Trial layout

I finally had a little time for sewing this afternoon but decided to see how many blocks I had for a Twinkler Quilt.  I intend to make this a donation quilt for Siblings Together. The minimum size they require is 50" square so I worked out if I set my Twinklers 9 blocks by 9 that should finish at 54" square. I don't really enjoy making larger quilts, quite hard to sandwich together without getting lots of wrinkles so this size is good for me.

So a quick layout looked like this:

Adding this picture to Busy Hands, Finished or Not Friday.

All the blocks need trimming - horrid job so I'll tackle the blocks a few at a time. I probably should have trimmed them as I went along!

I even have 30 blocks left over, useful for swapping if I feel some of the blocks in this current Trial Layout are too similar.

I also counted up how many 5" String blocks I have made - 105.

I have made a note of how many of each colour I need to make to be able to sort them into sets of 4 for each block. Not too many.

It's amazing how these Projects using scrap blocks mount up.

Queen Bee duties completed

This morning I finished The Wee Bees April Quilt!
And I am ridiculously pleased with it!

TA DA!!!

 

Three other Wee Bees contributed 2 blocks each to which I added 3 more blocks. Then I put them together, added borders, quilted using mostly machine quilting but hand quilted with Perle thread around the stars to make them stand out.

I made the outer border from 2.5" squares - my stash of squares plus gifted ones from the other Wee Bees.  I think the mixture added a lot to the quilt.

 

The completed quilt measures 60" square, a lot larger than most of the quilts I usually make.

I thought I would have to piece a backing as I don't really have huge pieces of fabric in my stash.

I found the largest piece I had, a bright pink and turquoise spotty number which, with a bit of cutting and piecing, created a backing of the right size.  Because of the busy print the joins aren't particularly noticeable.

 

 

 

As the quilt is already bright and scrappy I felt a quieter binding was needed.

Another rummage in my stash and I found a large piece of white with pale blue wiggly stripes. This was gifted to me by one of my lovely Patchwork Group friends.  It was a piece of a valance she had made for a bed sheet but as it was no longer needed she gave some to me. 

I felt this was just the fabric for this quilt and I am really pleased with the gentle way it completes the quilt. I like re-purposing fabric too so this ticked two boxes.

 

 

I am so pleased that I chose this block style for the Wee Bees April Quilt.

I think the charm of the quilt is all the lovely, quirky fabrics everyone chose for their blocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 3 blocks:

Purple centre block

Bottom right pink block

 

 

 

Blue block

 

There was a lot of work involved in making this quilt but I am thrilled with the end result.

I will be sewing on the label this afternoon and then it will be ready to be parcelled up to send to the Siblings Together Charity.

 

Thanks to Nicky Eglinton who asked for Wee Bees to volunteer to make quilts for Siblings Together.

The Wee Bees has now completed three quilts and the fourth is in the pipeline.  I think we have worked together so well, especially as we all live in different parts of the country and have never actually met - other than on line!

Have a look at Nicky's blog: mrssewandsow.blogspot.co.uk

Pink, purple & orange Quilt - finished!

Another finished quilt - my 4th for 2016 and my 2nd for Siblings Together.

And the pieced back made from several different fabrics.

 

About three weeks ago I sewed together 12 Sewing Bee blocks which were a UFO from 5 years ago.

 

I added 5 hearts to one block as it looked rather empty in the middle.

 

 

 

And here it is in the finished quilt:

 

 

The appliqued hearts were hand blanket stitched with embroidery floss and then I hand quilted around each heart using a variegated purple Perle cotton.

 

Another of the blocks looked very pale and minimalist compared to some of the other blocks so I added 5 triangles which were blanket stitched and hand quilted in the same way as the hearts:

 

 

I also hand quilted in white thread around the windmill sails to make them stand out more.

 

Three more of my favourite sections of the quilt:

 

 

 

I am so pleased with this quilt.  Another set of UFO blocks turned into a quilt which will be donated to Siblings Together, such a worthwhile cause.

It has made a very useful-sized quilt, 50" x 62".

 

Wow, I won Katy's Giveaway!

Last week I entered a Giveaway with a difference on Katy's blog, imagingermonkey.blogspot.co.uk/
The fabric was Savanna bop and if you won you were to use the fabrics to make a quilt for the Siblings Together Project.  You can read all about this on Katy's blog.
This evening I received an email to say I had won the Giveaway so now my head is spinning with ideas for a possible quilt.  I hope that when the fabrics arrive all will become clear as to what sort of quilt I should make.
It's a great cause and I hope I can do it ( and the wonderful fabrics) justice!

Do have a look at Katy's blog and see if you could make a quilt for Siblings Together or look at the Flickr group www.flickr.com/groups/siblingstogether/