Brit Bee - Round Three

Brit Bee is moving into a 3rd year, and we are doing it a little differently this time around, and I am so excited!

As you know, this is the undisputed best bee in the world ever, I have 2 precious quilts to show so far, and I am in no doubt that this will be another amazing round...

This month we are all choosing our colour schemes, and making a starter star block each, all of us, yes, at the same time!

I was tempted to go with a simple star, but it only seemed right to go with a constellation star as per my first ever Bee request; scaled down to a regular 12" finished block with 3" borders; this is what I came up with...

I thought this year I would go for a more muted, monochromatic look, greys, navy and aqua.  It's a bit different for me, but at the same time, very me!

No pinks or oranges for a change, too loud!  The scrap bag I got from Eclectic Maker a few weeks ago pretty much supplied all my prints for the star, paired with some Sketch in Mist.  Oh, and some Liberty, of course, for the hidden star.

So keep 'em peeled for what the others are making this month, and also check out our newest member Di, who pretty much joined by osmosis, so it was best we made it official. xxx

No show, no snow!

Snow? Pah, rain rain and more rain round these parts.  But cold though, so I wore my new scarf all day.  Except for eating.

It is such a lovely huge size that I was in fear of it becoming a bit like Mr Twit's beard!  And because some of you asked so nicely...

After all the family-type business of the day, party drop-offs and a trolley dash round Tesco, I got on with the things I needed to get done, namely finalising my second Sizzix design, in the loosest sense of the word, and then cutting all the pieces...

I made one block up, after I had cut all the pieces, just to make sure it looked OK, I think it works...

On a roll, I then stitched and pressed the rest of the 100 HSTs too.  Even with the very loose weaved fabrics, those HSTs were perfect every time.

It is going to be a very white quilt top, but as balance to my mega-patterned #scrappytripalong, it is quite a refreshing must-make!

So that's my day, we are now going to relax and watch a DVD, well once the kids stop running about upstairs.  

Oh please let it snow in the night so I can shove them out the door at dawn!

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

The start of something secret...

I have been busy pondering my next strip-block for the secretive Stitch Tease International Bee, as this month I am making for our Bee-Mama Di.

Di has asked for a paper-pieced, word-influenced quilt.

So after dithering and changing my mind a dozen times, I have finally started, slowly...

... I think it is going to take a bit of time to get the full 72" wide block made!

And following on from my embroidery posts, and all things less stressful, please pop over to lovely Lucy's if you fancy trying to win yourself a Sublime Stitching embroidery pattern, you know you want to xxx

Star, that's what they call you...

...how long you've waited to get where you are?  Ooh Kiki Dee!

Did you see this post?  I did, it made me happy and sad in equal parts.

I don't want to embarrass my dear friend Marguerite, well maybe just a little blush; but she is one of those wonderful people I spent the whole of Retreat saying 'we must speak properly later' to, and later became time to leave, dammit!

Next year my friend!

In the meantime, this one's for you...

I hope you get the super star quilt you really deserve xxx

Thinker's Block...

The penultimate FPPFTT is done.  This Calico Grove block was a hard one.  Not the piecing, but getting my head round the cutting required to make up the alternate colour placement that I wanted.

There were a few hairy moments when I thought it was all going horribly wrong, but I persevered, and by some fluke it all worked!

I have to show you the back, it needs another press, having just pulled out all the paper, but I want to prove I can be tidy when I want to be.  You may have noticed that I even used 'good' fabric for this one, how confident was I feeling when I started it eh!? 

This is not a block I would want to make more of, nothing to do with how it looks, but it was just too stressful and required way too much thinking time; I am a fickle stitcher!

The final week looks fun though - a rocket block; I think I know someone who will be staking a claim on that one.  Thanks again Katy for pushing me onwards and upwards x