Miscellaneous Monday

Megan's Star blocks made by the We Bee Modern Too bee (so far).

1. Megan's Star Block, 2. WBM2_October, 3. Bee Modern. October 2012, 4. We bee modern too october block, 5. Megan's Star Block, 6. We Bee Modern Too, October block, 7. We Bee Modern Too - October 2012, 8. We Bee Modern Too - October 2012, 9. October Block for We Bee Modern Too

My secret sewing was...yes, you guessed it...for Susan! An early Christmas tote.

...and here's the back.

A big bundle of blues and neutral solids from Pink Castle - to hopefully become a monochromatic improv. pieced quilt for my Godson James.

A quick, simple and small tote for a pink loving 7 year old neice.

...and here's the back.

A sneaky peek of my EPP for the Travellin' PicStitch Blog Hop on Wednesday.

Happy Guy Fawkes!

Starry Eyed

I'm Miss October in the bee based around the book Modern Blocks, We Bee Modern Too.

Bees can be like swaps...you can forget that one day blocks will be winging their way to you. So it's fun when they do.

I chose Megan's Star.  Like many things in the quilty corner of the blogosphere, I'm a little late to the star party but the beauty of bees is that you can choose a block that perhaps you wouldn't choose yourself. I asked for Megan's stars in jewel tones.

Despite a huge energy slump, I managed to make this block - for me!!

And this one too!

...and here they are cozying up together waiting for their friends to arrive.  They will have a long wait as the blocks are going to my mum's in England...I couldn't bear for them to get lost! Having seen the blocks made by my fellow bee members I'm excited to see them all together and I'm so gald now that I chose this block!

This is a really straightforward block to make but despite this, I had a complete brain f**t when I came to attaching the triangles to the central square of the first block.  I cut the two green sqaures and then cut them diagonally in to 4 squares as directed.  The next instuction was to join the opposite sides right side together.  I kind of got it in to my head that I had to attach them flying geese style and in that case why wasn't I using squares?  I just couldn't work out how to join them. I know.  Crazy right?  I even googled the block to see how many other people had experienced the same problem.

Guess how many??

NONE BECAUSE THEY ALL HAVE BRAINS!!!

I'm ashamed to admit that I only got past the first step because someone had done a tutorial for the block and had used pictures for each step.

Left brain, right brain....no brain!

Bee Blocks & Bunting

It's Friday!!  I'm not sure why I am particularly  happy about this fact as my days seem to merge in to one another and sometimes I lose track of exactly which day it is but perhaps it's having a couple of days off the exhausting nudging the 4 year old off to pre-school routine in the morning.

Anyway, last month when we were back in England, my bestie's daughter asked if I would make her some bunting in pastel colours. She's not a girly girl and so I majored on blue and green stripes and dots with a little bit of pink thrown in for good measure.

I'm a little late to the bunting party...who knew it was so fun, quick and easy to make?  I fear I may be a little on the old side for bunting but it certainly cheered our bedrooml up.

Bee blocks have been their usual plentiful self...well that's what happens when you are in (gulp) 5 bees.

First up is this Follow the Leader block for Sarah in the We Bee Modern Bee - a bee which uses blocks from the Modern Blocks book.   Sarah wanted us to use browns, yellows, oranges and reds with a hint of green so that her blocks would look like falling leaves.  Clever! I panicked a little as these are not colours I readily have to hand..well apart from green.  Luckily and not for the first time, my rainbow charms came in to their own and saved the day.

Next were Sea Glass blocks for Helen in the first month of a new bee, Sew Euro Bee-An.  Helen sent us some Kona snow, some Kona Poseidon colours for the border and some pretty scraps in blues, greens and pinks....and yes, there were some batiks in there. The borders could be any size we wanted and we were to place 1-2" coloured blocks in a random fashion.

It was also my turn to make a block for Helen this month in the mystery bee, Stitch Tease. Helen asked for wonky stars of various sizes in bright colours against a background of kona ash.  Here's a sneaky peek of her block which measures 24.5"

Lastly, it was Kris' turn as quilter in the Care Circle of do.Good Stitches.  She asked for Liberated Churn Dash blocks in jewel coloured blues and greens using this tutorial.  These were my first Churn Dash blocks and they were fun to make as they included foundation piecing and that was also a first for me.

It's my turn as quilter in the Care Circle next month and I have still to come up with a plan although I saw Svetlana's Shoo Fly quilt today and I'm thinking that block could make a great quilt for our circle. She's helpfully given a great tutorial.  It's also my turn as queen bee in the We Bee Modern bee next month and I have yet to choose my block...mainly because my real favourites have already been picked. It will be fun to receive some blocks next month....for me!

Anyway, have a great weekend whatever you are up to!

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.)





Boxed In

Boxed In Block from the book Modern Blocks

I`m so enjoying being part of the bee, We Bee Modern Too, where we make blocks from the book Modern Blocks compiled by Susanne Woods. This block is called Boxed In and was designed by Faith Jones.  It`s for Heather who asked us to make it in solid red, black, white and grey or in fabrics which would read as solids. Heather will be making the blocks up in to a charity quilt for a pre-teen or adolescent boy. This block is super easy but very striking. I  quite fancy making a quilt from this block myself - in solids.  My new love.

Trying to get as many things ticked off my list before we go to the airport this evening to collect my mum!

A Kaffe Fasset Double

You may remember last year that the uber talented Sarah Fielke (co-author of Material Obsession) was looking for people to make blocks for a couple of very special quilts.  Amy and Annabelle had lost husband and father Dan far too early.  Sarah wanted to make them both quilts from Kaffe Fasset fabrics using blocks that looked like bass lines on a stereo.  I wanted to help but only had a few Kaffe Fasset scraps and so Sarah very kindly sent me some of her scraps all the way from Oz.

Here are my blocks.

Amy`s block

Annabelle`s block

Well I was super excited to read this week on Leanne`s blog that she too had helped and that Sarah had pieced Annabel`s quilt.  Click here to see it (you`ll have to scroll down a couple of posts).  I love it!

So having written my Winter Stitches mid-term check in, I was beginning to feel very guilty about my mum`s birthday quilt.  She has waited patiently while various quilts, bee blocks, pouches, mug rugs and runners have been made and meanwhile I have prevaricated about which block to use.  She isn`t swooning over swoon - a block which many of you thought would look great in the Kaffe Fasset fabrics she had chosen.  So today, energized by a beetroot, celery and ginger juice (zingy and delicious), I started on the first block.  All I`ll say is it`s not a quick block (but I think and really hope it`s going to be amazing)  and it`s a block from this book.  Only sneeky peaks will be shown and here`s your first one.

I know.  I`m not giving much away.

Hope you`ve all had a fab weekend.  Check in later tomorrow to see if you won the giveaway (there`s still time to enter).