We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The sun was shining and we used every second of the 4 days together. We went to Tierpark on Friday and saw crocodiles and manatees. Amelie was in heaven with the crocodiles! Luckily we chose to go to Tierpark and not the central zoo which we normally go to. For some reason some crazy lady decided it would be a good idea to go swimming with the polar bears and jumped into the bear enclosure at feeding time. She was obviously mauled pretty badly but what concerns me more is all the kids that were watching. Thank goodness we were not there. (By the way it was not Knut!)

On Saturday Meredith's fabric from the Bee Inspired group arrived and as Luis and the girls were busy in the garden I set to and made these blocks. I think I used every inch of fabric that I received. It was certainly a close call for the final block.







On Sunday Amelie was mysteriously struck down by fever and headache. So Luis and Hanna headed off to church without her. But she perked up in the afternoon and we had an easter egg hunt. Hanna scoffed her chocolate in seconds flat. Her mouth oozing chocolate. She definitely has my genes. Amelie on the other hand continued to hide and re-hunt her chocolate all afternoon and evening. In the end she never ate a single bite. Sometimes I wonder if we are related!

Monday we went off to Rheinsburg. A fantastic Schloss with lakes and grounds. We had a lovely picnic with friends and lazily strolled around the grounds. I took a stack of hexagons with me and managed to finish off another couple of blocks!




So all in all a perfect 4 days! Hope you all had a great time too.

Thank you so much for your words of support. Luis is home again and Hanna is back to normal although Amelie has been struck down. Still it is much easier to manage a 3 year old. She can understand a little better what is going on and is able to let me know how she is feeling. But I sure can't wait for Spring!

So I was able to work on a few blocks for the various bees I am involved in.

First up are Sarah's wonky houses for Another Bee 1. These are very quick and fun to make and I am considering making some more, or adding embellishments to the ones I have! The tutorial to make them is here.




One of my screenprinted bunnies is peeking through the window of this house!



Not sure I blogged about these blocks I made for the other Sarah in Another Bee 1. So while I remember here they are! They were also fun to make.




Dianah from Bee Inspired also wanted houses this month. This time however, she was very specific about what she wanted both in terms of fabric and block. She sent very detailed instructions, so sewing this block was a doddle. Although I had to substitute my own fabric for the roof and header as I couldn't make the fabric she sent stretch quite far enough.



I had time too to play around with the layout for the birdie dqs6 quilt. Still haven't decided on whether to send this one or the tea dqs6 but it is fun to work on both.



This is the label I made for the quilt. I copied Viv by printing on fabric. It is dead easy. First iron some fabric to a piece of freezer paper and then run it through your printer like normal paper. It isn't waterproof but I don't think the doll quilt will be washed. I will let my recipient know in any case! This is so easy and effective. I am definitely going to do this again.



Phew - that was quite enough for one weekend!

Phew the fabric for bees is landing in my postbox left, right and centre! I barely churn one block out and the next is waiting to be made!

Rachel, from p.s. I quilt, wanted pinwheels for her block. Any type of pinwheels but only using the nikki fabrics by Pat Sloan. I found the selection of fabrics quite dark. I am not a big fan of dark and it took me a while to work out how to put the fabric together into a block that was not too drab. I only had a small piece of white and I was nervous it would not be enough. It wasn't but I found something extremely similar in my stash.



I decided instead of one big pinwheel I would make a number of smaller ones. This took some time. I thought it would be a great idea to paper piece but wow was that a chore to take all the small bits of paper off at the end. Does anyone have any handy hints as to how to do it? Do you do it dry or wet the freezer paper?

I do like the end result but I will not be rushing to make another of these blocks any time soon!

Check out the rest of the group here.

On another note, I was very lucky to be the winner of the Think Pink giveaway by the Mum and daughter team of Spoonful of Sugar. Lisa and Sarah have a terrific blog packed full of fantastic ideas. It is for me a must read.

This is what they sent me. I am so very lucky. Thank you soooooo much.