Catching up on September Bee Blocks

For Crystal of the Fresh n' Funky bee


Lynette said she did both blocks in an hour. That shows what an excellent seamstress she is as it took me four! (just for you who are slow like me... you are not alone!)


These are for Jo in Edinburgh. Ohio stars for her spare room quilt.



Still more to catch up on before I can do my own.. Next holiday I must keep to shedule and not get so behind :-)

Eurovision bee - September - Tick!

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.

Catherine's new Etsy Shop

Hey guys, Catherine from Catherine's Attic has a new Etsy shop. Look at this e.g. which is in there! (but of course loads more... go see !)



To celebrate she is also having a giveaway. Quick go and see!!

DQS9 finished and a bee-block frenzy....

I have been a bit quiet this week.. Having been away longer than anticipated, I was behind with commitments, and if anybody knows me, they know I like to be in time!!

First up was finishing DQS9. It's all done, quilted and bound and being sent off tomorrow. I hope you like it partner!!



A shot of the back...



Then there were the various bees...

I was behind for Christiane's 9 patch for July in the Eurovision bee... sorry Christiane you had to wait so long... I managed to get three blocks out of the fabrics for you.




That finished off July. In August there were Marit with a fantastic photo tutorial (thanks Marit, I love a good tutorial!) to make a sweet person.



and Leah, who is making a cute pink heart quilt for her daughter.



Karen, over at the Fresh and Funky bee wanted a 12 1/2" block that consisted of any pattern that can be divided in squares (like 4 patch/ 9 patch etc.). Cat set us onto the path of Quilterscache, and I found this one. I hope you like it Karen..



Lynz requested wonky stars for the Quick Christmas bee..



whereas Maria was making an advent calendar...



That rounds up the backlog to the bees for August and I am up to date!!

Rests to send out my own fabrics for the Eurovision bee for September, and both the Eurovision and Fresh and Funky September blocks which are still to arrive. Also awaiting Jo's Christmas block. But....

those are all September ones and... I AM UP TO DATE again.... YAY !!!

Now catching up with all that did not get done in the house.. lol... so you might not hear for a bit again... See you soon though!

My DQS9 arrived!!

And just LOOK at it !!!!



Isn't it just beautiful?? In the big picture you cannot see all the wonderful details so here is a close up of some of the dolphins and the rope work around..










This is the label on the back. A great title and there is something very special in knowing this was made especially for me!



And that was not all!! Teresa, the Lochside Quilter from the Scottish Higlands hit the nail on the head with her entire lovely package! She must have been reading my blog very well as she could not have done better!!

I love blue, I love nature and dolphins and an amazing thing is that I love the Scottish Highlands and actually just came from there... Possibly passing Teresa's house (without knowing) within a couple of miles on the day she was posting the package!!

Look at all these goodies... A lovely needlecase, which I will use with great pleasure, a very nice scissor charm (blue of course!) and a beautiful card plus shortbread, which is great to have with my tea as I am missing Scotland allready!



Thank you SO MUCH, Teresa!! I came home after a long arduous drive, very tired and a little sad, and finding the parcel waiting for me (and not only that... realizing it had followed me from Scotland) was amazing and all the care and attention you have given it really touched me and made me cry!

You couldn't have done better! I am so happy with my little quilt, it will have place of honour in my sewingroom!

Edinburgh.... and back to base!

Hello friends and readers!

A sign of life from me! I have not been blogging (as announced) but.. unexpectedly.. I have not been on flickr and email either!

I had some plans for this summer, none of which included spending the summer in Edinburgh! but circumstances change, and you have to go with the wind when they do..

Firstly Karen (Karen's Cosmos blog) missed her plane to Edinburgh and ended up stranded near London. Now she was due to come and visit later on, but we quickly changed plans and she and her 10 year old son, arrived on my doorstep late at night after a long and arduous journey. So plans changed and we travelled up to Edinburgh by car. I ended up staying longer than anticipated and Karen and I emptied the Edinburgh shops! She has a wonderful eye for colour and dress and found some gems for me to wear in the racks, which I then of course had to have!

I was very kindly invited to her son's wedding, but ended up returning home before the event. Again, change of circumstances and going with that wind... I was worried about my dog barking too much with the rest of Karen's family arriving (and being new to my excellent guarddog!) as well as changing beds to accomodate everyone and not sleeping well on the new mattress (I get migraines if the mattress is too soft) so rather than becoming a problem to Karen and outstaying my welcome (although she was very sweet saying I was welcome to stay) I decided she deserved to concentrate on the wedding without any added problems and now am back home.

I had a great time though but now have a list as long as my arm to catch up on! Apart from house and family, sewingwise I have to apologize to my DQS9 partner for being absent! No blogging over the summer must have been a bit bleak... sorry! I really needed that break.. Also apologies to my various bee partners... I am late with August.. September trickling in, and a quilt of my own to send out... I feel a sewing marathon coming on...

Consequently I will be blogging but not every day for the time being. I will also be on email again (which I was not over the summer) and answer you as normal but promised myself not to be on the computer more than half an hour at a time... I tended to get totally stuck surfing and it is eating to much into the time I need to do other things...

I have come back to thousands of blog posts on my google reader and 350 emails... Again, I will take it a bit at a time so if you have written and don't hear from me, please could you resend to the top of the list? It will be a while before I am straight again...

Last but not least thank you to all who wrote to wish me a relaxing break. It will be great to re-connect.

Off to send out envelopes and unpack those suitcases now... Looking forward to getting 'back into the groove'. I will leave you with some images from Edinburgh.


Edinburgh, a lovely view through one of the streets into the distance



Going down the steps to 'The Mound' to meet the girls..


Here they are! Jo (Bearpaw), Karen (Karen's Cosmos) 'The Chookie' herself,Lynz's lovely daughter(she deserves to be in the picture, she took everyone elses!), and Lynz herself (Domestic Light and Magic).


I also spotted Dr Who must be in town...


You never know where the wind blows you if you go with the flow....!!