & Tutorial, Plus Three Yum Yum Buttons Giveaways!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July weekend!  
(Or a Happy Canada Day!... or a Happy weekend, LOL)

Sunday, the 28th, was the one year blog anniversary for BuzzinBumble.  I can hardly believe the year flew by so quickly. Becoming a quilt blogger has been an amazing experience, but by far the best part has been the friends I've met along the way.  You all have inspired me, encouraged me, touched my heart, and made me laugh more times than I can count! 

10" Mini Quilt with a Ric-Rac Border around a Redwork Coffee Pot

As a way to say "Thank you!" and to celebrate, I'm sharing one of my paper piecing patterns for a Ric-Rac border.  You will find free PDF files for the patterns, templates and the "how to" tutorial at the bottom of this section.

The idea for this pattern came to me when I saw all the great projects that Amy, from (Amy Made That) creates using ric-rac. (That post is only one example, so check her out!)  I thought it would be fun to paper piece a ric-rac border and frame a mini quilt.  So, I purchased a redwork coffee pot flour sack towel on Etsy.  The maker, Nycole, aka Dana’s Big Sister does beautiful work and creates all hand embroidered items.

A cup of tea and thee... 

The patterns below are meant to be printed double sided, on both the front and back of the paper.  Print them out on very thin printer paper or paper meant for paper piecing.  I find that printing on both sides makes paper piecing a whole lot easier, because you can always see the lines. 

     

To print a pattern, make sure you are set up for portrait setting at actual size.  Print side one.  Then turn your paper so that the same edge goes into the printer first, but so the next printing will be on the other side of the paper.  Print side two, which is simply a mirror image of side one.  All the markings will then be aligned when you hold the pattern up to light and look through the paper. The pattern page for the corners also includes fabric precutting templates.

Here are the PDF files for the patterns and the tutorial.  I hope you like them!

Mini Ric-Rac Border Paper Piecing Tutorial

Mini Ric-Rac Border Strips - Side one  

Mini Ric-Rac Border Strips - Side two 

Mini Ric-Rac Border Corners & Templates - Side one  

Mini Ric-Rac Border Corners & Templates - Side two

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And now for something else really fun!...

YumYum Buttons Needle Keeper Giveaways for Three Lucky Winners! 

If you didn't know before, you'll get the idea now:  I love shopping on Etsy!  

YumYum Buttons' Black Cat Buttons or Push Pins

Sweet Little Hedgehog Needle Keepers 

  

Bear & Bee Needle Keepers

Aren't these just the most adorable Needle Keepers and buttons?  They are made by Buffy of YumYum Buttons, a crafter I had the very good fortune to meet on Etsy.  When I received my order, I loved them so much that I wrote and asked Buffy if I could purchase another set, but hold off on placing the final order.  I wanted to have a giveaway with them and let the winner choose her or his own design.   Buffy liked that idea and jumped right in, generously offering to giveaway THREE sets of her wonderful needle keepers to three lucky BuzzinBumble readers! 

Would you like to see some more of Buffy's wonderful creations?  Check out her YumYum Buttons Etsy shop!  (You can click on the photos for links too.)  There you will find a treasure trove of utterly delightful covered buttons, craft buttons, push pins, magnets and needle keeper sets.  Buffy has a talent for searching out the greatest fabrics.  She does meticulous cutting in her work, featuring the designs front and center.  The quality and care evident in her craftsmanship show in her attention to detail and the sheer perfection of her final products!  I was so impressed, but on top of that: Buffy is a lot of fun to work with!

Not sure what a needle keeper is?  I'll explain.  It is a set of two fabric covered magnets that hold your needle in a convenient place when you set it aside while hand stitching.  One magnet goes on the front of your work and the other on the back.  They keep you from losing the needle down the cushions or your husband from finding it later with his sock.  They work like this: 

 

Needle Keeper or Needle Minder

To enter the YumYum Buttons Needle Keeper Set giveaway contest, leave a comment sharing a funny joke.  Please keep it clean, so that way everyone can join in the fun.  (Don't worry if you don't have a joke, just leave a regular comment then.)  Also, if you don't hear from me, check back before the giveaway ends, because I will let you know here if I am unable to reach you. (That is something that happens with no-reply commenters or people with yahoo email addresses.) 

The giveaway will close on Sunday, July 12th, at noon UTC.  I'll let the random number generator choose the THREE YumYum Button Needle Keeper winners and announce them shortly thereafter.

I've been having more difficulty than usual with vertigo from the Meniere's disease.  That would be why you haven't seen me blog hopping recently, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things this week.  I've dearly missed seeing what everyone is up to.

Thanks for visiting, because...

Click on the pup to leave a comment...

If you are also a blogger, she is highly likely to follow you home!

I'll be joining some fun Linky Parties this week, which you can see

on the BuzzinBumble sidebar.