Around the World Quilt Bee

Finally got around to finishing the binding on this piece, which is the result of a sort of round-robin project a while back. I made the block in the top left, and each subsequent participant added to it as it came to them. Aside from one or two blocks which are a little odd in terms of colour choices, I think it looks great. And it's finished!

Off to the longarmer

Two quilts handed off to my friendly local longarmer recently - the first is this collection of Oriental Fans, from a swap a while ago. We'll not say how long ago, but the top was finished before the longarmer took a two year break from her business to live in India...



And the second is this top, a result of my participation in the Around the World Quilt Bee, which finished last summer. I added a couple of borders, both to pad out the size and to help tie in the orange which appears strongly in one block. I'm very pleased with it - round robins are notoriously difficult both in terms of timing (which luckily, wasn't something I had to deal with, as I wasn't the hostess) and matching and I think this top has come out of it very well. A million thanks again to Summer Sadie for organising it all.

More Around the World Quilt Bee

Here are the other two blocks which I made for the around the world quilt bee - I didn't take photos of all the other blocks for these two, because I was in a hurry and none of the blocks for either of these was sewn together - it's just too time consuming (I needed to get them in the post today). So you'll just have to trust me that the blocks work with the themes for Flossy Blossy and Indigo Blue, respectively. And that's all of the swap, done. Soon I will show my own quilt top, which is great :) But tonight, I am going to bed.

Around the world quilt bee

Yesterday I received the last four installments of the Around the World Quilt Bee - I did blocks for three of them today - and the fourth one is mine, so I didn't have to work on that (yet - obviously it will eventually have to be quilted!). I'll show one of the blocks today - this is for Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) who has a virtual village thing going:



My block will be the first in the last row at the bottom - it's not shown in this photo. The other two blocks will follow later in the week, as will my own quilt - might as well save something for another day!

Around the world quilting bee

Here's another block for the ATWQB - this quilt started with a block with teapot themed fabric, so a teacup is a natural addition. I sort of wish, in retrospect, that I'd done this block the other way around with the light fabric for the cup and blue for the border, but still, it's not bad and it will go nicely with all the other blocks already made for this quilt...

Lots of log cabins...

Worked today on some more log cabin blocks for that swap, which will be later this year - I now have 20 blocks, so however many people sign up for the swap, I should have enough to send - and enough to keep so that when I get mine back I can (in theory) make up a top more or less straight away. I have actually depleted my selection of hand-dye scraps fairly thoroughly, which is great. The only ones left are quite small scraps, which I'm sure I can use for something, someday...




I also made this sort-of log cabin block to go with Maria's blocks for the Around the World Quilt Bee - I haven't had a mailing of this in a while, as there had been a few hold-ups along the line, but finally got two in the post last week, and have now made a block for one of them. The other will come next week - it has a teapot/teacup/teatime theme, so I know more or less what I want to do for it, but I thought it would take longer, so I've done this one first.




...and here are all of the blocks for Maria's quilt together - there are a lot of stars in the recent months, but I went back to the earlier blocks for inspiration - anyway, I was in log cabin mode...

Beach Huts

I mentioned a few days ago that I had started a new cross-stitch - here it is - some very summery beach huts. Not making bad progress, really - we'll see how it goes. Perhaps I'll manage to get it finished sometime in summer.

I did lots of other sewing today - worked on the wonky log cabin blocks - but I haven't taken a photo yet, as I will probably work on them again tomorrow. I also have two blocks to do for the Around the World Quilt Bee - I haven't had a mailing in ages, but did finally get one and will do my best to get at least one block done within the next few days, and mailed along. I had intended to do it today, but as my entire workspace was covered in the scraps and blocks for the wonky log cabins, I thought I'd try to get those finished up and out of the way first. But as I have some time in the mornings next week, I should be able to get to it soon, regardless.

London Roads, revisited

Here's a block for Anita's quilt in the Around the World Quilt Bee. Some of her other blocks are pictured to the right - I didn't photograph all of them as the only place they fit is my living room floor and people were doing things in the living room right now... She started with the block with the earth on it, and the words Around the World Quilt. Some others have done a world or place theme, other have just made a block to match. I went back to the London Roads block and did a slight variation on it - it seemed suited. The central fabric in the block is a small square of fabric with Big Bens on it (unfortunately, I only have a few small squares of this - it was a remnant of a project done by someone else in the first place); the others are just coordinating colours - and of course, some handbags, because if you are going on a trip, you definitely need them! The rest of the day was taken up with non-sewing things - famers' market, laundry, pumpkin carving, and so forth. Perhaps tomorrow I will get the rest of those green & purple blocks sewn together...

London Roadworks

Another block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this one is for Courtney, who asked us for blocks which tell her something about us, whether it be a geographical representation, a theme significant to us, fabric we like, favourite colours, etc. She placed no restrictions on the fabrics, colours or block choice, so I have taken her at her word and gone a little wild. I think mine is the only block not to use commercial fabric, but there's a lot of variety, so I don't think it will be out of place. I started with a variation on the London Roads block, then did some curvy slice and dice with it to insert the strips, and then put some borders on it, turned it askew and cut to size (12x13"). I figure this block says a lot about me. I am attracted to traditional quilting (London Roads block) but can almost never make a block as written (the variation thereon); I like artier quilty things (the slice and dice & turning it on its side) and am not afraid of harder techniques (curved piecing, etc). I am very organised but trying to be more free creatively, so while I planned the starting block of this and pieced it fairly accurately, after that, I just made it up as I went along. I've used my own hand-dyes, in some of my favourite colours. And of course, I chose London Roads as a starting point for fairly obvious reasons!

Actual sewing

Remember actual sewing? I think I did some a few weeks ago... Actual sewing does not, of course, count things like hemming or sewing buttons on, or breaking one's sewing machine by trying to take in the waistband of a pair of school trousers for a 6YO boy so they don't fall down around his ankles...

Anyway, today I did some actual sewing. First, I did some stupid stuff, like fixing a few holes and re-attaching loose velcro and letting out a hem, but then - hurrah! - I did a few bits of (ready for it?) actual sewing.

Of course, one of the things I worked on, I can't show you. And that was my addition to The Calico Cat's Bloggy Round Robin piece. It was fun. Her starting square was a photo of her (fairly) new (at the time) baby - he's very cute. Anyway. Having duly added to that piece, I then did a block for Debby's Around the World Quilting Bee quilt - she wanted liberated houses a la Gwen Marston, etc in bright, modern colours. I have done mine with a night sky and some fun people inside. She also asked that we include a selvedge (or more) somewhere in the house - I think she is going to have a really funky quilt. I am very tempted to do a small quilt with liberated houses from my scrap basket. We'll see...

Quilt Bee

I feel like I've done almost nothing this week (in terms of sewing, anyway) - but today I did finally have time to make this block, which is for Lorena's quilt on the Around the World Quilt Bee. There were a lot of 30s prints in the blocks already made for her quilt, and that's not something I have a lot of (I used my entire stash - 3 partial FQs), but I think I managed to get the tones alright. On the agenda for tmorrow, a start on some party favour bags for Sarah's party next weekend. Can't believe she is nearly 12. Where do the years go?

Little squares

Worked on another block for the Around the World Quilt Bee today - this quilt was very scrappy (in a good way) and several of the blocks were one patch type blocks, so I decided to make a block with lots of little squares divided by sashing. I promise it's squarer than it looks in this photo!

A few good blocks...

Today I took some time to work on a few things besides the log cabin blocks - I needed to do a block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - here it is. This is for Cathy's quilt and although there were many colours represented in the blocks which have been made to date for her quilt, I tried to keep mine close to the ones in the block which she made to start things out. I was tempted to do a star, but decided for something a little different to help balance the quilt. This was a 12" block - nice to make a standard size block this time around - some of the recent ones have been a bit harder to come up with a good design for (this design is not an original, mind you - it's a Judy Martin block).

The other thing I worked on, I can't actually show you, but I can show you the starter block on the piece - it has been added to several times already and of course I added my pieces to it, so it doesn't really look much like this anymore (this is a 4" square), but at least there's something to show!

What day is it again?

I didn't do much sewing today, as I was feeling lazy - about sewing anyway. Alex and I had a nice walk to the B&Q to look for a replacement lightbulb for the one in the fridge and then to Tesco to pick up a few things to eat. I kept forgetting whether it was Monday or Tuesday - summer holidays do that to me, I guess. When I got back I decided to tackle Nann's block for the Around the World Quilt Swap - here's my block and all the blocks together. This block was paper-pieced as the finished size needed to be 7". I did also start quilting the Japanese Taupe dresser runner - didn't quilt a lot of it, but at least I made a start. I'll save that photo for later in the week, when either it will be finished or I'll need to show something because I've not done any work at all - like Thursday, when we have planned a trip to Legoland.

I also spent some time re-planning the log cabin Christmas tree mini quilt - obviously this is just a rough plan as the fabrics I use will depend on what I find at the LQS, but I think the lighter colours will work much better. I had considered the light blue previously, but it was Margaret's comment about white as a snow background which really clicked - thanks Margaret!

Somewhat funky house

I had plans today to do a bunch of sewing - catch up with a lot of deadlines, and so on. That was before my laptop decided that it simply was not going to go to some websites. Some, yes, others - nope. Much discussion with tech support, etc, suggested the problem was with the security being somehow set wrongly, so that websites with encryption were unreachable, but none of the proposed solutions worked to fix the problem. So, an impromptu trip to the computer shop, which was actually very annoying because while I was hoping to be able to leave the laptop there for them to fix, they didn't want me to - the guy suggested that the best thing to do was back everything up and do a system recovery (i.e. reset to factory settings so it would be like I just brought the machine home). As it happens, in the end that did do the trick, but of course, it takes all day because not only do you have to backup all the photos, music, files on the computer, then do the actual restore, but after that, you have to set the computer up as if it were new and of course move the backed up files back onto the machine, and reinstall all the stuff you have been putting on it over the last two years (well, perhaps not ALL of it). So, there's most of the sewing time. I shouldn't complain too much, I guess, because at least in the end the only money I spent was a call to the helpdesk - would have been a lot more had I left the computer for them to sort out...

But anyway. I did manage to make a block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this one for Dionne, who has a kind of house theme going. And I added the next section to the Bloggers Round Robin, but that's a project I'm not allowed to show, so I won't. I had hoped to make some logcabin blocks for the August Block Lotto, but although I started them, I didn't get very far once I had to start playing tech guru. We did, just, manage to have a little time to go over to the park and visit the paddling pool - it was a hot, muggy day and that was a welcome change (for the kids anyway - personally, a 6 inch deep pool of water filled with a hundred screaming kids is not my idea of a fun time - especially as they are all either splashing, shooting each other with water pistols or throwing water balloons. Or all of the above!) Anyway, perhaps I will have better luck with the log cabin blocks tomorrow.

Around the World Quilt Bee

Despite the busy week, I did have a chance to work on the latest round of the Around the World Quilt Bee. This is a block for Paloma's quilt - there are loads of colours in it already, but most of the fabrics are quite retro, so I've gone down that route. And here are all the blocks sewn together - fun!

Another Quilt Bee Block

Forgot to post this yesterday -I guess it was so busy I just didn't remember it... Yet another block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this one for Carroll. This quilt has leapfrogged the one before it, so that I've worked on a ninth block before I worked on an eighth block - but that's ok...

Very bright colours were used in this quilt and quite liberated piecing, so I decided it needed some liberated stars, a la Gwen Marston. Because the block size was 10" unfinished, I had to improvise with some sashing to get the right size, but I think it works well. It's going to be a very bright, cheerful quilt.

Forgotten post...

Well, I know I haven't blogged much this week, but this is only partly because I didn't do anything (today) or worked on something, but couldn't show it (Thursday) - it's also because although I worked on something, and photographed it (yesterday), I forgot to blog it. Tsk - shame on me. This is because yesterday afternoon and evening were fairly busy - after work/school a Brownie & Guide District Sports Day, followed by an evening out with friends. Sometimes things fall through the cracks, even for someone quite organised...

Anyway. This is another block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this is for Cindra's quilt. You can see I've pulled my colours and basic inspiration (nine patch) from her starter block in the upper left corner. This was a fun block - hope she likes it!

Around the World again

Today I did another block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this one has a real scrapbag feel to it (and the person whose quilt it will be asked for that); I tried to work with the colours of the original block (the stars on white) as there was no way I could match all the previous blocks!

I made a few lotto blocks as well, but will save them for tomorrow to show as I won't have time to work on anything then...

Drunkard's Path

Today I had a small window of time between dropping the kids at school and going back to collect Sarah to go to an interview at her new school (just to hand in admissions forms and ask any questions) - I was originally going to use the time to go look at flooring for the bathroom, but I just couldn't face it. So I dug my way into the sewing room (it's encumbered at the moment by a radiator and mirrored bathroom cabinet, both in large boxes, as well as other odds and ends for the bathroom (which we are having redone, starting this week, in case you missed that part!) - I guess I should be glad the tiles are downstairs rather than in there...) and did a block for the next block set of the Around the World Quilt Bee. These are Aimee's blocks - she started with a circle made of 6" DP blocks; I have decided to make mine smaller and set them more traditionally - this is solely because I had a pack of 5" charm squares, so my pieces weren't big enough for the 6" block! The colours aren't quite the same, but the fabrics are similarly retro, so I hope they will work.