Never Mind the Vomit!

Woo Hoo, September, tomorrow(!), and it is my month wielding the Stitch Tease crown.  I knew what I was going to ask for so long ago that now it my turn, I am busting with excitement!

Ladies, we are making a low volume Scrap Vomit, but without the vomit!

I know the theory behind the original Vom is to use up all those Oh My Eyes scraps that have seen better days, creating something wonderful in the end.

OK, but this is me!  I am looking for beautiful low volume, text and prints, maybe the odd fussy-cut too, so it looks gentle and pretty, not full of fuglies and grotters that just happen to work.  That said, I don't believe for one moment that any of my fellow Teasers have a stash full of munters, and I trust them!

I made a mosaic a while back...

... just to show that low-volume doesn't mean just cream and white!  The one in the bottom right corner is an example of what I don't want.  Not enough colour and waaaaay too much brown.

The quilt uses two types of block, so I would like one of each from the ladies.

Here's my first block...

For the cross blocks I would like greys, dark pinks and turquoise, not in solids, again in a mix of fabrics...

All the instructions that anyone could need are on Katy's blog, as part of the quiltalong.

I realise these blocks are 7x7 for a 14(1/2)" block rather than 6x6, but I am hoping my fellow Bees will see that, without any wastage on these blocks, they will probably be using less fabric than more complicated 12(1/2)" blocks require... here's hoping!

I think this quilt has the makings of awesomeness!

For the siggy blocks, I would like 3 x 2.5" blocks sewn together with a centre white square with just first names signed in the middle.  These will be sewn together to make the elusive 25th block.  I haven't made mine yet.

So I've told you what I want, what I really really want, and hope that rest of the Stitch Teasers are pleasantly surprised that I have not dreamt up anything too difficult ;)

Now to just sit back and wait for the postman, hee hee!

New Stuff!

OK, well aware that I have been flashing my old finishes at you over and over again these last couple of days, I thought you might like to see some (mostly) new makes for a change.

I have deliberately kept my July 'To Do' list as short as possible, in order to concentrate on Retreat prep, and the inevitable aftermath and start of the school holidays; so I have flung myself into July's 'Must Do's with avengence!

I have already made...

Blocks for t'other Di our Stitch Tease Queen for July...

I will be able to hand these over in person, bonus!

Blocks for Bee Blessed...

Which will also make their way to Northern Ireland via Retreat.

A c.20" whopper block for the Siblings Together Bee...

My thanks again go to the wonderful sponsors for this year of charity makes...

      

            

      

And I have just begun a little something that I have been thinking about for ages, and now the decks are clearer, I have the imaginary green light...

Obviously, with all this productivity I am almost running out of fabric, so luckily my birthday pressie from my sister arrived from New Zealand today...

1/2m cuts of some beautiful Sarah Fielke fabric from Spotlight, (oh to have a Spotlight/JoAnns equivalent in the UK!).

And I am going to add in here these blocks, that I made way back when, for a very special friend and her fine gentleman...

The mastermind, ring-mistress and all-round super special friend that is Susan, has posted best about the quilt made by the self-proclaimed 'Circle of Friends'.  It was an honour to be a part of this secretive international group, and a cheeky thrill that it made Cindy cry when she got it - a sure sign that our work was a success!

So there you go.  I still need to work on my pre-Retreat, all-about-me post, so you have that to look forward to.  Now I am going to turn up the TV, to drown out the ringing in my ears from today's recorder concert, and do some hand stitchery.  Nice xxx

Siblings Together June Bee Block

Unless you sew under a rock, you will know all about the Siblings Together charity, and you probably know that Lynne recently set up the first Siblings Together Bee, of which I am a proud member.  This in turn has lead to the creation of spin off Bees, all making quilts for this brilliant cause.

Lynne has secured such an amazing bunch of sponsors for our Bee to whom we all owe so much, and this morning I finished off my contributions to the first, June quilt.

      

            

      

Lynne sent us all some PB&J by Basic Grey, and blogged the full instructions right down to which way to press the seams; and there were a lot of seams, but they result in a great mega-block...

I would have added a picture of Lynne's Touchdraw representation of the whole quilt top, because it is going to look great, but I haven't worked out how new Flickr expects me to do this!

It's not my month until next April, so I have plenty of time to think up what I want the ladies to make, and I am going to enjoy all the other Bee blocks in the meantime.

Siblings Together 2013 and beyond...

I promised you a finish and reveal, so a finish and reveal you shall have!

My contribution to this summer's Siblings Together camp is a collaboration with Amanda (Scissors & Thread), as she kindly offered some beautiful Tula Pink - Hushabye strips for the cause, which I snapped up at the point when she was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her baby; she is now a yummy-mummy to cutie-pie James, win-win!

After pondering too long, I added some Kona Snow to make a simple staggered-strip top...

I told you about my backing luck yesterday, unfortunately the bright sunshine today has bleached the pictures a little, but it truly is a very vintage girly quilt!

Before washing it measured 54" x 62", and it doesn't appear to have shrunk much, just enough for some lovely crinkles.  In the overall scale of quilts it isn't huge, but to snuggle under on the sofa, or to lay on your bed and look pretty, it fits the bill perfectly.

I quilted each side of the seams with 50wt Aurifil 2021, and bound it in the same fabric as the backing...

I just need to get the label on, and then this can be popped into my Aeroplane bag ready for Retreat.

And in anticipation of both Siblings Together 2014, and dare I even start mentioning, FQR14, I am now also part of the Siblings Together Quilting Bee, producing one quilt per month for a year.

If you are interested in joining a second group of UK-based ladies, there is a flickr thread here, and if you are in continental Europe, Dianne has also started a thread here.

If you have previously made a quilt for Siblings Together in solitude, then maybe a bit of camaraderie would be a refreshing change, or if you have always wanted to join a Bee and already have way too many quilts of your own (oh as if) then a charity Bee could be right up your alley.  Again I am sure any contributions of wadding and backing would be much appreciated by all involved.

So with a finish, reveal, good deeds, a tick off my FAL list and last call for my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, I think I have all the bases covered this evening!

Stitch Tease - Mystery Revealed!

Queen Bee, Strip Mama, our fearless leader Di got the ball rolling yesterday with her grand reveal; which is only right, as she was the mastermind behind the last 12 months, but today you will notice posts popping up by the rest of the worker Bees.



It seems like a very long time ago that this merry band of stitchers started pondering what we wanted from this twisted Bee; Di's post goes over the whole whos and hows, so I won't repeat that again now.

Suffice to say, my initial request went something like this...

I do not want wonky,
I would like a combo of squares and rectangles of various sizes,
I would like as many different prints as you can muster within the strip, or rather, as few repeats as possible within a row, but some repeats between rows, if you spot a print someone else has used will help the quilt be more cohesive,
Like Susan, I like the idea of negative space, so within the strip I would like about half a dozen random white squares of various sizes, as long as they are white I do not mind if they are Moda Bella, Kona or Klona, just proper white!
Colours:
Mostly Teal, Aqua, Orange, Green, Blue, Grey with touches of other colours within prints is fine, like the Dis (plural) fabric selections, but no big chunks of red or primary colours thank you.
Prints & Fabrics:
I think a mixture of big and smaller scale prints will work really well; a strip of all large, or all teeny won't look so good. No solids thank you.
I HATE batiks, please don't try to sneak any in, they make me sad, also anything that has that smudgy look, or like little bubbles, you know the sort.
I love bolder more graphic prints, think Amy Butler, Momo and Joel Dewberry but ANY Heather Ross is more than welcome.
No comedy, or kiddie prints!

I don't ask for much. 

... and my inspiration mosaic looked like this...

My inital block was made and then sent on to Katy for the duration...

Twelve secretive months went by, and without further ado, (as if you haven't scrolled down to look already!), this is the wonderful quilt top that I received back...

I. Love. It!

I unwrapped mine first, and it was soooooooooooo hard to not gloat and flash it all about whilst all the others were still waiting; but it did mean it could get the full photo-shoot treatment!

I can tell who's blocks are whose by our tell-tale signature fabrics, and love it so much for all the prints that have been pulled with me in mind; it has turned out more beautiful than I imagined it could...

When you see all the finished tops you would be forgiven for thinking that mine was the simple relation of the group, but trust me, it is entirely what I wanted, and 10"x 60" blocks are not as simple to piece as they look!

I love all the blocks I made for the rest of the Bee, and I promise I will give you a run-down of all my contributions later in the week. 

This quilt is already on my FAL Q2 list, backing and batting are ready and waiting, so it shouldn't be too long before I have it finished.

I have said it before, (oh you should see the number of emails that have gone on during this first year!!), but I will say it again, for the record, thank you all, Di, Katy, Susan, Annabella, Dianne, Helen and Danny for my smashing quilt and a super year of stitching.  Love, love, love xxx

Bring on the strippers!

Possibly the worst kept Top Secret Bee in the history of Top Secret Bees, but March sees the start of 'Stitch Tease - an international Quilt Bee'; there have been rather a lot of clues.

You may have spotted this button around...





Or seen my inspiration mosaic on flickr...

So now it's time for the grand reveal.

8 International Ladies of Mystery, myself included, have teamed up, under the command of our great leader Di, to form a modern Round Robin, without the round, and quite possibly without the robin too, to make blocks, yes there are a few squares in this Bee ;) or in my case strips, wa-hey!  These will be made for each other and will all be collected and made into a quilt top before being sent back to their owner.

We will only have sneak peaks allowed online, although emails will be flying, filling in the others with how the quilts are progressing, but none of us will know exactly how our own quilt will look until about a years time when it lands on the doormat!

Now, although it appears my fellow Bees were expecting me to come up with some wild and  complicated request, as if, I think I have the least complex idea of the lot.  I am a lady of simple pleasures don't you know.

I am asking for 10" x 60" strips of square and rectangular (non-wonky) blocks, and included within the strip, 5 or 6 white squares.

So here is my starter block, photographed as the sun was setting...

It was a little trickier to put together than it may appear at first glance, as all the blocks are different sizes and need to fit together jigsaw-puzzle-like.

Many of the fabrics are favourites, many are treasured scraps, and all are different.  I have asked for predominately turquoisey-orangey-greeny colours, although there are touches of grey, pink and red in there to spice things up too.

We have also chosen a fabric to include in all the blocks we make; mine is the Cloud 9 Herons.  My village has a heron as its symbol, so I thought this was very apt...

I am hoping that my quilt will have such a wonderful range of prints in it, so that it will be a total fabric-loving joy to own.   I am really looking forward to testing myself on the other's blocks now, which will include lots of stars, paper-piecing and other fun and games!

Bring it on!