When there aren't enough words...

... it's best just to sew...

... and make a beautiful Oakshott quilt.
xxx

Winner!!!

I felt like a winner, plucking my finished Brit Bee quilt from the tumble dryer this afternoon; oh it is so beyond what I was expecting.  Working close up on it all week, despite laying it out on the floor from time to time, still didn't prepare me for the full effect of having it held up to be oggled at!

Of course there were photos, but I am going to save the full reveal until tomorrow, when I have had the chance to sort the pictures; however just to keep you going...

Enough of the teasing, I have a winner to announce.  The recipient of a roll of 1.5" HSTs, courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop and Alyce's Having A Starry Time bloghop is...

Congratulations Mareenchen I will email you shortly.

Thank you for all the naming suggestions and block history, I would love to be a position to need to give it a name, but it was just for fun.  I really liked Benta's Scrolling Stars imagery; I had been thinking Staggered Stars, but Chiska's Peek-a-Boo Stars really made me snigger like a 14 year old!

I want to mention now that I noticed there were a tonne of No Reply Bloggers entering this giveaway, fortunately I picked someone I can contact.  Please check your settings peeps, or leave your email address within your comments; I'll make it worth your while again in a couple of days... just saying ;)

So see you tomorrow, when I will reveal my Brit Bee Diamond Nips in full glory xxx

Diamonds are a girl's best friend...

Today I mailed out my Brit Bee fabric parcels.  For a long long time I knew I wanted HSTs again, and I knew I wanted a predominantly orange quilt.  No logical reason for that; it won't go with anything in the lounge or bedroom, but I need an orangey quilt!

I went from random placement, to specific blocks and back to random again, until this mosaic made up my mind, thanks Leanne.  I probably spent the last 6 months snaffling away all the fabrics I wanted to include until it came to crunch time and I had to get cutting.

I didn't have enough orange!!!  So I threw in some of my favourite pinks along with all the text, black and greys I had piled high, and I was even happier.

The block is Diamond Ripples, from 99 Modern Blocks and I already call it Diamond Nipples in my head, we are Brit Bee after all!

So you want to see what it will look like, (or what some of you will be making!), a single 24" block, all cut by my fair hand Sizzix, so none of that HST trimming nonsense...

 I love my block!

And here is an artist's impression of the finished quilt top...

Very excited about this one, and I know the BB ladies will do me proud xxx

Goodness Gracious Me!

What can I say other than...

Thank You!!!

The result of the Canoe Ridge Creations Festival of HSTs was announced in the night, and when I got up this morning the blog post was there, but not there, in a 'Revert to Draft' kind of way - so although I wanted to get excited, I was a little anxious that Megan had posted in error and Brit Bee Constellation was really unplaced! 

Anyhow, a house clean, trip to the shops and a little sewing later, I checked again, and it's true! I am so happy to have come in 2nd place in the Viewer's Vote - you guys are the best! 

Congratulations to the ultimate winner Joanna and her mini-quilt top - she is a super talented sewist - have you been following the Sew Out Loud series? 

Well done Brit Bee ladies, I will spend the $50 Fat Quarterly Gift Certificate wisely and come bearing gifts at Retreat x 

Thank you all so much to everyone for your votes and word of encouragement, this was such a fun competition to be involved in; I better get my thinking cap on for next year's Brit Bee quilt eh! 

I mentioned I did some sewing today - I've cut into the Summersville... I'll show you tomorrow! 

I'm off to stick a rosette on the Constellation xxx

Pretty Please!

I had just posted my Winter Stitching Results last night, when I spotted that the Constellation quilt had made the final 10 in the Festival of HSTs!  Wooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooo!

So now it's down to the Viewer's Choice.

There's stiff competition for sure, and always Mr Random, but it's time to blatantly request your vote; you know the whole Brit Bee would be very happy if you did!

Can't remember what to look for?

This one, you know, the one I don't like to post about much!

I think I probably emailed most of you who commented last night, I even tweeted for goodness sake - I am in double figures now!

So please head on over and cast your vote, you have until tomorrow, 25th, midnight CST.  Megan and the blog hop ladies have done a terrific job, I feel so honoured to have got this far.

Great big 'thank yous' all round x

Festival of HSTs...

Today, although it's my day off and having a list as long as my arm of all the things I wanted to achieve, my decision-making skills appear to have blown away with the wind and rain outside!  I've not been very productive so far.

Anyway, one decision made, to link the 'you know what' with the Festival of Half Square Triangles being hosted by Megan over at Canoe Ridge Creations!

I'm afraid you will have to look away if you are fed up with the Brit Bee Constellation already.  There are, apparently, some folks who have not seen it yet, so please make them welcome!

Here it is, my favourite quilt...

Brit Bee Constellation

12 mega-blocks: made by the amazing Brit Bee, smaller HST stars made from the siggies and a few others added to fill the void.

Quilt design: based on the almighty Katy Jones' Constellation quilt from Fat Quarterly issue 5.

Prints: Momo 'Just Wing It', Kate Spain 'Central Park' and some random scraps.

Background solid: Klona Teal.

Binding: Joel Dewberry 'Herringbone' in Aqua.

Quilting: Straight line machine at 3/4" intervals using Gutermann cotton (7325), echo quilting one star from top left outwards.

Size: 72"x72"

The original post from January can be found here, and should I ever be fortunate enough to win anything because of this quilt, I will definitely share the glory, and maybe any goodies, with my Brit Bee ladies xxx

Please make sure to check out all the other awesome HST creations over at the linky party too.

Well I am hoping to get some photos of last night's finish to show you tomorrow; I am guessing they will end up being taken indoors though.  I hope your day hasn't been a wash out x

Star light, star bright!

I told you that I had completed the Cherry Star top...

Well then I went ahead and finished the whole blanket...

I'm opting for 'blanket' rather than quilt, as it has a simple dark grey fleecy backing, and minimal quilting just to keep it all in place.  I sewed it up, right sides together and turned through.

I top-stitched just under 1/4" around the edge in dark grey, and outlined the star the same way.  Simple, but effective.  This is for the times when we, or rather I, really want to snuggle down and be cozy.

Without batting, it is really light, especially compared to the whopper Constellation!  But it is beautifully warm, I know, I sat under it yesterday evening and it was great.

So, do you like the background?  Be honest.  I know it won't be to everyone's taste, but I love love love it!  Its an IKEA classic which I had been waiting to use.  I sort of envisaged counting the stars in the sky, and it made me smile as soon as I auditioned it.

Thanks must go out to Chelsea for running the Made In Cherry QAL, it focused my mind on using my rainbow charms on a superb pattern that I had pinned as soon as I saw it; and I am, once again, surprised and thrilled with how it turned out.

I think I normally play things a little too safe; so much time, effort and expense is usually being invested for me to risk making a big old faux-pas by getting all adventurous.  But I want to change that, and make things I will love, and reflect the look I really want to be creating, not just making the things I know will look OK from the outset.  Does that make sense?  First attempt, I will deem a success.

So onto my Mouthy Stitches partner, who will also receive a leap of faith, with 3/4" finished HSTs.  I wasn't too sure I could pull it off, but Lucy's excellent and timely use of the brilliant method from Elizabeth 'Oh Fransson!' for piecing small squares set me on the right route.

I can confirm that it worked a treat; I won't talk you through it, the original does that way better than I can, but all you need to know is that I gridded some light-weight iron-on interfacing with 1.5" squares, pressed on my trimmed HSTs and off I went...

I really hope my partner likes the Cherry Star off-spring panel, otherwise this Mama will happily keep it! xxx

Bee-ing Stars!

I promised you stars, I will give you stars!

Along with the blocks the Brit Bees make for each other every month, we send a siggy block, following the quick tute over at PS I Quilt.  I decided that I was going to make mine into additional stars for my Constellation, pretty much as soon as I had decided on the quilt.

Today I pieced the 12 siggy blocks into 3 stars, having re-photographed all the blocks and siggies first, so I have a record of whose blocks were whose for prosterity.

NB. Apologies, I have not been using the siggies to clean the bathroom, I have digitally smudged surnames and hometowns to keep up the Brit Bee's mystique!

Looking at all the blocks laid out again, gave me a really excited feeling, and has started the old cogs turning on how I am actually going to quilt this beauty. 

I am not going to risk ruining it with some FMQ fiasco, and I would not put money on being able to align the stars on both sides accurately enough to echo-quilt the seams, so I shall be lurking around flickr and pinterest for some flash of inspiration, unless you can think of anything in the meantime!  Any suggestions more than welcome xxx

For the remainder of the evening, I have the small task of trimming many many more HSTs...

...whilst repeating the mantra 'it WILL be worth it, they WILL look great' over and over again!

In need of Inspiration...

I have ordered some lovely fabric recently, and am in need of serious inspiration for what to make with it.  This evening I played with some HSTs for the first time, and the resultant mini-block is so scrappy with a silent 's' that I am not even going to post a picture!

I love the look of the Kathy Doughty's Cowboy Baby quilt, and it is currently top of my list.  Hence my attempt at triangulation!

Material Obsession - Cowboy Baby

 I think my mistake was working with 2" squares, stitching and cutting in two - my sausage fingers weren't up the all those fiddly minuscule points - note to self, sometimes big is obviously better!

I also need to perfect my pressing, especially when working with white cotton - a new ironing board cover and a clean cloth are definitely the order of the day.