The Quilt that kept on growing!

We have reached the end of another week so it is time to celebrate with another TGIFF party!

My finish for this week has been a very long time in the making.

The quilt started when I sent out these FQ's of fabric to my Bee Mates in the Fat Stash Brit Bee in March 2014 and asked them to make this block.

They really rose to the challenge and by June 2014 I had this set of blocks to put together.

Then for reasons now lost in the mists of time the blocks gathered dust in my stash. I took them out a couple of times over the intervening years and played around with the layout, but it was only when I managed to track down more of the solid fabric at a quilt show in Edinburgh that any progress was made.

At my recent Quilt Retreat the blocks, which now totalled 24 in number were once again taken out and arranged and even sewn together! I came home with 5 rows of 4 blocks stitched together and the remaining blocks ready to be joined.

Then I lifted a quilt top from a pile in my sewing room and discovered another 4 blocks stitched together in the layout above, which was no longer the layout I was using :( So, they were unpicked and an extra 4 blocks made to complete the rows.

This monster is what I have ended up with! The final quilt is destined for my youngest son, who is over 6' tall, so will have no trouble keeping warm under that :)

I am delighted to have finally completed this quilt top as it was beginning to look like it would never be finished.

Now it is your turn to share your Friday finishes. As ever a bit of encouragement is always welcome so check out your fellow linkers and share some of the celebrations around. Include the TGIFF blog button in your post if you link up so that your followers can check them out too.

An InLinkz Link-up

And if your Friday finish involves a New to You technique or you have tried something New to You this month link that up too to this month's New to Me Link party here

Double Crossed

Our final Queen Bee in the Fat Stash Brit Bee is Jo, who blogs at Don't Drink and Sew and isn't that a wonderful name for a blog!

Jo asked for blocks based on the Intersection Block tutorial by Film in the Fridge and sent us out some solid fabric to be added to for the blocks.

There was some confusion about the sizing for the blocks as the tutorial provides a range of potential sizes for the piecing, but perhaps due to coincidence (or luck!) both of my blocks came out at the same size! The blocks were very easy to put together and, as you have undoubtedly heard here before, it probably took longer to decide on the fabric than it did to make the blocks :)

Jo intends to use her Bee blocks to make a quilt for the Siblings Together charity, which also has a current Bee, where I am Queen Bee this month. Now, I do have a confession to make with regard to this Bee, as Jo was the first Queen Bee in the current round and I managed to miss her month completely!

So, I decided that this was the ideal opportunity to redeem myself and make up for the earlier missing blocks by doubling up my efforts for Jo this month instead.

These blocks are also winging their way down South and will, hopefully, be keeping a child warm this winter.

With any luck my own Siblings Together quilt will be ready to do the same in the not-too-distant future too :)

If you would like to lend a hand without committing to a full size quilt, check out Joanne's block request at http://lilysquilts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/siblings-together-for-girls.html

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Maths Challenge

I would never claim to be brilliant at Maths, but I have always managed to get by but Quilt Maths really causes my brain to fizz. Those pesky 1/4" seams cause me no end of problems.

Unintentionally I set myself a Maths Challenge this month when I decided that I would make not two as requested, but three Churn Dash Blocks for this month's Queen Bee in the Fat Stash Brit Bee

Diane sent us a FQ of purple fabric with instructions for a 12.5" Churn Dash block and a request to create different centres for the blocks. So far, so good.

For the first block, I fussy cut a vintage lady for the centre of the block.

No Maths Challenge there!

The second block was, however, a different story. I decided that I needed to be a bit more creative for this block.

This is not, as you might think, a second fussy-cut Churn Dash block, it is in fact

a Churn Dash within a Churn Dash, and that's where the Maths Challenge came in.

As you can see, I miscalculated a bit and ended up with an even smaller mini Churn Dash than I needed, so had to add a border to the centre block. Those titchy pieces were hard enough to piece, but I was definitely kicking myself when I discovered that they were even smaller than they needed to be!

One of these days I am going to get my head around the Maths involved with 1/4" seams and when I do piecing blocks of all shapes and sizes is suddenly going to seem so much easier :)

Another two Bee blocks done and dusted and we are not even halfway through the month yet, there is definitely something wrong somewhere!

Linking up to

   

Snowballs and Seams

In a bid to catch up with my Bee commitments before the family arrive and chaos ensues I have been tackling some old and new favourite blocks.

First up the appropriately named Snowball block for Hannah in the Siblings Together Quilting Bee

Hannah asked for blocks in blue, aqua or green so this should fit the bill.

Next up a rainbow block for Sarah in the Fat Stash Brit Bee

 

I had never tried a stacked coin block before and have to confess that I did have to redo one of the strips as the rainbow coin ended up levitating in mid-air rather than stacking! Aside from that small hiccough it was fun to put together. 

My final block, I am ashamed to admit was due in November and whilst holidays and present delivering around the country was part of the reason for the delay it wasn't the entire reason. 

Nicky asked the  Siblings Together Quilting Bee members to create a block that called for sewing a partial seam. Having never attempted partial seams before I was a bit wary of the block, so procrastinated for quite a while before finally managing to put aside enough time to get my head around joining up half-stitched seams. 

Thankfully, it all worked out rather easier than I had anticipated and here is the result. 

I am not so sure that I would be up for making a quilt load of partial seam blocks, but I am delighted to have finally attempted and, if not mastered at least overcome the fear of partial seams!

Please tell me that I am not the only one who was wary of attempting blocks with partial seams :)

Linking up to

 

The heavens aligned!

Isn't it great when you are pressed for time to discover that the Bee blocks that really need to be made and sent before you head off on holiday are both blocks that you have made before? Maybe that is just me!

I was delighted to find that this month's blocks for the Fat Stash Brit Bee were paper-pieced Square in a Square blocks, which were one of the first ever paper-pieced blocks that I attempted thanks to Katy's FPPFTT tutorials many moons ago.

So these were whipped up in no time.

Then even more joyful was the discovery that the October blocks for the Siblings Together Quilting Bee were Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks, and hadn't I taken part in 5 rounds of a STAW Bee! So, not only had I made the blocks several times before but I even had strips pre-cut! Somebody was definitely on my side :)

So these were whipped up in no time too!

We were given complete freedom as regards colours and fabrics for these blocks so as you can see I took full advantage. In one of the STAW bee rounds I was asked for a black and white block with a single colour through the middle and I really liked the resulting block, so I decided to take the opportunity to make another similar block when I had the chance :)

Next month I will hopefully have more time for making Bee blocks so will be happy to have new blocks to try, but this month the heavens definitely aligned in my favour!

Confessions of a (bad) Bee

One of the joys of blogging for me is to connect with like-minded individuals around the world and having the opportunity to take part in online Bees is an added bonus. The first Bee that I signed up for, in my early days of blogging, was the Star of Africa Bee set up by May. The Bee was inspired by a board game and included quilters from all the corners of the globe. At the time the Bee was set up I was living in Latvia so was very glad of the chance to spend time with other quilters even if it was only virtual.

The blocks requested by my fellow Bee members were always challenging as I strived to represent themes such as home for Sana or a postcard for Leanne so as the Bee went on the timescales definitely slipped. Eventually though I had only one block left to make to complete my Bee commitment. Irene in Guatemala asked for a block on the theme of music, and this is what I finally came up with for her.

When I was very young (a very long time ago!) one of my great-uncles played the accordion and no family gathering was complete without at least one or two tunes from the old squeezebox. so that is what I ultimately decided to depict in my block.

As for the confession of the title, well I am thoroughly ashamed to admit that this block is one year, that's right one year late! My guilt is assuaged a little by the fact that I am still waiting for several blocks from the Bee and it was my turn to receive them nearly 18 months ago! Most of that time I have to say was taken up with actually trying to decide what to make for the theme, the actual making itself once I had decided upon the accordion didn't take that long.

So, I am wondering what is the longest time period that you have waited to receive or send a Bee block? I am hoping that I am not the only one who is this tardy, but perhaps I am. When do you decide to cut your losses and give up on receiving a block or swap? In my first ever swap I never received the swap despite being promised not once but twice that a swap angel would be stepping in to replace my negligent swap partner. It certainly made me more wary of swaps ever since.

I cannot claim to be entirely innocent of negligence though. I totally misread the instructions for the Siblings Together Quilt Bee ,that I joined this summer, and discovered too late that I was supposed to be making 4 blocks for Jo in June to kick off the new Bee year. As Jo wanted to take the finished quilt top to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in July and I was in France without access to the block instructions (or any suitable fabric!) the quilt top was completed thanks to extra blocks from Jo without any input from me.

Thankfully, not all of my Bee activity has been so shameful this last month.  I have completed my first ever granny square block for Hannah in the Fat Stash Brit Bee,

As well as this Liberty Cat block to add to her quilt for her cat-loving friend.

Then in a burst of Bee activity I finished Ashleigh's blocks for August in the same Bee.

Ashleigh sent us the panel in the centre of the block and some matching fabric and asked us to make up blocks from them. So I added a border of 2.5" squares around the panel, mixing in fabrics from my stash.

Then as I had managed to get a bit carried away with cutting the 2.5" squares I was able to make a second block to pop in the post with the first.

Although I mucked up entirely the first month of the Siblings Together Quilt Bee in June, I have managed to redeem myself a bit by completing the Snowball blocks for July in time for Jane

And the log cabin block for Sue for August, so fingers crossed that I will manage to keep to the timetable from here on in!

Now I feel a lot better for getting those confessions off of my chest :)

Waiting for Wonky

This month's block request for the Fat Stash Brit Bee came from Nikki, who requested a scrappy Improv block along the lines of the blocks in Lu Summer's Quilt Improv quilt book.

Now, as it happens I have Lu Summer's book as my parents gave me a copy for Christmas. It is a lovely book, but like Nikki I have only browsed through it and dreamt of making something similar but never actually got around to it. Time to pull out the book then and have a go!

Nikki sent a lovely bundle of scraps that easily separated into a warm and a cool pile so that's what I did. Next up I browsed through the book and thought that I might have a go at Lu's Quarter Circle block. Then I decided against that, I might be happy attempting curved seams for myself but I am certainly not up to inflicting my attempts at curved seams AND improv on anyone else just yet :)

Chevrons seemed like a better way to go!

Well, it didn't quite work out as planned as you can see!

It was only as I was putting the strips together that I realised I had completely skipped the instruction to change the strip placement from lower to higher on the second and fourth strips. As you have probably guessed by now from several other mishaps, angles and more specifically visualising them in fabric really isn't my thing. Perhaps I should have stuck to curves after all :)

Somewhat chastened by my lack of chevrons in the first block I decided to play safe, surely not the point of improv I know, and go back to basics.

This block is reminiscent of the slab blocks from the Sunday Morning Quilts book that I made for my first Bee. I hope it fits the bill.

Do tell me how you tackle improv piecing, as clearly I could do with some tips!

Linking up to

Blocks and Bees

Well it seems like such a long time since I have posted, but that might be because my last two posts were scheduled to appear whilst I was on holiday. Now that we are back from our amazing trip, which I will definitely bore you with once I have worked my way through the hundreds of photos I took, it is time to get back down to earth with a bump and start looking at my commitments for May.

Before that though a quick peek of the patchwork inspiration I was surrounded by on holiday :)

Tiling, Uzbekistan

My head is spinning with possible patterns for quilts and blocks!

Speaking of blocks I came home to lots of happy mail from my month in April as Queen Bee of the Fat Stash Brit Bee. There were still a few blocks to come when I took this photo but here is how the blocks are looking so far.

The blocks are destined to be a quilt for our youngest son, but my niece is expecting her second baby this week, so if it is a boy it may just end up going his way instead :)

For May, Rachel has asked us to make a floating star block with tone-on-tone blacks as the background for all but the middle and cheerful scraps for the triangle corners that make up the star. I had never come across this block before, but I really liked it so will be squirrelling away the instructions for future use.

The next meeting of my new Quilt Group is on Wednesday so I have also been trying to make some attempt to catch up on the blocks that I missed at the beginning. The first block the group attempted was a Log Cabin block, so that was first on my list.

Stupidly, I used a lone fat quarter of a white tone-on-tone for the background of my first block, blithely assuming that it would be no problem to buy extra when I needed it. Needless to say, neither of the LQS's had the same fabric in stock, so I went for the nearest alternative in the hope that when it is cut up the difference between the two fabrics won't be so noticeable!

At the class on Wednesday we will be tackling a Mariners' Compass block, should be interesting :)

Thanks to everyone who linked up in my absence to

and

 I really enjoyed reading about your projects on my return.

Finally, another shot of more stitching inspiration, EPP anyone??

Linking up to

  

Beeing Queen for a month

Earlier this year I signed up for the Fat Stash Brit Bee and volunteered to be Queen Bee in April, which seems to have arrived rather quicker than I expected.

This is the first time that I have been in a Bee where I send fabric out to my fellow Bee mates and ask them to make a block (or two) and send them back. This meant that I had to be more organised than usual, and have not only bought the fabric for the blocks well in advance but also decided which block I would like, and sent the fabric out all in time for the first of the month!

Well, naturally, the buying bit was easy!

I bought these primary coloured solids when I went to the Scottish Quilt Show in Edinburgh in February with the intention of asking my Bee mates to make blocks for a quilt for my niece.

Deciding on the block to ask for was much harder! I leafed through all of my quilt books (about a dozen), flicked through all of the quilt patterns torn from magazines over the years (about a hundred!) and browsed blocks and quilts on Pinterest (you can just imagine the numbers!). Up to the day before I needed to send these fabrics out I still hadn't decided upon a final block.

Snuggling under this quilt whilst catching up on the third series of Game of Thrones in time for the fourth series to start next week it came to me. I had a brainwave, or rush of blood to the head or flash of inspiration and not just because the actor playing Jaime Lannister had just stepped into the bath on screen :)

I would ask for HST blocks and make a quilt for my youngest son, who is regularly tucked up under this quilt when watching the hours of sport that he calls research. You would think that having to watch sport for work would mean that you wouldn't want to watch it when you are home but apparently not!

So I dug out some low-volume prints from my stash and stitched up these blocks as examples for my Bee mates.

With that decision made the envelopes were stuffed and in the post before the price of stamps went up today too. Now that was organised :)

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