Brit Bee Catch Up

Having just realised the date on my last (pre-Quiltography) post, I thought I should include a couple of my latest Brit Bee pics.

November
I totally forgot to take photographs of Miss November's blocks, but I can promise you that her quilt is going to be amazing and if we are lucky, we might even get to see the completed version pretty soon :)

January
It seems that I totally messed up with January's pictures too, but you can see the original by Miss January herself...

February
Miss February was Judith's month and she asked for 2 totally different blocks; 1 was a large HST, made up of small HST's that she is going to piece into a large star.

and the second was purple vintage prints in a pez design.

April

Ceri was our wonderful Miss April who asked us each to provide a doodle, that she then cleverly screen printed and sent out to us with the rest of the fabric pack so that we could include it in our blocks! She must have been beavering away for days as we each got back handfuls of charm squares of our own doodles in a variety of colours!

These are the log cabin (isn) blocks that I sent back to her; 

number 1 (with my doodle)

number 2 (with a sketchy fabric)

Phew that was a big catchup, but now I am all up to date and ready to move on with other quilty goodness!

J x

Reverse Cathedral Windows - A Tutorial

Today I have been working on a mash up of a video tutorial I found online for 3d Faux Cathedral Windows by QuiltBugs, but I have made quite a few changes, so to remind myself of the process I thought I would have a go at writing it out.

I have long admired Cathedral Window Quilts and one day I am sure I will tackle my own, with Hyena In Petticoats' tutorial but in the meantime I thought a version of Cathedral Windows using just the diamond section would make a great contrast to my portholes; I plan to use them in a checkerboard arrangement for my Porthole Windows Quilt.

To start,
cut 4 no. 5 1/2" squares (in white, for background)
cut 1 no. 8" square (solid, for frame)
cut 1 no. 4 1/4" square (patterned, for window)

Normally, to figure out these dimensions;
for the background fabric, you would take the desired finished block size, halve it and add 2/4" for the seam allowance.
for the frame fabric, minus a 1/4" seam allowance from the background fabric size and then double it.
for the window fabric, this is the same as a single background piece.
This would give you a block in which the diamond shape extends to each side, (minus seam allowances) thus when multiple blocks are aligned you will get a cathedral window style pattern. Unlike with my dimensions, in which the diamond shape is central and floating within the block.

First, fold the frame fabric in half, with the folded edge away from you, place the first of the background squares behind the frame fabric with the open corners matching (1) - in the original example this gives you 1/4" of the background fabric showing from underneath, but in my example it is much more. Then, place the second background square in line, on top to finished the sandwich (2) sew down the side indicated with a quater inch seam allowance.

Repeat for the other side (3) and press the seams aside. (4)

Next, align the 4 background squares into a 4 patch, with the unfolded frame edge facing up, (5) pin the top opening closed (6) and sew a 1/4 seam allowance to join the 4 squares together (7) be sure to align the frame fabric as closely as possible with the background fabric as you want to sew through all 4 layers at once.

Press the seams to the side (8) and flip over, (9) at this point the diamond will only be attached to the background along the central lines. 

Lay the window fabric on point, centrally, within the frame diamond, (10) fold and pin the edges of the frame around the window fabric; (11) sew these in place for your finished block! (12)

Hopefully, I will have a full set of these to share tomorrow.

J x 

Fresh Sewing Day - September

I have been very lax about posting lately, and honestly I have kind of enjoyed the freedom it has afforded me, but at least it means I have plenty to share;

Jennie's Crab Shack Charm - (fabric won in a giveaway from Judith @ NeedlesandLemons) top done.

I love this fabric so much more than I ever expected to, I have ordered my batting, backing and sashing and may get a chance to quilt it this weekend. But we have a mad collie coming to stay with us for a few weeks and she arrives this weekend so I am expecting some crazy early days :)

Brit Quilt Swap - pieced, quilted, bound and posted.

It took me too long to get started on my swapping quilt, but

Portholes, portholes, everywhere - more blocks complete. (9 down, 5 to go)

I am still loving portholes, thank you Lucy, and am making some progress on my own porthole quilt, I changed my mind about how to finish of this top this week but I will share the details in a later post. I have a couple of blocks done and have the fabric selected for the rest, so now for the easy bit...

Brit Bee July - pieced and sent out
block 1

block 2

July's Brit Bee asked for some quiet, neutral tone-on-tone blocks with a small traditional zappy block to fit into it. For block 1 I kept it simple and I have long admired this block, but for block 2 I wanted something a little different, although this is not technically a traditional block (to the best of my knowledge) I wanted the zappy block to be a part of the larger neutral block; it turned out just as I had hoped.


Sizzix Workshop Pieces - pieced.

At the Festival of Quilts, I stopped by the Sizzix workshop, so I got to have a little play and cut these fabrics out; it was great to play with and I do love a drunkards path/ retro flowers pattern, but I am not really keen on this fabric so I don't know what to do with it? At least piecing these was great practice for this months Brit Bee, really helped me to get back into the swing of things.

Ok, so it's not really finished...

I still have all of these to put together; but it's a start :)

Brit Bee August - delayed, but pieced.

I got completely behind with this month's block as Chris and I had a holiday booked for the end of august to celebrate our birthdays but before we went I HAD to finish my Brit Quilt for the swap and it sucked up my Bee time, sorry Katy! But it is finished now and off to Katy, if she forgives me.

Brit Bee September - done, ahead of deadline.

Churn Dash blocks for Laura, I love these simple graphic designs that seem to be really popular at the moment but Laura's colour choices are always so exciting- these turned out really great!

So busy, busy, busy here, I am off to get on with my Portholes and order more yummy fabric!

J x

ps. in other news I have started playing foursquare, are there any other users out there?

Playing Bee Catch Up

Wow this weekend really ran off with me, despite me taking an unofficial 3 day weekend (don't get excited- it wasn't for fun reasons) but I did manage to get on with my bee block... for may :( please don't be mad at me.

Each month I have been lucky enough to try something completely new to me but this month was 8 pointed stars and I have already tried an 8 pointed star here;

and for our super secret Project 51 here;

As I knew it was going to be particularly late, I wanted to put an extra special effort in so when I found the Lone Starburst block from Six White Horses Studio,

(image from Six White Horses)

I fell completely and utterly in love with it and I proceded to disregard all comments about how long it might take even an experienced paper piecer. Well it turns out they were right, this is one majorly time consuming block and as much as I love the pattern I do not think I could make a whole quilt out of it.  I mean, seriously time consuming, like an hour per 1/8th of a block! This was partly due to my inexperience and a comment from Kerry at the retreat that it was easier to be more precise by hand than by machine, honestly, looking back I probably should have graduated to machine piecing while doing this block but I enjoyed not having to lug my machine out all the time and just picking up a bit to finish off.

So without further ado, block one for Terri, aka Miss May

The colours probably wouldn't be my first choice but Terri has asked for the pink to be used as a background, I can't wait to see what she does with all of these stars; its going to be such a bright and colourful quilt!

J x

Weekend Catch Up

All weekend I intended to get my sewing machine out, or rather, turn it on (as it has been sitting out in the dining room for weeks now) but somehow I just never got around to it. The only other thing I wanted to do was take some photos of my Bee blocks for Trudi, but the weather refused to agree with me, so even though they have been done since friday they are still waiting patiently.


I have completed my 2 blocks for Trudi; the first is my favourite, from this tutorial on Liesl Made, I love the scrappyness of this block, but I had no idea how long this would take; I used EVERY spare few minutes I had (even pressing a couple geese while waiting for the dog to finish outside before I left for work) and it still took my all week to get them done, but it turns out that 32 geese is a lot of cutting and pressing.

And I got all these bonus HSTs for my efforts. I'm not sure what to do with them yet, but when inspiration hits I will be ready!

The second was a great opportunity to try out a new technique using this tutorial by Jen A-C I had so many leftovers from the first block I really wanted to try a loss-less technique and this was a dream! In comparison it went together really quickly too, I had it done for the most part in one evening :)

I also finally got around to ordering more fabric to get my Curio quilt finished, and it came, from the states, in about 5 days (including the weekend) for only £8 p&p AND I didn't have to pay customs charges! Yey for stitchsteals.com I will be shopping there again!

So I pulled it off the bed upstairs and realised how much I had done, I started off last night by piecing the already completed blocks together and with new motivation I just want to get it out of the way now!

Tonight's job is to make a start on Terri's stars, after obedience class, I haven't heard back from you with any special requirements so I am just going to crack on (and cross my fingers that you will like them!)

J x

Better late than never... I hope

I hope you agree Jo, firstly I have to say sorry that this block is soooo late (as I should have had it in the post over a month ago) but I knew I would have trouble finishing it on time as we were away at the end of april, and half of may. But I hadn't anticipated the chaos that we would come home to.

Enough with the excuses, this is April's Brit Bee block for Jo who simply asked for "circles," any circle technique, any size as long as we used some linen in the block. How open can you be?! She even trusted us with some Heather Ross Far Far Away - forgive me if I don't know whether it is series 1 or 2.

I have never understood why everyone seemed to go gaga over FFA, as up until this block I have only ever seen it online,  but it is such a lovely material to hold and play with (Jo you are sooo lucky to be getting this back as it kept trying to jump into my stash box, don't worry though I have rescued it all and sealed it in the envelope)

After coming back from the FQR last weekend, I could not resist trying out the newest technique in my arsenal for this circle block, can you guess what it is yet...

PORTHOLES!

I was so excited to try this out again and it worked even better than it did in Lucie's workshop, it also came together really quickly, but this was probably because I didn't frame any of the circles. I had to piece the backing fabric as my linen piece wasn't big enough, hope you like it Jo!

J x

ps. Terri, you are next on my list ;)

(Brit) Bee Happy

This morning, when I was already running alightly late for work I couldn't stop thinking about the bee blocks I received last month that I still haven't blogged about; February was my month in the Brit Bee and I now have most of the blocks back (although I still haven't done my own!) so I wanted to share some images of the blocks I have received and be warned that you will be impressed, these girls are seriously talented and the level of detail surpassed everything I had imagined!

1. Hadley @ Flying Blind
2. Jo @ Life In Lists
3. Judith @ Just Jude
4. Fiona @ Poppy Makes
5. Judith @ Needles and Lemons
6. Ceri @ Inspired By Felix
7. Laura @ Needles, Pins and Baking Tins
8. Susan @ Canadian Abroad


Don't they just make you smile?! I love these blocks as each one reminds me of the year we have been having :)

 I am really looking forward figuring out some random sashing to tie all the blocks together and the extra blocks to complete this top, I will keep you posted with my progress, I hope I can do it justice!

J x

Curio is a go

First off, thank you to Laura for sending me the pattern pieces I needed to get started on my Curio quilt, I have been working on it for just over a week now and haven't made as much progress as I had hoped, but it is coming on and I am loving the accuracy of paper piecing!

My first job is to make the kite sections for the centre, in the pattern it calls for crazy piecing and then just cutting out all the kite shapes, but I wanted a bit more order than that so I have been strip piecing my kites.

So far I have 8 full sets, for the full 8x8 block quilt I will need 32 sets but as I am concerned about the amount of fabric I have, I have decided to start off making a 4x5 block quilt and then expand row by row until I run out.

I really like this layout and I am wondering if I should put a Rocky Road quilt on my Master List of quilts to make?

These are my 'leftovers' they were full sets of 4 kites, but I have used up pairs of them for the half Rocky Roads around the edges, these kites will be used for other edges of the quilt- but for now they are waiting patiently until I catch up.

Last night I laid out my current pieces in place on my suitable makeshift design wall and starting cutting my octagons. Hopefully, by keeping everything organised I won't run out of fabric but I think I am going to have to keep my eyes out for some more... really wish that I had bought a full fat quarter pack first time around, but lesson learned I guess!

I have chosen this set as my first octagon;

And these as my second;

As I have 5 full octagons, and a host of partial octagons to do just for my little 4x5 block baby I guess I had better get piecing.

J x

Loggy Blocks

I have waited nearly a week to write this post, but as they are now quite literally in the post it must be time. This month's block in the Brit Bee was some log cabins for Judith who asked us to put a scrap of our own in the centre. I was sent a lovely collection of baby pinks with a dash of red which went perfectly with the scraps I had left over from Felicity's Nine Patch and as usual it was great to try out a new block pattern.

The first one was just me playing about with my favourite fabrics from the package she sent.

and for the second I followed Quilt Dad's tutorial for a Wonky Log Cabin as I intended to do a block with a bit more detail and was hoping to hide and 'inconsistencies' *wink*

And the best bit of completing my January blocks for Judith... Februrary is my turn!!! Woohoo!!!

J x

Block Conundrum

Ooooh, I HAVE been away a while! I have done practially no sewing at all since New Year (unless you imclude fixing the hanging hook on my coat!) but I have had great intentions to start on my next quilt.

Last night I found the pattern I had saved for my Curio quilt and was ready to start slicing fabric, but I'm just not keen on it any more. After much research, I decided that Curio looks best in really detailed quilts and I found one that I think I will end up copying, but I am not quite sure how to do it.

My inspiration is here at Bellet Blog and the following picture is her own quilt.

I love the concentric circle spiderweb with a string pieced diamond shape between. It looks like a mixture between a Spiderweb and a Rocky Road to Kansas quilt. But the bit I can't figure out is how to draw the pattern pieces.

I have been researching Spiderweb blocks and the best I have found is at A La Mode which was sent to me by Kris, but the problem I have is that at this step;

(photograph from A La Mode's tutorial)

I need to split it into 3 seperate blocks (the left and right hand triangles would form segments of 2 spiderwebs and the central kite would be a quarter of a rocky road) so that I can make strings for each segment.

but what do I do about seam allowances? The tutorial has already accounted for seam allowances around the outside of the complete triangle (I presume) so do I just add 1/4inch along each side of the 2 blue lines for each of the pieces?

Advice needed as I think I fried my brain trying to do this last night and I really want to get started!

J x

EDIT: thank you Laura, my package arrived last night and it looks perfect. I can't wait to get started now! X

Missed Bee Update

Going through a year's worth of photos yesterday, I found some completed Bee blocks that had never been posted.

First off is Miss May's LynneBob Square Pants block from Lily's Quilts, thanks for easing us in gently Trudi!

And I also forgot to post June's Disappearing 9 Patch for Fiona which was a HUGE relief and something that had been on my list for a while :)

Unfortunately my pictures of the blocks are rubbish, but you get the gist, right?!

Do you remember those sunny days that we used to have? I hope we don't have to wait too much longer for them to come back!

J x

Look who's pieced!

So I planned and planned, and wrote some lists, and planned some more about all the tings I want/ need to do before Christmas (and the inconsiderate people who decided to have their birthdays in December) and, well, it turns out that there might not be enough time to get it all done before Christmas!

With my new found emergency motivation I dragged out Fifi's quilt and got to work, and look who's pieced together now!

I love the pinks and red in this quilt, and whilst there is one or two blocks I would reconsider if I was to repeat it, I think they all work pretty well together.

Last night I also squeezed in time to put together the bindings for Fifi's Nine Patch and for the Mystery Mix Tape,  which now needs to be quilted and bound asap as the recipient was born a week early at the weekend!

and no, I am not showing you my list! Off to do some quilting (and maybe some roasting of extra Christmas presents if I have enough time tonight)

J x

Twins!

I have been trying to keep quiet about this all week- but now Miss October has received her blocks I feel free to post away... This month Laura asked for "stars," pretty much any stars in the whole wide quilty world and believe me I checked every corner!

After changing my mind a few times at the beginning of the month I decided to stretch my wings and try out some beautiful paper pieced designs I had seen on the Freshly Pieced Summer Sampler Series

My very favourite, and most star like blocks, were the Arkansas Traveller and Rocky Road to Kansas (and how excited was I when I saw that Laura had commented on the Arkansas block- I thought I was on to a winner... a very secret winner) so I started cutting and playing with my own fabrics and graduated to Laura's lovelies!

Imagine my surprise when I log in to flickr to inform the ladies that my blocks are in the post, and to post some sneaky previews, when *shock horror* I see that the first 2 pictures in my photostream are from Judith at Needles and Lemons, who has chosen the EXACT TWO BLOCKS and to make matters worse; she is a damn sight better than I am!

So, long story short, sorry Miss Laura, at least you gave us all different colours! Next time I will be checking flickr more religiously!

J x

ps. check in for more lessons next month, when I will be screwing up HSTs for one month only... if I'm lucky!