FQR bee progress

As well as working on my Quilty Fun blocks, I've also been making a few flying geese units to sash my FQS 2012 designer BOM which my bee friends are helping me make. So far I have eight blocks, including two that I made, so just four more to come. Two ladies didn't complete the flying geese units due to my poor instructions in one case and lack of foundation piecing in another. The third unit I completed, there wasn't enough fabric to finish more than four patterned sections. I found one more piece of fabric, but unfortunately had to resort to Ebay for a fat quarter to finish the unit.

 

 

 

Don't they look good? I think I will sash them as they are with a bit of rejigging of the block positions. Perhaps this will be a March finish or perhaps I should choose something else in case some of the blocks are delayed.

 

I am just managing to keep up with the Quilty Fun sew along hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop. This week's blocks were three butterflies which were nice and quick to sew.



 

However when I put all of the blocks on my design board to sew the right hand side together, the butterfly blocks were too wide. Hmm. Back to first principles, I found the handout and measured the bock, which confirmed it was too large. Then I realised the wings of the butterflies were each a quarter inch too big, which totalled 1.5" over the small section.

 

 

I soon had the units unpicked and resewn and the quilt is looking much nearer to being finished. I think we have just four more sections and a signature block to do. amazing what you can make from just scraps. Even the white on white background is made from scraps of a wide backing fabric that I've used on a couple of quilts.

 

 

 

What have you been up to?

 

Add a link to your sewing/quilting post below and don't forget to visit some of your fellow bloggers and share some Brit Sewing love

An InLinkz Link-up

Scrappy Trip around the World

I have just finished sewing in the ends on this quilt which is a Scrappy Trip around the World using a Sweetwater jelly roll and some fat quarters of the lines. It is five blocks by five blocks.

 

 

 

It is backed with some of the number fabric from Ikea which keeps it quite a manly quilt. I have a recipient in mind, but Lizzie reckons I should check with Matthew first.

 

 

Each block is quilted with a flame pattern and the grey diagonal of each block is highlighted by not being quilted down the centre.



 

Whilst this was my February goal, I have also finished my January goal of the Bee in My Bonnet Row along quilt. Whilst quilting it the needle fell out and broke so I think the timing needs fixing which is a job for next week once I'm home from a short trip to Southampton.

Wordless Wednesday - Hearts of friendship

Stash Bee

All of the Hive 5 blocks for January have crossed the oceans and returned to me. I have twenty blocks and will make five more for a square quilt. I am very pleased with all of the blocks and there's some lovely fabrics that I "NEED" for my stash.

I'm wondering if my friend Jane will make me a few blocks too? She's so quick, they'll be finished by the time I come back from our city break.

Just a few more weeks to go

 

 

Just a few more weeks of blocks and we will be ready to put the quilty fun sewalong quilt together. This week Lori provided us with instructions to piece the left hand side of the quilt together. I don't know if we'll get instructions for another section today. This week we have three butterflies to sew together which I hope I can do this afternoon. Last week we had two houses to piece which were done from Bonnie & Camille fabrics in the main as I'd left my scrap baskets at home when I went to my Guild's UFO day. A busy day today as I have Matthew to drop off to the airport and then a few hours to myself before collecting Lizzie from her Duke of Edinburgh three day practice hike. Fortunately the rain has keep away, so they couldn't have asked for better weather. I predict tomorrow she'll sleep most of the day.

Counting down to the Eisteddfod

As Lizzie and I are away for three days next week, I have until Wednesday to get this quilt quilted and bound. I finished putting the borders on yesterday. This has been a marathon of a quilt as I overcame self imposed hurdles in the way of completing it:

* mislaying the fabric for the border when it was in the bag it should have been all the time
* Not keeping up with the weekly rows and then the instructions were taken down as Lori included the instructions in a book.

 

 

I have used mainly Bonnie & Camille fabrics from several ranges and added in some Sweetwater, Aneela Hoey and Zen Chic for a controlled scrappy look.

 

#modaquiltolympics #olympics

Brit Sewing Thursday Linky - 20 February 2014

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the first Linky party at my blog last week. Didn't the week go quickly? I am going to show you the Siblings Together 2 Bee for March. I know we're not even half way through February, but the instructions were posted and it was a block I'd already done a sample for myself. Whilst Jill's quilt was quilting, I cut the pieces from my scrap basket and the box of 2.5" scrap strips we swapped at FQR 2013.

  

Now I need to get on with my Bee in My Bonnet row along which just needs a couple of borders before it's ready to be quilted. It needs to be handed in next Wednesday for our local Eisteddfod so time is of the essence.

  

What have you been up to?

 

Scotty Dogs

Another customer quilt is finished. Jane has put together this striking quilt as a gift. The pantograph I used was Flutterby so the dogs are chasing butterflies. A few black and white fabrics from my scrap basket made up three dogs.

 

Now back to the binding of my scrappy trip around the world or will I be distracted by the Siblings Together 2 blocks which are cut out and ready to piece? Don't forget to join me tomorrow for another Brit Sewing Thursday linky.

Aqua hexagons

 

I'm still working through my customer quilts and I wanted this one finished yesterday so I could deliver it at our Guild meeting yesterday. Which I accomplished.

 

The pantograph is Japanese clouds again with Superior Threads in colour Temple. Tomorrow's task to accomplish is the binding on my Scrappy Trip around the world.

Splash

This is a biggie - over 80" square. Jane's fourth quilt? I have lost count. One quilt out, and Jane brought another three for me to quilt. AND she has quilted one herself. Jane needs to play some golf so that I can catch up. On Friday my DH told me that there were two quilts waiting for me. I didn't look at them as I assumed they belonged to Jane, even though she knew I wasn't in. Later in the evening, he revealed that no they weren't from Jane. So that makes six customer quilts waiting. Panic.

 

 

Jane 's quilt for Issie which is her own design, was quilted with the design running from bottom to top as it's a pantograph called Tickle, which I call splash as it looks like water splashes which I thought were perfect for this quilt. The Tula Pink strips of blue with a sprinkling of fishes is perfect for this quilt.

 

Today, as well as an afternoon playing canasta and a Guild meeting tonight, I need to finish another customer quilt and find the fabric I need to finish my own quilt for the Eisteddfod which need to be finished by next Wednesday.

Quilty fun - leaves

I cut these out on Thursday during the 90 minutes Lizzie was at school and Jane's quilt was being quilted by the long arm. Jane's quilt is still waiting to be finished due to a busy Friday helping collect in the 800 Eisteddfod forms for the needlework section. I also waited impatiently for Matthew to arrive at the airport but in the end he was delayed 3 hours and went straight from the airport to air cadets.

Plans for the day including buying a waterproof jacket for Lizzie for her Duke of Edinburgh silver practice hike next weekend, a game of canasta this afternoon and a bit of sewing at some point. I wonder if I can persuade Nick we should eat out this evening so I don't have to cook?

Brit Sewing Thursday linky

 

Welcome to the first Brit Sewing Thursday Linky here at Just Sew Sue. Thank you to Clare at Maybush Studio for setting this up.With Lizzie being sick for the last two days, I haven't been able to use my long arm as it would definitely disturb her sleep, so I have been hand sewing some bindings. Here is my big gift for the Sewing Room Swap 2. Ready to put some goodies into it.

There's also a matching pin cushion to go with the social tote. I added a blue ribbon to tone down the pink.

What have you been up to?

Add a link to your sewing/quilting post below and don't forget to visit some of your fellow bloggers and share some Brit Sewing love.
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Binding

I have always been amazed when quilters admit they have piles of projects awaiting binding as to me that is the end of another project and I can start a new one. How is it then that I have a pile of such projects. The Easter mini quilt - not a big job, the social tote which I made on Sunday for the Sewing Room swap and the Scrappy Trip around the world. There's also the sewing machine cover which I had almost finished and then tried it on my machine and realised how small it was despite following the pattern. That has been discarded somewhere.

My daughter is ill today and asleep so I can't start up my long arm to quilt Jane's quilt, so I guess it's time to do some binding.

Bumbling Honeys update

 

 

I'm loving how these blocks look and I may do an offset pattern like the photo as I don't have sufficient background fabric to complete it like the pattern. I am remembering why I like blocks of the month. This one is from 2012 from Fat Quarter Shop, they come with the instructions, plenty of fabric and beautifully packaged. A nice easy sew as the thinking is done for you. Unfortunately US postal prices have sky rocketed which makes getting these each month heavy on postage costs so buying this in the sale with one postal charge and a 30% discount was a bargain.

 

 I have also come across a Thimbleberries block of the month from a few years ago. I may do the blocks from the excess fabric left from this Block of the Month. I'm also looking to swap this pattern for another Block of the Month.

Friday Night with Friends

 

I did say I was going to work on my scrappy trip around the world last night, but as always my attention wandered. I have signed up for a mini quilt swap and the first mini quilt is on the theme of Easter. Once I received my assignment, I googled for some time and came across a pattern for an Easter Googy Bag over at Red Brolly. So I increased the size of the stitchery pattern and traced it onto a piece of my newly won grunge fabric which was cream with  a pattern of yellow and green. Then I raided my scraps for 1.5" strips and added a border around the stitchery panel. My colour inspiration was spring flowers.
 

 

The next step was to pop the whole project in the freezer so that the Frixion markings came back. I also came across a box of Aurifil threads that I won from Lilys Quilts last year which is the I can Fly box of embroidery threads by Mark Lipinski, so I decided to use these to stitch the flowers. I used some DMC for the rabbit and turquoise tulips.

 

 

And here is my mini quilt ready to quilt. I have chosen a green grunge fabric for the backing, trimmed it all up and zig zagged the edges to keep it neat. I used a scrap of wadding to stabilise my embroidery and hide the ends of the embroidery threads, so I just need to pin the top to the backing and I'm ready to go. I am going to machine quilt the hexagons and  then hand quilt some details into the background of the stitchery.

I'm not sure what colour fabric to use for the binding. I don't have enough of the green grunge fabric used for the backing. I'm wondering about using the cream grunge to tone it down. What do you think?

Friday Feathers

I wasn't happy with the darkness of my "low volume" fabrics that I used in these feathers for the Stash Bee, even though Bee Mama for February said she was happy with them. these are big blocks and my low volume stash is small, but I found a Sweetwater fat quarter along with one of the cream grunge fabrics I won last month.

 

 

I am now much happier with how the blocks look. So apart from my Sewing room swap, my February commitments are done. I have decided to start each month with my commitments and get those done and then I'm free to work on my WIPs. Tonight is Friday Night with Friends and I plan to stitch down some of the binding whilst sat in front of the tellie. With the wind blowing hard still and more storms forecast for the weekend, I think home is the best place to be.

 

 

Quilty Fun week twelve

 

And I'm still keeping up!! This block is a scrappy block with fabrics from lots of designers:

 

Lori Holt's yellow dot

Orange dot Zen Chic

Green dot Bonnie & Camille, green and yellow dot Sweetwater

And Basic Grey grunge for the stems

 

This is the last time I'll be linking up to the Brit Sewing Thursday linky at Maybush Studios, as fellow FQR Bumbling Honey, Claire is taking a well deserved rest from the weekly linky party. Claire has run this for six months and has in the midst of a BIG redesign of her home and is doing a degree too. So from next week, the Linky Party will be being held here at my little blog. I hope you return next week to join the party and show off your work.

 

Linking up to:

 

First bee block for February has arrived back

I have been accused of cheating with my block selection for the FQR bumbling honeys bee. I sent out the 2012 FQS designer block of the month packs to my fellow bees. They must like them as four have already been made and one of them has come back to the hive. As well as the block, I asked everyone to foundation piece a set of flying geese from the leftover fabric. The above block is from Sue.

After doing the two blocks, There is still plenty of fabric left over. Almost enough to make another block of the month. I'm hoping to find someone to swap my BOM instructions for another set.

 

 

Here are my two blocks together with Sue's blocks. It will be interesting to see what fabric ladies use for the flying geese units. I know there's at least one made from one of the green fabrics. I think the original pattern is for flying geese from one fabric, but I like this tweak to the pattern. Completely scrappy units was a tweak too far for me but would also look good.



 



Stash Bee feathers

Alyson is February's bee mama and posted her instructions to the blog just in time as her beautiful baby, Erica was born on 31 January.

The instructions direct you to Anna Maria Horner's instructions for feathers and we were asked to make a feather with brown, orange, teal and purple in it. the background is to be "low volume". These feathers are 18" long. I think my low volume is a bit brown so will choose something a little paler. However most of my low volume fabrics are smaller than the height so I'm going to have to do some more searching. I have also parcelled up my extra strips for Alyson in case she can use them.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - February goal setting

This month I should finish my chosen project fairly easily, in theory. I've even decided how I'm going to achieve my aim.

 

This is my Scrappy Trip around the World quilt using a Sweetwater jelly roll and some fat quarters. It is quilted and the binding machine stitched to the front. This month I need to hand stitch the binding and tie off the ends on each individually quilted block. I plan to take it to my Wednesday morning group where it is easier to hand stitch.

 



I also plan to finish my Bee in my Bonnet Row along. I am hoping that my turquoise backing will arrive tomorrow and I can use the excess to add the small frame around the rows. Then there's another thin white frame and the border before I load it on the machine. My Aurifil threads haven't yet arrived but I'm hopeful that they'll also arrive this week so I can quilt this and two other customer quilts which are waiting impatiently.

 



The Row along needs to be finished this month as it's one of the projects I plan to enter into this year's Eisteddfod needlework section.

Pinch and a punch

Is that a British saying or universal? Today is 1 February and I have a few block of the month projects for which this month's instructions have published today. First there's the Once Upon a Time stitchery, then the AMH feathers selected by Alyson for the Stash Bee and lastly the Wishes Sewalong from The Fat Quarter Shop. What's a girl to do?
 

 

 I decided to start with my February Wishes block. A lot more fiddly than I'd anticipated but I like the double windmill block together with last month's block. I sewed some octagons for the Quilty Fun sewalong too but they aren't quite finished yet. The next release for that is Monday so I will need to work on it tomorrow to keep up.