London

*Warning* For readers in rainy and/or cold climes, this post mentions both sunshine and beaches.

I was so afraid my name tag would arrive after I had left for England but I need not have feared.  It arrived today.  So this Cinderella will be kicking her heels up at the FQ Retreat in just over 3 weeks time! A huge thank you to Elisabeth (lemon s
hark on flickr) who made my name tag. I`m sure she must have been hoping for a Kat or a Mel but instead got an 8 letter name of someone living in N.Africa.  I love the embroidery and the fussy cut bus, flag and taxi!  I love Britain and I really love London.

She also popped in a very cute pouch and a couple of model airplanes for Zaki. What she doesn`t know is that every time we`re waiting in a bank queue, Zaki hands me the leaflets they have lying around so that I can make an paper plane for him.  Thank you Elisabeth - I shall wear my name tag with pride!

There was more happy mail in the shape of bee blocks being made by the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches for the Siblings Together quilt. These beauties came all the way from Kylie (Three Honeybees on flickr) in Australia...

...and these lovelies from Karen at Listen to the Birds Sing in N.Ireland...

 ...who also sent me this adorable pouch made from the HST scraps of the corner units of the x and + blocks. What a fab reminder I shall have of the quilt we`re making for Siblings Together! Thank you Kylie and Karen!

Here`s the obligatory group photo.  I`m still to receive from 5 members of the Care Circle, so we should have enough for a decent sized quilt!

It`s still silly hot here and so hubby suggested this morning that we head to the coast for the weekend, so with all the talk of London buses and holidays (well teensy mini ones), I shall leave you with this.

Take it away Cliff!

It`s Friday tomorrow.  Have a great weekend!

The World`s Postal System In Harmony

This is my 298th post and I have over 300 followers.  Surely we need to have a giveaway soon!

The postman returned yesterday.

Fabric enabler Di, or Super-Di, who lives in sunny Southern California offered to pick up some Denyse Schmidt fabrics and send them to me.  I said yes please, she did and they arrived! Thanks Di!

If you don`t know Di`s blog you should.  Hop over and say hi.  There is eye candy of all kinds over there. I only wish she was able to come to the retreat in June.
 
There were also X and Plus blocks from Kat and Kris in Australia for the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches.  There are 11 people in the Care Circle. These blocks are contributions from 4 of us. So we are well on the way to making a big quilt or 2 smaller ones. This quilt will be given to the Siblings Together charity, which you can read about here. Here`s a group photo of the new blocks with mine and Cindy`s.  They look very happy together!

A few weeks ago, an incredibly generous woman called Jennifer (Bessiemae on flikr) put a whole load of fabric stacks on flikr, which she was prepared to post anywhere in the world to people who had the time to make quilts but perhaps not the stash.  I quickly snapped up this pink and orange bundle and it finally arrived.  Thank you so much Jennifer for your amazing generosity! It will hopefully be backed with some fabric which is winging its way from another incredibly generous person, Katy!

I am responsible for piecing another Katy`s quilt in the round robin bee, Stitch Tease and she sent me her starter blocks, which are just so cool. Katy is after blocks which replicate the vehicles in her chosen fabric in yellows, teals, oranges and grey.

Katy`s block for the Stitch Tease bee

Katy`s block for the Stitch Tease Bee

How I`m going to do that in batiks and Civil War fabrics, I`ll never know!
Katy lives in Glasgow where my mum`s side of the family come from.  Knowing my love of Highland Toffee but unable to find any, Katy sent me some tablet and Edinburgh rock.  Tastes of my childhood.  As I said in an email to Katy last night, having teeth is seriously overrated. I couldn`t include the sweeties for technical reasons.  Uh em.

My winnings from Kati (yes, another one) arrived - These gorgeous cards based on Kati`s designs.

...and I whipped up this little Curious Nature pochette for a friend.  Why is it that one end is okay and the other is squishy?  Is there a sewing law that I`m unaware of?

Front

Thank you for all your suggestions for the Curious Nature stained quilt - I think I`m leaning towards a mustard colour for the binding at the moment...

News from the hive(s)

We have my sister in law`s wedding tomorrow in Casablanca and so I`ve been a bit of a busy bee.  While all my SiLs (I have five) will be there with their glamorous up-dos, I`ve rebelled and had my hair cut quite short. Eyebrows have been tamed and broken splintered nails are now smooth and...um...pink?  Zaki said he didn`t like them (and I kind of have to agree with him) and would have preferred blue or green. They may have to undergo a make-under colourwise before tomorrow.

Anyway, I thought I should talk to you about bees. I am now in 4 although I can only talk to you about 3 of them as the fourth launches in March and until then I have to keep schtum.

As you know, I`m in the Care circle of do.Good Stitches - an international circle of lovely ladies who make for a cause close to the queen bee.  This month was the turn of Dolores (A Labour of Love) who asked for green and white sawtooth star blocks.  They will be made up in to a quilt for a family who have lost their mum. She was only 37. You can read about it here.

...and at the beginning of the month I signed up to a new bee, We Bee Modern Too - the second hive for a bee making blocks from the book Modern Blocks set up by Megan of City Stitches. You`ll have to wait until October to see which block I choose. This month was the turn of Kersten (Frozen Knickers) who chose the Missing Your Kiss block by Sew Take a Hike.  She asked us to use our stash and use a bright border.  I chose a mostly citrus-y palette. This block was fun to make and the opal fruit colours are new for me.

I`m also in the 1st quarter of the 4x5 Modern Bee and have kept my colours of orange, purple and grey. Every quarter you change hives and so you are always with new people.  I received some lovely blocks last quarter (I must show you a group photo) and it looks like it`s going to be just as good in this one.  Look at these Union Jack blocks made by Cathy.  Aren`t they great? I`ve still to come up with the block I`ll be making but I have until April to get it done so it`s lower down on the list of must-dos at the moment!

The last bee is? More next month.  For now? ZIP.

Have a great weekend - tomorrow is going to be a late night.  Moroccan weddings start late and go on all night. I promise to tell you all about it when we`re back.  For now, play it again Sam!

What`s New Pussycat?

So what`s new pussycat? I`m still suffering with a horrible head cold, sore throat and cough and so no sewing happened over the weekend.

I did however book flights back to England over the holidays for a mammoth 4 weeks for Zaki and me!

Yesterday, I made this block...

so that it could become scrappy mates with this block...

and today,while I continued to wait for fabric to arrive, I made the trees and scrappy border for the top of my tablerunner for Susan`s swap...I know my partner likes trees and a palette of reds, greens and blues.  It still needs a star, which will be in the centre of the tablerunner. Go on.  Try and imagine it.  If the fabric doesn`t arrive tomorrow I`ll be continuing without it.  Come on postie - there`s a deadline approaching!

I also found out that I`m not only in the Do. Good Stitches Bee (which makes quilts for children in need) but I`m a quilter and so every 5 months I`ll be responsible for planning a quilt, coordinating the making of the blocks and then making up the quilt.  And if that wasn`t exciting enough, I`m in the Care hive (which provides quilts for local charities) with amongst other lovely ladies, Cindy, Kat and Karen who I hope I can call bloggy friends after meeting them through various swaps.  Win.  Win.  Win.

What`s new with you?

again, sorry if I haven`t responded to your emails or visited as much as I usually do but if I can shake off this cold I`ll be back!