Mad May!

Well Mad May has shot by!

Here in the UK, we've officially had the coldest spring in 50 years!  Makes for great sewing weather!



And May was the month for hanging out with bloggy friends!

If you are popping over from Lynne's, thanks for stopping by!

Have a great June!

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day.

Jxo

A Global Village!

Firstly a wee note for Helen Jean.  Thank you so much for your kind offer to Bee Blessed.  Unfortunately you are a 'No reply comment' blogger so I have no way of contacting you.  Please could you send me your email address and we can get chatting!!

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Many years ago I attended a lecture where the speaker referred to our world as a 'Global Village'!  Attending the lecture were people from 25 different countries! Meeting people from far flung countries certainly makes our world feel smaller!

More recently I'm experiencing the same global community among quilting bloggers. Today I got to meet a quilting blogger from Australia!

Marie is a native to Belfast, but now lives in Oz.  I'm so pleased she got in touch with me on her home visit.  She came along to my class and fitted right in!

She has made this wonderful quilt in Australian Flora fabrics, and she also showed us her in-progress wedding ring quilt, being sewn by hand!

Isn't it wonderful how complete strangers can become instant friends over the commonality of quilting!

Thank you Marie for taking the short hop across the world to meet me (*wink *wink!).

And you can find out more about Marie's creative makes here on her blog.

Happy Friday!

Jxo



Bee Blessed BOM

The recent sunshine here has made it feel like summer could be just around the corner!!

A new month means a new block for Bee Blessed.

This block is called The Woven Block and you can find the tutorial here.  Please keep to plain white for the 4 corner squares and bright fabrics for the woven strips.

Thank you everyone for the lovely 16 patch blocks for May!  I think the name for that quilt could be 'Colour Explosion!' .

I'd like to give a special thank you to our overseas contributors!  We very much appreciate you posting your blocks half way around the world to us! It makes the quilts we make and donate truly international!

I hope to have more BB progress pics for you soon.

Basting for Britain!

No, I'm not talking about the 'turkey in the oven' kind of basting!!

My run on making quilt tops these past few weeks has meant a build up of getting them basted to wadding and backings.

I got my Marmalade Table Runner, Brit Bee Giant Star Wallhanging & Pixilated Heart quilt tops fully basted and Vintage Purple & a Bee Blessed Hugs and Kisses quilt half basted (they need pieced backs).

Think I'll give the old knees a wee rest now!

And now that the sun is finally out, that can only mean one thing....

... REVISING!  (even Poppy is out in sympathy!)

Enjoy the sunshine (if you have any!).

Mitres Mastered!

After a slight delay waiting on more Kona Deep Violet, I've managed to get my Brit Bee '13 (part 1) quilt top completed.

I'm calling this one Vintage Purple!  Original eh?

The mitred corners didn't turn out to be as tricky as I was expecting - phew!

So this one now needs a pieced back, made up with the mini blocks I received and siggys.

And after another nifty bit of fabric shopping, I got the rest of what I needed to finish this Marmalade Half Hexie Table runner.



I'll explain more about this future class project when I get it finished. It is currently sitting on a growing pile of quilt tops needing basting!  Knee pads at the ready!

Home Again!

I am home again after an awesome weekend away with some of my best bloggy buds!

L-R: Susan/Emily, Terri, LJ, Hadley, Katy, Trudi, Me, Di

Susan has already written the perfect summary of our day here!

It is such a joy and privilege for me to have the opportunity to meet up with these dearest quilty friends!

We laughed, ate, almost cried, stroked lots of fabric and quilts & ate some more!  Here are some of my favourite pics from Saturday (there are more to view here).

Check out Hadley & LJ's faces in pic no. 4!!!  That's a caption competition waiting to happen!

Sadly a few of our number weren't able to make it on the day!  But you were all very much in our thoughts!

A huge thank you to Susan for being the perfect hostess, and Terri for driving me half way around England & putting up with my snoring (so sorry my friend!).

Mocha Made It.....

..... into my Brit Bee Giant Star wallhanging!

Approx. 64" x 64"

Apart from this needing a jolly good iron, I'm really pleased with out it has turned out!

Thank you everyone for your brilliant feedback and suggestions!  In the end I had to go with what I had available, and as you can get a truer sense of the colours here, I'm hoping the non-mocha voters will be swayed!



And today I got sewing with some Marmalade yummies ...

... and a bandana for my neck ..... because it is almost summer ...... which means it is freezing!!!!!!



Well I'm heading off tomorrow for a weekend of bloggy shenanigans!!  No doubt there will be incriminating evidence for you to look at online before I get home Sunday!!

Have a good one!