...and the Winner of the Giveaway is...

I`m sorry to be late in posting details of the giveaway winner but it was my birthday yesterday and so we were out and about!

The winner of the 8 FQs of kona solids is...

the lovely Janine who is a great quilter and one of my lovely followers!  Congratulations Janine - I have just emailed you for your details.  Thanks to everyone who entered and told me all about what they were up to and welcome to my new followers! 

Bees in Granny`s Flower Garden & a Giveaway!

We`re back!  We`re in England.  We`ve escaped the incessant high temperatures, leaving poor hubby behind, although we clearly brought a little with us in our suitcase as it has been beautiful the last few days.

As promised, I have a back to blogging (well almost) belated 300 followers pre-birthday giveaway but first, let me tell you what I`ve been up to or just scroll straight to the bottom and look at the pictures!

Before we left Morocco, I dragged the machine out of its summer hibernation and fulfilled a couple of bee obligations.

First up was a stargazing block for Nicole in the We Bee Modern Too - a bee using blocks from Modern Blocks.  Nicole sent us all fabric from Kate Spain`s Joy collection. The block is made up of 3 different sized wonky stars and Nicole asked us to alternate the points of the stars in red and green.

It was a little strange making a Christmas block in Morocco in August but here it is - ready to be mailed off to Nicole.

Next up were blocks for Dolores who is queen bee for August in the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches.  Dolores asked for granny squares in hot pink, orange and yellow.  I love grannies as the effect outweighs the effort involved but this was a challenge as I had very little yellow and most of my orange had been used in my hexies.  I did however have pink. I then remembered the Silent Cinema FQs I had bought back in May and I`m hoping that the yellow prints will be okay for Dolores.

 My aqua, orange and grey hexie flowers continue to grow - I`m loving the slow relaxed progress. Here are some of the latest to join grannies flower garden...

...and here is a close up of the variagated versions using up the fabric which I love but don`t have enough of to make a whole flower.

...and lastly, here are some gorgeous fabrics which the lovely Susan generously donated to my hexie quilt and which came all the way from Australia in a record breaking 3 days!!  So I won`t hear a bad word against Aussie post anymore.  Thank you Susan - I love them!

Now you`ve been patient enough. Let`s get down to the giveaway. I was looking around the UK fabric shops for something to give away and then I saw this fabulous bundle of loveliness in Cindy`s gorgeous shop. A fat quarter stack of eight Kona solids -  Kona Basil, Teal, Turquoise, Peacock, Azure, Bahama blue, Lime and Jade..

Under the Palm Tree FQ Bundle (photo - Fluffy Sheep Quilting)

I love this bundle of cool sea colours and the name just spoke to me. I may just have to go back and buy a bundle for me! I would love to make an improv.pieced quilt using these.

So you have 3 chances to win - no hoops.

1. Leave a comment about what you are making right now.
2. If you are a follower, leave a comment and say so.
3. For an extra chance, tweet or blog about the giveaway and come back and tell me.

That`s it!  I shall post anywhere after choosing a winner on my birthday - that`s next Tuesday August 28 (there`s always a bank holiday in honour of it don`t you know).  Good luck! (Make sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger.)





Going through the Bins

I'm sure you are completely fed up with me moaning like a minnie about the heat.  She lives in Morocco, what the heck does she expect? I hear you cry and you would be right but the heat recently has been relentless.  Apart from a couple of days earlier this week, temperatures have been in the high forties (today it's 115F) and it's relentless with minimum temperatures of 26C and that's in the middle of night! We are luckier than others.  We have air conditioning.  Not in every room but where it matters.I try to be  positive...really but the other night I blubbed to my husband and was feeling really down.

Liberty granny square

So I'm getting out...I'm going back to England.  Next week! I haven't yet booked my flight back to Marrakech (dangerous) but we should be there for 3 weeks.

I'm hoping to soak up some post Olympics euphoria.

So I suddenly have quite a lot to do before I leave and it's not sewing weather! Having said that, I ignored my to do list, and whipped up a super size granny square. A few weeks ago I started collecting Ali's Liberty tana lawn charm packs from her folksy shop here as ever since I made this quilt I have wanted to make a big sumptuous Liberty quilt. I have quite a few of the 5'' packs now and one 4" pack. Using some 4'' squares and some beautiful Irish linen, which lovely Karen sent me, I made this mini quilt top. It measures 18" and really is very pretty.  Much prettier in real life.

I'm hoping that if I can get it finished in time, I shall take it with me for a friend.

Thank you for all your clever suggestions about my hexies, and for your kind donations of fabric! If I didn't got back to you it's because you are a no-reply blogger so if you are still interested please email me!

I've decided to keep to the original palette of  aqua, orange and gray.  I had a good root through my scrap bins and managed to find quite a bit of fabric. Sometimes it's been a loose interpretation of aqua but that will add interest hopefully. I think I'm going to arrange them in abstract clumps on a background of perhaps some  crosshatch sketch fabric.  What do you think?

I haven't forgotten about the giveaway.  I shall announce it once I'm back in England and it will be a glad to be back pre-birthday late 300 followers giveaway!

If You Can't Stand the Heat...

When temperatures reach 50C (120F), there is only one thing you can do. Pack away the sewing machine and do some gentle hand sewing...

I started making my own templates but then succumbed and bought a large pack of 1" hexagons from paperpieces. Thanks to Catherine who reminded me about a promo code (FAT25) valid until I think the end of the month which gives free international shipping and 25% off.  Win win. I was super impressed with paperpieces, with the templates arriving less than 2 weeks after being ordered!

This is more or less where I am right now. I used my aqua, orange and gray charms from Jenelle's mystery charm swap.  Jenelle cleverly chose all the fabrics and she did a fab job. I have supplemented the charms with my own stash and I love how they are turning out. However, I have now all but exhausted my fabrics in these colours.

hexie detail

So my question for you on this Sunday is whether I should enter more colours in to the mix or keep it as it is for a smaller project? 

By the way, the temperatures have dropped a little today and it's much more tolerable although there won't be much machine sewing apart from bee blocks until September when things should cool.

Thank you so much for all the lovely welcome back comments on my last post - I was worried you all might have disappeared!  I²m very happy and relieved you are still here.

Guess Who's Back?

Guess who's back, back again 

Shady's Annabella's back, tell a friend, guess who's back, guess who's back...

I'm back! It's been a month since I posted and a whopping two and a half months since I posted regularly!  I won't bore you with the boring minutae of why but constant ugly temperatures and wilting technology plays a large part. 


Thanks to those who asked where I was and who aren't bearing a grudge that I've been a useless follower..I think this is it.  Normal service is resumed.

So while I collect myself, I'm pondering a small giveaway to celebrate so be sure to pop back.  Because.I'm.Back!!