Beehive Buzz - Monday May 18

Time for the weekly update from the Beehive!  We have a lot going on this week!

First, there have been some updates to the rules and such in our group on Facebook for pre-orders.  Come join us if you haven't yet, we have a great time over there!

This week, Color Me should be in and we will start cutting this weekend.  I'm heading to the Beehive on Friday to help cut Color Me so we can get it shipped out.

We're still working on the website, waiting to hear back from our new host and then uploading all of our fabric to the new site for our big re-launch!  No estimated date yet on when it'll all be done.

Last weekend was Spring Quilt Market and from the pictures we saw, the new fabrics coming out are simply amazing!  Tula Pink showed off her new line, Eden, with some beautiful quilts done in the three colorways, Amethyst, Sapphire and Tourmaline.

Pictures from Tula Pink's Facebook page.

Art Gallery also had their new lines on display, we already have pre-orders up for many of them in the group, so make sure to get your order in, they're all breathtaking.

Pictures of the Art Gallery booth are from the Art Gallery Facebook page.

So many pretty fabrics, there really needs to be more than 24 hours in a day for more sewing!

This week, I'm hoping to finish up a new tutorial that I have in my mind, users of Essential Oils will really enjoy this one!

Until next week, Beauties!

~*~Princess Bee~*~

What I Learned While Teaching Kids to Sew

I homeschool my children and part of our homeschool routine includes our wonderful co-op.  One day a week, we meet up with other homeschooling families and our kids take classes together.  All of the classes are taught by fellow parents and the kids all love it!

In previous semesters, my kids have taken classes like Native American Studies, Musical Theater, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Birds, Art, and many others.  We have students ranging in age from toddlers to high schoolers.  It is a wonderful, diverse, friendly, amazing group!

This semester, I taught Machine Sewing.  I had 7 children in my class, 6 girls and my son.  My youngest was 5 years old and the oldest was 12.  It was an interesting semester.

Not only did my kids learn a ton about sewing (and they have all requested that I teach another sewing class next year), but I learned a lot too.  Here's a few of the things I learned.

1. Keep the projects simple.  We started off with simple projects like fabric bookmarks and t-shirt bags.  But then I got adventurous and decided that they could make simple sundresses to donate to children in Uganda.  We used a simple pattern which would normally take me less than an hour from start to finish.  It took us about a month.  Granted, we were learning as we went and we only had one 45 minute class per week.  One whole day was spent on learning how to put a PDF pattern together.  Next time, I'll keep the projects smaller, ones that can be completed in one to two classes.

2. Precut things for your students.  Kids are impatient and lose interest in things that take too long.  While all of them did a fairly decent job of cutting out their patterns and fabric, we would have gotten through things much faster if I had done the cutting at home.  When teaching one-on-one, letting your student cut their own stuff out would be fine, but trying to keep your eyes on 7 students at once was a little overwhelming for me.  And I was doing this with 3 additional parents in the class helping!  The day I precut the fabric bookmarks should have been a heads up to how much better it would be if I cut things out before class.

3. Keep the fabric options simple and make sure you're aware of what's in the fabric bin before coming to class with it.  When it was time for the students to pick out their fabric for their dresses, I brought in a bin of fabric that was living in my garage.  It was mostly cotton quilting fabric, which was perfect for the dresses.  But there were a few that should have been taken out before class, some pieces didn't have enough fabric to make a dress, some were too thin, some were too thick.  Too much time was spent digging through the box of fabric.

Those were the biggest things I learned during this semester.  I'm really hoping that the sewing class makes for next year, from the sound of it, chances are good.  I'll be working on some new projects over the summer and will even be posting my own tutorials as I test them out with Bitty Bee and Gamer.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the semester.  Those are some pretty awesome kids in these pictures!  They made the class a joy to teach!

 

Beehive Buzz - Monday May 11

Your hot spot for the weekly Beehive Announcements!

It's Monday!! Hope all y'all Beauties had a wonderful Mother's Day!! We had a fun filled weekend of birthdays - painting party and fun with the grandkids. On a sad note - the website has had many problems this past week and we are looking into getting a new website up and different hosting.  (A little update can be found here) Hopefully we won't be down long and will redo the sale for those that missed out!! 

Looking back on the last two years I definitely have a bigger "stash" now, but more importantly I have some new Beauties that I call "family". It's been a wonderful ride - we've been in business for two years and have had this group a little over a year now. We wish we could do a round the world trip to meet each and every one of y'all. Wouldn't that be fun!!

On the cutting table this week (some done last week) - Wednesday sales orders, Website sales orders, Skopelos, Cultivate, Pokemon, Penny's Doll House, and anything else that happens to come in in the next couple of days. Dear Little World, BonBon Bebe have been charged. Calling today to check on True Colors and Caravelle Arcade. Talked to Michael Miller last week and Color Me (Royal border) is scheduled to ship on the 15th (and Princess Bee will be coming down to help me cut).

As many of you know - this weekend is Spring Quilt Market, but we won't be attending - but no worries my sales reps will be keeping me informed on what new fabrics are coming out and I have an appt. set up with the C+S rep (among others) to see the new lines. I'll try to post some market updates as I get them from the reps or from the fabric companies. Spring Market was just too far away for us to attend this year, maybe next Spring, but we will be at Fall Market!!

Be sure to follow our blog with email updates so you don't ever miss out on the Beehive Buzz!

~*~Queen Bee~*~

Under Construction

Some of you may have seen my post yesterday in the Bee Quilted Beauties group that we were having some website difficulties this weekend during our Big Anniversary Sale.  As of yesterday, our site became almost unusable.  A few Beauties were able to still get orders completed, but the majority of you were not.  As of today, that changes.

There are big changes in store for the website and blog.  As you may have noticed, I'm moving the blog back to where it started.  It will be separate from the website in the future, with links on each page to take you back and forth.

We are talking to a new host for our site and as soon as I'm able, all contents of the shop will be transferred over to the new website.

We are joining the Fab Shop Network and with that, also joining the Fab Shop Hop in coming months!  It's a fun little game where you hop around to different quilt shop websites and find hidden bunnies!  If you find them all, you're entered into the grand prize drawing!

It's pretty awesome for our customers.

Thank you for being so understanding as we make these changes.

Up next: A bigger and better Bee Quilted Beauties website!

~*~Princess Bee~*~

Cotton + Steel Black & White

Cotton + Steel has burst into the fabric world with a bang and they continue to amaze everyone with their new lines for 2015.  One of those lines is Black & White, which I am in love with!  

These fabrics have such a wonderful vintage feel to them and I couldn't resist making a new vintage dress for Bitty Bee!  I picked the typewriters and added a pop of color with one of the fabrics from Playful, also by Cotton + Steel.

Vintage typewriters and a cute dress.

Bitty Bee is in heaven.  She had fun typing on the vintage typewriter I have.  She told me that she wants to write a story using the typewriter.  I told her that I would find a new ink ribbon and she could go to town with her story.  I wish her luck.

I used the Ginger pattern by Violette Field Threads.  I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly this little dress came together and it's adorable on her!

With the vintage inspired dress, she needed a vintage inspired headband to match.

I used a couple of my scraps and a bit of fold over elastic to make this headband.

It took me less than 15 minutes to put together and she loved it.  

You can find Black & White as well as Playful in our shop.

~*~Princess Bee~*~

Women’s Bundle Up Tour – EYMM

I love any excuse to sew for myself, so when word of the Women’s Bundle Up Tour reached me, I was quick to sign up!  There were so many awesome options to pick from this time!!!  I went with the EYMM Everyday Essentials pattern and I have to say, I love this pattern!  I live in Texas and summer is right around the corner.  I need cute sleeveless tops and lots of them!

I chose to make the cami option, which is adorable as a top with jeans or a maxi skirt.  For mine, I used some of the Art Gallery Etno knit from the shop.  I absolutely love working with Art Gallery knits, and that’s saying something because I’m not a huge knit person.  I’m slowly conquering my fear of sewing with knits and it’s paying off.

For the EYMM cami, I chose not to do the gathers under the bust.  For my next one (and there will be many next ones), I’ll go ahead and do them, I think they’ll give a better fit on me in the bust.

I used fold over elastic for the neck and armholes, which was a really fast and easy way to finish those edges.  Overall, I think this top took me less than 30 minutes to make from cutting out the fabric to finishing the hem.  I can only guess, I did have two children interrupting me every few minutes.  You moms know how it is, trying to sew during the day with kids home.  Not always an easy task!  But this is certainly something that can be whipped up amid the chaos of children!

You get so many options with this pattern and I can’t wait to use it again!  I think the slip will make an adorable skirt out of some cute knit, I can’t wait to make a cute dress for hot summer date nights, more cami-style tops, and maybe even a sleep bra or two.

Be sure to get yours in the Bundle Up by Friday, May 8!

~*~Princess Bee~*~

Playing Make Believe with GYCT

This week at GYCT Designs is all about Make Believe!!!  I love dressing up and playing around in my costumes.  Yes, I am a 33 year old fairy who loves to don her wings and go flying at the Renaissance Festivals!  Many of you probably know me for my embroidered fairy wings that I used to sell under MaeFlowers & JuneBugs.  Here I am at Scarborough Renaissance Festival, just south of Dallas.  These have been the largest successful pair of wings I have made so far, with a three foot wingspan.  I love them!  And I can’t wait to go back to another faire!

Also, I played Make Believe at my wedding recently with my fabulous bridesmaids!!!  Photo is by Studio Eleven Photography, who did an amazing job photographing my wedding.  If you’re in South Texas, look her up!!!

Bitty Bee also loves playing Make Believe and is just like her momma, taking the form of fairy quite often.

As much as I love the embroidered wings, I wanted a way to make wings that I could include her in the process a little more.  A way for her to pick and choose how her wings turned out.  I started tinkering around and playing with different materials, seeing what I could do with felt (which is what I was using for the embroidered wings), vinyl, and then craft foam.  The craft foam was perfect!  It was available in a variety of colors, different thicknesses, even glittered!  And it can be decorated with glitter glue!!!

We did a few trial and error runs before I get it just right.  I put it together as a PDF and listed it on my etsy shop, back when I had the wing shop.  When Chelsea from GYCT posted about Make Believe Week, I knew that I had the perfect tutorial!  Click here to download the PDF and start getting creative!!!

Happy flying!

~*~Tink~*~
AKA Princess Bee

Lilac Lane Pattern Release: Treasured for Dolls

I've been hanging around the PDF world for a few years now, testing for a few different designers, sewing from lots of different designers, and I have to say that I am loving Lilac Lane Patterns!  And this week, Melissa is launching her brand new website!  Guess what that means!  A week of giveaways and celebration!

Last month, I tested one of her newest doll patterns, Treasured for Dolls.  I had also tested Treasured for Girls and wrote a review, which you can find here.  Luckily, I had enough of the Art Gallery Reminisce for the matching doll dress.  Doesn't Marie-Grace look fabulous in this dress?

The dress has a Velcro closure in back, making it easy for little hands to dress their favorite doll.  Her sash is attached in front and ties in back, so no shifting around or losing the sash!  I don't know how many random sashes Bitty Bee has in her room that I've made and they haven't stayed with their garment!  Attached sashes are the way to go with little girls!

It is always such a pleasure working with Melissa and we at Bee Quilted Beauties can't wait to see what the future has in store for this talented designer!

~*~Princess Bee~*~

Bundling Up with the Potato Chip Skirt

I have a love/hate relationship with potato chips.  I love them when I want a salty snack, but they're not the healthiest option out there.  And you really can't eat just one.  However, I've found a potato chip that I only have love for.  The Potato Chip Skirt from Tie Dye Diva, part of Bundle Up Girls!  And true to it's name, you can't stop at just one!

This little skirt is great for so much, dress it up or down, casual or even school uniform!  And my favorite part of this adorable little skirt?  It can be made reversible!!!

 

Bitty Bee's skirt is also reversible, but it was getting a little chilly at the park, so we didn't get to change hers for the pictures.  Her skirt does have the pink on the inside, but she likes the teal side better.  It's the pockets.  The child loves her pockets.  I did lengthen the depth of the pockets so she can hold more stuff!

I've already made three of the doll sized skirts, they're so addicting!!!  And Bitty Bee loves how easy they are to completely change the look of the outfit!

One of the things I really like about this skirt is the length.  It hits Bitty Bee right above the knees, so it's a great length for kids to wear to school!  Making it in khaki or navy twill would be perfect for the girls who have to wear uniforms!  And you could make the reverse side out of a fun print so she can swap it around after school!

I paired the skirts with simple pillowcase style tops.  For Bitty Bee, I used the free Allison's Pillowcase Top and Dress from Create Kids Couture.  For Grace, I used made up a simple pillowcase top that I will be writing a tutorial for soon.

For those of you who saw my blog post earlier this month, I used the Fairyville fabric from my mystery package!  I know I set the goal to use all of the fabric this month, however, I kinda got distracted with life and wasn't able to get to it all yet.  I still plan on using it all, just maybe later on.

If you haven't Bundled Up yet, get on it!  You have until Monday to get your patterns at a great price!

~*~Princess Bee~*~

Meeting Grace

Just about anyone who has a little girl right now knows that American Girl released their new Girl of the Year on Thursday morning and us die-hard AG mommas spent New Years Morning in line at a store with a very excited daughter.  Bitty Bee was extremely excited to be at the store bright and early and she had good reason to!  She spent all of the previous month saving her money from commission jobs, selling old toys, and sitting on her Christmas money to be able to bring Grace home with us.

We were at the Dallas store about 15 minutes before they opened at 9:00 am.  Not too bad as far as lines go.  I saw pictures from some of the other store locations and was very glad that Dallas wasn't crowded at all!  Bad weather might have been a factor, but it didn't keep us away!  Here's Bitty Bee heading inside!

We booked a personal shopper for 10:00, but ended up canceling because we were able to get everything we wanted and check out by 9:30.  Bitty Bee was in heaven!  She loves baking and so does Grace.  That made her very excited.  She loved the bakery!  I wasn't so in love with the price of the bakery at a cool $500.00.  But maybe for Christmas.

Bitty Bee enjoyed taking her picture with Grace in the store.  These two would totally be best friends in real life!

After buying our doll, we went up to the salon to get her ears pierced.  She has an exclusive earring set that can only be purchased with her.  The set has two different studs and Eiffel Tower dangles.  Tres cute!

One of the things that made our trip a little easier was the Lilac Lane Patterns All Dolled Up Tote.  Queen Bee and I got it finished up Wednesday night, just in time for our trip to the store.  Holly went with us, so this made carrying two dolls around much easier!  Here's Bitty Bee carrying Holly and Grace.

They're so cute together!  Holly even had a Paris shirt on to come meet Grace!

The pattern was pretty easy to put together, I would say a confident beginner should be able to tackle this one.  There were a few areas where we had lightbulb moments after the fact.  We didn't find any fusible Peltex at our local store, and I think the non-fusible that we got was a little thick.  If we had realized how much that would effect some of the steps, we would have used a heavy-weight fusible interfacing instead in a few places, like the front pocket.  The inner liners are really nice and help the dolls stay standing in the bag and also, if your daughter only has one doll with her, one liner can hold the doll and one can hold the doll's clothing.

Here's a better picture of the bag holding both dolls.

I have a very happy daughter!  And of course, I couldn't resist a mommy-daughter selfie while we were waiting for some of the crafts in the store!

We had a blast Thursday morning and can't wait until the next big event at the American Girl store!  Be sure to check back Monday for a new Molly and Me post!

~*~Princess Bee~*~