More finishes

I really have the QAYG blocks bug!  Makes a change from the horrid bug I have suffered from for 5 weeks:  incredibly sore throat, high temperature, aches and pains, time in bed, lost my voice for several days ( no witty comments about my husband enjoying some peace and quiet!) and then a croaky voice for weeks.  Hopefully now back to normal.

However, in between lying in bed feeling rotten I made 8 more QAYG blocks for
Nicky's Siblings Together Block Drive. They are such fun to make.  I have another two block fronts made but ran out of batting so I'm waiting until my order arrives in the post.  Hopefully these 8 blocks are now with Nicky.

 

 

 

 

As I am part of the Wee Bees Group making quilts for the same charity I decided to get on and make the 2 May blocks suggested by this month's QB Gill. She has chosen Disappearing Nine Patches, a design I have seen and put on my ever-growing List of Things to Try.  So now I have.  Loved making the blocks which are very large so we can make quilts quite quickly. These used 7.5" squares.

 

Now putting together the border on my own Siblings Together quilt. I have another SB quilt ready to sandwich and  a commission Baby Quilt to sandwich so plenty of sewing on the go!

On a roll! Turning out the blocks

It's the start of May already. Here in the UK it is May Bank Holiday and it's wet and horrid.
I feel sorry for the folk who work and this is the day they were hoping to go out for the day, spend time gardening etc. As my husband and I are retired we don't usually make plans for Bank Holidays.

However, I have been very busy over the weekend churning out blocks to make into QAYG blocks for Nicky's Block Drive for Siblings Together. (Siblings Together Quilt Group post from Thursday 28 April 2016).

Here they are, spread on my bedroom carpet:

 

 

All bright and colourful - they are so much fun to make and it is good to see partly used FQs and scraps being used up for a good reason.

 

I have definitely got the bug for making these blocks and whilst I was on a roll I made 10 blocks! 

Then I had to ferret through my stash looking for low volume fabrics for the backings and also batting scraps.  It's surprising how much fabric and batting pieces I have used up in order to create 22" squares. Nicky said we could piece batting and also backing scraps which I have done for several of the blocks.

But I am now completely out of batting  apart from one large piece I am keeping on one side to use on the April Wee Bees Quilt I will be putting together later this week. A shame because I just have 2 more QAYG blocks to assemble.  Never mind, these two will have to wait until my next visit to a Quilt Shop. Not sure when that might be, perhaps mid June when my Patchwork Group usually has an outing.  Otherwise I hope there might be a little left over from the Wee Bees April Quilt so they can be finished sooner.

I have started to machine quilt the other 8, two finished and this one had its ends sewn in whilst I was watching television yesterday evening.

 

The blue & lilac flowered fabric which looks like 1970's bed sheets is  actually from a pack of (very) roughly cut 10" squares of fabrics I have had in my stash for several years. I picked them up at my NZ Patchwork Group when one of the members was getting rid of unwanted scraps and stash.

These QAYG blocks seemed as good a project as any to start to use them up.  I have used quite a few: pink & lilac and yellow & pale orange ones too.

 

Off to machine quilt the rest of the blocks.

 

Happy sewing!

Arrival of more Wee Bees blocks

I do love receiving post and when it contains two more Star blocks from the Wee Bees Group it's even better!

Tanya sent these blocks:

 

Thank you, Tanya!

 

A red and a pink, using a great selection of fabrics. Funnily enough the Chicken fabric Tanya used in the red block is the same fabric as one of the squares in my blue block. I also have this fabric in yellow, which may be used if the third block I make needs to be yellow. That colour choice will depend on which colours the fourth member of the Wee Bees chooses for her blocks.

 

I am so looking forward to putting these blocks together into a quilt for the Siblings Together Project.

Addicted! More QAYG for the Block Drive

I love making QAYG blocks and over the past few years I have many various ones for different charities.

Earlier this week I made 2 blocks for the Siblings Together Block Drive being run by
Nicky ( mrssewandsow.blogspot.co.uk)

I so enjoyed making them I have made another three blocks which I'll post to Nicky today.
Definitely addicted!

Here they are:

 

 

I so enjoyed searching through my stash for suitable fabrics to put together for the blocks.
In some cases I absolutely finished larger scraps of fabric that have been tucked away, ready for a project such as this. 

Don't forget, if you have scraps you could cut 4.5" squares from, you could enjoy making a QAYG block too. Give it a try!

 

 

Block Drive for Siblings Together

A few days ago I read Nicky's blog post requesting QAYG blocks so she could make them into quilts for Siblings Together.  I enjoy making QAYG blocks and her tutorial was very clear and straightforward.  I made two blocks very quickly and enjoyed machine quilting each block.

 

 

 

The blocks are made from 4.5" strips so they come together quickly to make a 20.5" block so only 9 blocks are required for a quilt. I enjoyed looking through my stash to find some co-ordinating fabrics to make the blocks.

If you would like to make some blocks then have a look at Nicky's blog post:

Block Drive for Siblings Together

 

Wee Bees blocks received

At the beginning of the year I signed up for a Bee which was going to make four quilts for
The Siblings Together charity. I have sent blocks to Tanya for February and to Jo for March.  It was my turn to be Queen Bee for April.  I chose a White Star block which I had wanted to try for ages - this was my opportunity! I made two blocks  which I loved and now the group is beginning to send theirs to me.
I was really excited today to receive the first two blocks from Jo.  Here they are:

 

There are some lovely fabrics showcased in these blocks, including the Three Bears, foxes, shells etc.

 

I had also asked if Wee Bees could send me some 2.5" squares as I intend to make one of the quilt borders using squares as I hope to get more variety this way. Jo very kindly included some in her parcel. Thank you, Jo!

 

I know Tanya's blocks are finished so it will be interesting to see which colours I get.  The quilt will consist of 9 blocks so once all four sets are with me I will need to make an extra block to "fill in the colour gaps".

 

If you have a look at the Siblings Together blog and click on the " Quilt Link up " tab you will see photos of all the quilts made so far for this year's summer  camp. The quilt that Tanya organised and completed is Number 26. Really pretty log cabin.

 

If you can help with this worthwhile project please do!

 

 

 

 

Look what I won!

Our first day back in our NZ house I went to a local Quilt Show.  Really good venue in one of the church halls in town. Lovely quilts, all displayed very well. This is a new annual show, only started last year. The idea of a couple of local quilters who felt there were quilters who did not belong to clubs so were unable to display the lovely quilts they made.  There was a raffle in aid of St John's Ambulance so of course I bought a few tickets and - amazingly - I won Second Prize which is a beautiful Zig Zag Quilt. I really like Zig Zags and once made a scrappy one for a baby quilt gift.

I love the white backgrounds to the different coloured zigzag stripes. And my favourite colour, aqua for the boarders and binding.  I am thrilled!  It's a lap sized quilt so I know I will use it back in the UK.

Here it is:

 I have signed up to be part of a Bee making quilts for Siblings Together. We have a Queen Bee for February, Tanya, and she has already given us our block which is a 20" Log Cabin design. Ideally with a solid fabric centre, all the logs in the same colour as the centre but as many different fabrics as you like.  As I had the opportunity to make them yesterday afternoon I decided to seize the moment and make both of mine.  One in pink and one in green as when I looked at the very limited stash I have here in NZ, I discovered I had most in those two colours. I didn't have any solid green fabric so chose one which has a butterfly design that I think stands out fairly well from the surrounding logs.

Here is the green one which my computer has unhelpfully turned around so that the dogs and sheep aren't walking along the horizontal.

 

I have made loads of log cabin blocks before but never any this size!

I will mail them back to the UK when I am next in town.

 

My husband went fishing with our next door neighbour yesterday and caught some gurnard, my favourite fish. It was absolutely delicious. I made a dish of roasted vegetables to accompany the fish - all the veggies (pumpkin, onion, green and yellow courgettes) were from the same neighbour's garden.  So, a VERY local meal!

 

 

 

 

A productive week

At last I have managed to find time for sewing this week and I feel I have accomplished quite a lot!

Firstly, I finished hand quilting the Baby Quilt commissioned by Gemma, put on the binding and popped it in the post on Thursday.

Here it is, all ready to be parcelled up.

When I embroidered the quilt label I changed the name of the quilt to Pastel Patches as I thought this better reflected the fabrics I used.

I hope Gemma likes it!

Then I managed to get a move on with the Siblings Together Medallion Quilt.  I added a few borders until it looked like this:

I then decided the next border would showcase some of the Fat Quarter designs in circles like I have used in several quilts based on a project from the book Scrap Republic.

Whilst I was busy at the sewing machine adding borders I also created more Crumb Blocks, sewing scraps of fabric together as 'Thread catchers". No scrap is too tiny for this project as you can see from this photo!

After sewing the borders I made quite a lot of 'new fabric' which I was able to cut into several Crumb Blocks like these:

As my Crumb Blocks tin was getting rather full I decided to take time out from The Siblings Together Quilt to make a little premature baby quilt top, using a Kona lemon for the sashing.

Oops, this photo is the wrong way round but I don't know how to change it!

I really like the lemon, I think it makes the Crumb Blocks stand out well. Previously I have used aqua and sugar pink sashing for making these little quilts.

I was on a roll so onto the next border for The Siblings Together Medallion Quilt!
Using an idea from one of my favourite books Scrap Republic I have started the side borders for the next round.  I am now hand blanket stitching them, an ideal job whilst watching the Olympics on TV!

So, all in all, a lot of sewing, a lot of TV watching and a great feeling of satisfaction!

Wonky Stars and being spatially challenged

For my current project, using a Gwen Marston idea of a Liberated Medallion Quilt, I decided I needed some small Wonky Stars for the border I am constructing at the moment.
I made a few several days ago and today jumped at the opportunity of having a little sewing time (the family were out!) to make the rest.
When I started quilting I realised that I was spatially challenged ....................   for instance I found Foundation Piecing an impossibility ............. and I really have to concentrate when making Gwen's Wonky Stars.

I obviously didn't concentrate when I made this block:

As you can see, I have muddled the lime Green Kona squares with the Savannah Bop fabrics so you can't really see the Star!  This block has joined my biscuit tin of scraps for future Crumb Quilt blocks!

When I made the last one I didn't want to cut anymore fabric strips, just wanted to use up what I had on my cutting mat.  MISTAKE!  I knew there wasn't an awful lot of contrast between the background squares and the star point fabric but thought it might work.

As you can see, it didn't.  So another consigned to the Crumb block tin!

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THEN I ran out of time! Lovely little Granddaughter back from her bike ride with Daddy, so all my sewing had to be packed away until another opportunity presents itself.

In the meantime I have these Wonky Stars (including the one with no contrast).

This is part of a Quilt I am making for the Siblings Together Project.  I won a set of Savannah Bop Fat Quarters from Katie Jones, of imagingermonkey fame.

Very behind on this one as my sewing time has been severely restricted over the past month due to little granddaughter living here temporarily with her Mummy and Daddy.

So, Katie, if you are reading this post, appologies but I am doing my best!