The Eurovison Bee

One of the bees I am taking part in is the Eurovision Bee, with girls all over Europe! Very interesting to have such a diverse group and some very interesting blocks we have all made in the past!

My month fell originally around the time I had my appendix operation and so I am thankful to them for enabling me to postpone my quilt and tack me right at the end of round one! It has been absolutely great but sadly, due to increased pressures in 'real life' (don't you just hate when that happens?) I have to step back for round two for a bit. Maybe round 3? We will see. I am looking forward to seeing what you guys are going to make!

So now for my own quilt. Firstly, I have never done this before and had the greatest trouble cutting fabrics and imagining how much of what to send to each member... In the end, I just cut a lot of random strips of colours that seemed (sort of) to go together and am hoping for the best... If you do not have enough of a particular fabric, please let me know and I will send you some more!

The fabrics I am using, I have been collecting for a long time. Have you all done that? Having a stack of "precious" fabrics on the shelf you just don't cut into? Well... My Amy Butler Daisy Chain collection, is just one of those! (although there is a bit of Jennifer Paganelli, Paul Prass etc in it too). Also have some batiks and Essex cotton/linen blend in there. I finally have seen the light and decided that this quilt I have in my head needs to be made!

For the pattern I got my inspiration seeing two lovely parterns on the net. My vision is something of a cross between two patterns. The first one is a gorgeous quilt pattern that I really like in its own right! (and will make 'as is' too!). It is the "There is a square in there" pattern by Kate Conklin (click HERE for her blog). Kate has very kindly granted me permission to reproduce the pattern on my blog (Thanks Kate!) and here is a picture of it;

(btw you can buy the pattern HERE)

The other pattern is the Daisy Chain Hedgerow Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of "Oh Fransson". Elizabeth does not grant permission for people to republish her photos for bees, but she is happy for me to link to her photos or add them to a gallery in flickr. Now I have no idea how to do a gallery in flickr (something I will have to learn soon! expect a question in the threads) so I am sorry that you will have to go to Elizabeth's blog. You can click the link HERE, however and get straight through to the image.

I like the Daisy Chain Fabrics Elizabeth used and the block idea with complete rings going around. I tried a similar block;



I also like the way Kate has offset the centres of the squares and made them uneven, so I tried to have a go at that here;



I then also tried to elongate the centre and did not quite manage to get the last circle to go round, but I think mirroring the fabrics top and bottom does work too if that happens...



These are the fabrics I have cut up and sent to you all...



The sashing is going to be Essex cotton/linen blend in 'Sand'. As sold by the lovely Jackie from Canton Village Quilt Works. (See the Essex range HERE) The three solid FQ's on the left are the 3 Essex colours in there.



Apologies for the out of focus photo, but by the time I realized.. I had cut up all the 'sand' and couldn't retake..

SO.....

What I would like to ask you to do is....

* make 12 1/2" unfinished blocks ( to end up 12" finished)
* To offset centres and make as many or as little rings as you like (if you do not have enough fabric, please let me know and I will mail more out)
* On average I have sent out 5 different prints but some of the strips are quite wide and you may be able to re-divide and get two rings out of one fabric. On average you will manage 5 rings but any more (like the 7 in the middle photo) would be grand!
* As far as possible keep the rings in the same fabrics
* I am happy for you to add some of your own as long as it fits in with the colourrange
* Please send back any leftover fabrics (I think I sent quite a lot to be on the safe side...) so I can use those for border and backing.

Any questions please let me know. My email is on the blog, flickrmail on flickr.

Thank you ladies for a most enjoyable 15 month round of our Eurovision Bee. I have really enjoyed it!

The fabrics are going in the mail Monday 6th September 2010.