Siblings Together 2015...

Over the past week, the Siblings Together stitchers, those in the Bees, those independently stitching and some of those wanting to contribute in any small way they can, have been bandying ideas about raising the profile of this wonderful charity once again.

Sadly there will be no early summer FQR for a grand handover this year, but that is no reason not to be involved in whatever way you can.

Maria has blogged here, and with a goal of 100 quilts before summer, Mary has come up with this gem…

Provided byFund-Raising-Ideas-Center.com

… which I will be adding to my side bar was a constant reminder of things to be done!  Mary will also be guesting over at Lynne's blog over the weekend, so please make sure you check that out too.

If you haven't heard of this charity before, have a look at the posts above and let one of us know if you want to be involved.  Even if you are not up for any sewing, donations of fabric and wadding are more than welcome.  The flickr group is also full of information, requests and ideas.

Let's bust that target!

Just keep stitching...

xxx

Binding times...

Today my view mostly looked like this...

My Siblings Together quilt was basted, quilted and binding on, all by the time the sun came out and made the conservatory too hot to sew.

In that time I also had a visit from the RAC man.  He wired on my exhaust pipe, as the car was making horrible noises this morning; fortunately for my sanity and purse it is only a broken bracket.

So just now I thought I would machine stitch down the binding, for the first time ever.  I hate it.  I got halfway round and decided enough was enough.  I only have about 180" to rip out.  I really think I should be putting a fancy un-picker on my birthday list what with the amount of time I have spent with my cheapo one this last week or so!

Do you machine stitch down your bindings?  Am I the only one who thinks it looks rubbish?  Or am I the only one who makes it look less than acceptable?  I do love finishing of my quilts by hand, which, it would appear is a bloody good job!

Bank Holiday Fun...

I have had a really busy weekend of the family-variety; lots of shopping for shoes and waterproofs, junkfood, skateboards and rollerskates!

We went to a couple of boot fairs today, and scored the aforementioned skateboard for £1 and skates for £2, last of the big spenders we are!

I even got a little sewing in too, piecing the top for my Siblings Together quilt...

The blocks were randomly placed; I did lay them out on the floor last night, but being so mahoooosive it was a bit hard to really see what was going on.

In real life it is not quite so bright, and I like it better than these pics show - the details are lost in the sunshine, still, I'm not complaining about that!

Oh, and did I mention that there was a little online fabric shopping, you wait to see what I got!!

I have just cleared by Inbox, and still want to scoot through my Reading list, but that may be a job for the iPad in bed, so commenting will be minimal, there really are not enough hours in the day round here xxx

Last of the Month, Last of the Year...

I haven't had a look back over this month's productivity yet, but I crammed in another finish this evening just for luck.

I came home from work to a pretty bundle of fabric from Nicky for our May Siblings Together block...

The twelfth quilt of this wonderful Bee is under construction!  My contribution was sewn up super quickly after tea...

A smashing 18" finished block; thank you Nicky for a lovely choice to top off this year, and thanks as always to all our amazing and generous sponsors...

      

            

      

I have loved every month of this Bee; I am just waiting on a couple more blocks for April and then I am going to go visit my sponsor, Eclectic Maker and choose my backing.

I can't wait to get stitching, so that the quilt will be ready for handing over at Fat Quarterly Retreat in July!

Ferrero Rocher anyone?

Siblings Together...

If you are a longtime follower of my bloggy space, you will know that I am a member of the Siblings Together Quilting Bee; April will be my month as Queen Bee.  But before all that, just a little backtracking for those who are not familiar with the wonderful cause.

Two years ago, Lynne highlighted a charity that helps re-unite siblings separated by the care system in the UK.  They run summer holiday camps where the brothers and sisters get to spend valuable time together. Lynne tells it all way better than me, and will guarantee you a few tears.  And so making quilts for these children, to give them something to take back home and remind them of their precious time together began.

Lynne's blogpost spurred on individual quilts, collaborative quilts, quilts from all over the globe, many of which converged on the first Fat Quarterly Retreat.

I made a quilt, a very pink quilt...

The Queen and her Jubilee shindig foiled a grand handover, but off went the quilts and the first recipients were presented with them later that summer.  And then this happened...

Tears? Oh yeah!

So in 2013, I made another one; this was made with some donated Tula strips from Amanda, and I handed it over, along with those from many many others, at FQR13...

I jumped at the chance of being in the awesome Bee, being able to make huge quilts with the kind support of our amazing sponsors...

      

            

      

And so now I am a self-proclaimed Quilt Ambassador!!!  I feel like I need a sweatshirt at least!

And here are next month's blocks...

Using a couple of fat quarters of Gina Martin's Sewing Box, I am asking my fellow Bees to make a pair of St Louis 16 patch blocks using Steffani's measurements and easy-peasy tutorial.

I made 8 blocks in a couple of hours; this will take the total up to 30 blocks for a 5 x 6 arrangement, and the bright colours of this collection are guaranteed to make a super fun quilt.

So that's where we are.  If you want to get involved too, by donating a whole quilt, contributing some blocks or maybe you just have some fabric which may be of use to others, then please check out the Siblings Together flickr group in the first instance, or give me a shout.

We can never do too much.  Thank you xxx

Satisfaction is...

... coming home from work and managing to get one of my monthly commitments under my belt in the 3/4hr before the kids were due to be picked up from school!

This month in the Siblings Together Quilting Bee, Carol set us Melissa Corry's succinctly named The Original Happy Quilting Quilt Along block!  I had a bit of a head-scratch moment when I saw I was going to lose my points, but that there's the pattern, so no harm done...

We had the lovely Kate & Birdie's Storybook fabric to play with from Moda, and the twofer construction of the block means that we have partial blocks to send back to Carol as well...

... bonus!

I can't believe we are already in the 10th month of this brilliant Bee, it's my turn to play Mama next month, so I am looking forward to that!

Thanks again wonderful sponsors!