Blocks-a-plenty!

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a great November so far!

Outside of my normal teaching, sewing and pattern writing hours, I've been keeping up with my bee block commitments.

In Siblings Together this month, we have been making 'boy' blocks for Doti:

Also for Siblings Together, I made 4 more canvas blocks.  It was my month in September, where I set the Canvas block. I was only 4 blcoks short and now that I have 30 blocks, I can get the quilt completed. 

For Brit Bee this month, I had to make a block for Jo, which was designed by Angie!  These are the colours Jo has chosen for her quilt - I hope she likes it!

So that's my block round-up for November.

And I hope to have some really exciting news to announce here soon! Watch this space!

Happy sewing!

Jude xo

Secret blocks!

Now that 2 of my lovely Brit Bee buddies have received their BIG birthday wallhangings, I can show you which bits were mine!

Di's wallhanging was 'sewing' themed so I made my own mannequin paper pieced pattern to make this block.  

You can see it here in the quilt (for some bizzare reason I didn't get a photo of the front of the quilt, doh!)

Trudi loves the colour green so we went with a 'leafy' theme for hers.  Of course there was only ever going to be one block for me to make!



And here it is in the quilt:

There's lots more secret sewing happening around the Hollies' household at the moment, but I'm delighted to have my very own personal assistant (uni daughter) back with me!!

Jude xo

Caring for Bees and Orphans!

When I visit my lovely Brit Bees, I always come away with more than I arrive!

I have unashamedly pinched some of these pics from Susan's blog. Hadley made us all these fab Brit Bee key fobs, and my ridiculous grin there on the right is because I'm holding a beautiful gift quilt from Trudi! Just the binding to stitch down and then I'll take some proper pics of it, promise!

You may have seen this Heather Ross quilt recently on Susan's blog.  She is gifting it to Bee Blessed - thank you my lovely!

Ceri passed me some of her 'early works' to use for Bee Blessed or other good cause.  As the blocks were all bigger than 12.5" I decided to quilt them, then trim them down to 12.5" and send them over to Alison for her Mexican Quilts Appeal (Soy Amado).  Alison will sew all donated quilted blocks together to make quilts for former street kids in Mexico. Take some time to read about her visit at Christmas and the inspiration behind this great cause.

On Saturday I'm teaching my first Crochet workshop.  I wanted to have a wee sample of crochet edging to add to my growing pile of samples, so I edged this summery vintage pillowcase.

I think edged pillowcases are so pretty! I could also see this edging being used along the bottom of a summery skirt!  Another idea to add to my 'bucket list'!

Have a lovely day!

Jude xo

Sneeze and you miss it!

I know February is a shorter month, but does anyone else feel like they just sneezed and missed it!

Too quick!

Here is my roundup for Fast Feb!

Next week I release my new programme of classes, so I'll have lots more to show you and talk about!

I'm not actually here today (yes I know some of you think I'm not 'here' most days!).  What I mean is I'm visiting some of the nuttiest, coolest, talented quilters I've had the privilege of knowing the past 3 years!

Some Brit Bee-ers!

Hopefully as you read this I'm stuffing my face, laughing and sewing for 12 hours straight!  Bliss!

Linking up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day.

Have a great weekend.

Jude xo

Hush, hush!

The sewing I've been doing lately has all been a bit hush, hush!

I've had to stockpile a few projects until after our exhibition, but now I can crack on with them.

Sorry, but I can only show you sneak peeks and let your imaginations do the rest!  However, I can tell you there is a Brit Bee theme to all of these!!

Taking a risk with this one!  Hope it pays off!

Let's hope the finished project looks better than this crude drawing!

So there you have it! A few 'in progress' shots.  All I need is some time to get them finished by month end!!  Wish me luck!

Jxo

Wonky is the new Straight!

Tonight saw the finish of a summer Wonky Star Cushion class.

It is so lovely to see everyone finish their cushions, and for some, putting in concealed zippers for the first time.

Well done ladies! 

And I've been doing a bit of wonking of my own this week (no not the wallpapering in my daughter's room, which most definitely qualifies as wonky!)

This is my wonky corners block for Fi in Hipbees, who sent us some lovely Amy Butler to work with.  This is the final month of year 1 in Hipbees.  The bee is continuing on, however I've made the difficult decision to step down.  I know that I will continue some long lasting friendships through this group, and I wish the new members as much fun as I had!

Another bee coming to an end for me is Modern Irish Bee.



Geraldine, whose month completes the end of year 1, very kindly sent us pre-cut triangles and a definite design to make. 

My month in MIB was July, and this week I got the last of my blocks in -wanna see?

Isn't it great!  Not all sewn together yet, and definitely one of the most modern designs I've ever gone for, but I love it!!  Thanks MIB ladies!

And last, but by no means least, my late Brit Bee blocks for Jennie.

Not as wonky along that bottom edge in reality - promise!

These Seminole style blocks were a real head scratcher, especially for someone as mathematically challenged as I am! Jennie sent us a selection of solids and a picture of an inspiration quilt and let us get on with it!

I hope these will pass, even though one block is larger than the other! (As striking as they are, I don't see more Seminole blocks in my future any time soon!!)

Well that's me all up to date! 

A shed load of class samples awaits my attention, which I'm hoping to get to when the kids are back into school on Monday!

Jxo

Wasps 1: Jude 1

Well at 5am this morning I was up doing battle with the wasps!

I managed to get the powder in and then stood back and satisfyingly watched them go nuts!

I was so absorbed in my smugness I didn't notice a stealth bomber sneak round the back of me and sting me - IN THE BUM!!!!

Of all places!  Right through my pjs!

As I dabbed on the vinegar, all I could think of was Forrest Gump when he said he'd been 'shot in the buttocks!'

Thankfully I'm not allergic, and my mission seams to have been a success!  Phew! 

In other news, I'm finally able to show you the FQR name tag I made for Jennie, one of my Brit Bee buddies.

Jennie is an architect and the city skyline design is based on Jennie's own doodle for Ceri's month in Brit Bee, which you can see in the middle of her block here.

I was getting worried that it had got lost in the post, as I hadn't heard anything for ages. But Jennie was on holiday and I'm pleased to say she loves it (well she designed it after all!).

I have now revealed 2 out of 5 of the secret sewing projects I've been involved with.  More to be revealed very soon!

Jxo

In the Company of Angels!

It never ceases to amaze me how 3 women can spend an ENTIRE day talking about sewing, while driving, eating, drinking coffee, running in the rain, fabric shopping & gate-crashing my class!



Sarah & Di

That's multi-tasking at its best!  And the perfect way to spend a lovely day!  Thank you ladies!

And the sneaky peek I showed you yesterday?



A scented house gift for Di!

And for another angel, I've made these:



Terri is queenie in the Brit Bee for June, and she has a rampant mild addiction to star blocks! She has sent us all some solid and 2 sets of coloured prints to come up with some starry magic!

The red star is from the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop book, and the yellow star is called Ribbon Star Block, by Lee of Freshly Pieced.

Unfortunately 2 of my outer points overshot in the yellow star, but I'm hoping T-Bone Angel will be gracious and forgiving!

In my other bee commitments this month, I rustled up an improv. log cabin for Hipbees Lynz, as per her requirements.



Lynz sent us some lovely solids and we had to sneak in a little bit of ourselves!  I went with some flowery Marmalade! Yum!

This really isn't the best photo of this block.  It is much straighter and nicer in real life! Honest!

You should check out the other Hipbee improv. blocks over in the Flickr group!  It's going to be a stunning quilt!

Have a wonderful Friday!

Jxo

The Power of Purple!

Many of you know that purple is my favourite colour!

I was delighted when I got several vintage purples in the recent Vintage Fat Quarter Swap.

In February I was queenie in Brit Bee and used these vintage purples and some Deep Violet Kona as part 1 of what I asked my buddies to make.

And like the obedient little worker bees that they are, they all made me a 12.5" unfinished block!

Sadly, one of the blocks didn't make it home (along with part 2 block - more on that another day).  Thanks a bunch Royal Mail!!!

So a change of plan to the final design was needed, along with some extra blocks made from leftover fabric!

This is the quilt top so far!  That cute mini pinwheel block was made by this brilliant worker bee, from the leftover cuts from the main block, and several others did the same! 

Aren't these so cute!  These will be making their way into the back, along with the siggys (when I eventually get them all - hint, hint girls - you know who you are!).

I'm really liking the mitred border on the mini block, and am thinking of mirroring this as an outer border.  This will help to bring the quilt up to size a bit (it's only 44.5" x 53" at the moment).

As for the part 2 blocks I asked my girls to make - well that's a whole other post!

Have a great start to your new week!

A Month of Triangles!

There's been a distinctive Triangular theme to this month's bee blocks!

Anneliese (Modern Irish Bee) wanted her equilateral triangles sewn into rows of 10.  I had a bit of trouble with these naughty boys, but clipping their wings with this handy tool soon sorted them out!

Anneliese also asked for a donation Trip-along block to make into a charity quilt. This one took no time at all to make (I promise it isn't as wonky in real life as it looks here!)



In Brit Bee this month, Jo sent us some yummy low and high volume Liberty prints, already cut into triangles.



She asked for 2/3rds low volume and 1/3rd high volume, in any shape we liked.  I'm calling this huge block my 'Liberty Love Triangle'!!

Finally, Sarah (Hipbees) sent us some red & cream prints and gave us free reign to choose any block we liked!  And guess what I chose - NOT TRIANGLES! LOL!



This is the Antique Tile block, and it is one of my new favourite blocks to make.  I've seen it made up in many different types of fabric and I've yet to be disappointed with how it looks.

I also got a Bee Blessed block made.  This month we are making super easy 16 patch blocks.



And after trimming 40 Bee Blessed blocks this month too, I think I'm all blocked out now!

Happy Friday everyone!

Flowers From Ceri!

My uber talented Brit Bee buddy Ceri is queen bee for April.

Last month, she asked us to send her a simple doodle!  It could be absolutely anything!  I sent her this:

Ceri then hand carved stencils for all our doodles & screen printed them onto fabric! How cool is that?  Here are my screen printed flowers:

One of these goes back to Ceri as a siggy.

So the plan was to incorporate some of these screen prints into 2 log cabin style blocks, along with some screen prints from the equally talented Karen (Blueberry Park) & using other solids and prints that Ceri had provided.

Block 1 using Karen's screen prints

Block 2 using Ceri's screen prints

It must have taken Ceri hours to make these stencils and prints, and she made enough for us all to have some leftovers to keep!  What a darling!

This is one of the many great aspects of being part of a sewing bee.  You get to try out lots of new stuff that you wouldn't otherwise do!

I'd highly recommend it!

Super-Size Log Cabin!

Over a year ago, my amazingly talented and generous Brit Bee ladies sent me their take on log cabin blocks, which I requested when I was queen bee in January '12.

 

I love all of their blocks, and enjoyed making them into a quilt top. 

 

 

Then I stalled!

 

A few months back I started piecing the back for this special quilt, and decided to go with a giant log cabin (my inspiration was this stunner!).  I bought a jelly roll in 'Oh Deer' and adding in some missing colours from my stash, followed the rainbow order of ROYGBIV!

 



While I like the Oh Deer collection, I'm not a fan of it in jelly roll form, because some of the cute patterns get lost in the strips. 

I used up some Vintage Modern mini charm squares in the centre, and put in more of my denim-esk cotton between the rows.

I have to admit the piecing of this giant log cabin was tedious, which is why I only did a few rows every so often!

But it is now complete, and I'm looking forward to getting it basted and quilted and finished!



Even if it is a year late!

And I'll leave you with a funny quote my daughter found on Pinterest:

Hope you've had a great week!

Jxo