LBQB Third Quarter Finishes

We've already seen one or two quilts taking shape now in the Little Blog Quilting Bee ... and quarter four is in progress!

These are the blocks requested by Celine (September), Vanessa (October) and Gina (November).

Celine also known as Espritpatch is a prolific seamstress! She introduced a few of the group to a pineapple block. These are generally Foundation pieced (or some refer to them a paper pieced but it's not the same as traditional English paper piecing).  She gave us a link to Generation Quilts which gives measurements for 6" and 8" sizes. We all made 8" blocks in the 'Dark X' option which looks like the photo below with a mixture of bright sections to keep it scrappy.

Vanessa provided us with a link to instructions for the Posies block which is part of the Trifle Dish Quilt at the Moda Bakeshop. (Just a note: If you follow this pattern from the website the instructions in Step 4 needed a little adjustment to ensure all the leaves were the correct way round.) Vanessa sent us some lovely Oakshott fabric for the background. We chose our own colours for the rest and she now has a beautiful fabric flower garden so I'm sure she'll be thrilled!

Gina's block was quite a simple one but very effective. She requested a scrappy 'trip around the world' block in blues or purples (or both)with some instructions if we needed them her at Quiltville's Quips and Snips!! This is a very simple block to make and it only took a few of us about 30 minutes from start to finish ... hopefully you can't tell!

Vanessa's Posies block gets the trophy this quarter for being the most fun (& also for spotting the mistake in the instructions before we cut her fabric)! Here you are Vanessa:  

LBQB Trophy Quarter 3 is awarded to Vanessa.

I have managed to forget what I've added into the packages this time ... some of my own goodies sneaked in their along with chocolate and some sewing accessories. I think I am going to be the last Queen of the LBQB group ... and for the final quarter I will have to prepare to post my block instructions soon.

I have been busy making these pot mitts again, they are super gifts and fun to do:

We've also been on holiday for a break to the Centre Parcs set in Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, it was a relaxing break (some of the days). Here are my not-so-little tree huggers:

We had a great time and have been enjoying the catch up as a family!

LBQB Second Quarter Finishes

The Little Blogs Quilting Bee is well into its third quarter so I thought I would post a photo or two of the second quarter blocks I have made.

These are the blocks requested by Heidi (June), Claire (July) and Natalie (August).  

For Heidi we made a friendship star block. We were given a variety of options with this one and she linked to this tutorial from Delaware Quilts which gives measurements for lots of different sizes. We all made a 12.5" block but they were quite a few versions. You can see some of them on Heidi's Instagram feed.

I opted for 4 individual friendship stars and I snuck in a H for Heidi and a Bee! This was my resulting star: again made from the Curiosities range of fabric by Nancy Halvorsen.

Claire provided a colour scheme (bright pinks, purples or aqua blue with low volume for the background) for her single wedding ring block. All her instructions for the block are on her blog. It was one of my first adventures for a while with low volume prints too, I think it worked well!

Natalie said she would like a 'ric rac' block and her instructions came from Issue 10 of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I've made these chevron blocks before and they are really effective! Her colour choice was red on white (which I think was a white on white print) here's the result:

I am looking forward to seeing how all these blocks look when they are put together ... and Heidi's friendship star gets the trophy this quarter for being the most fun! Here you are Heidi:  

LBQB Trophy Quarter 2 is awarded to Heidi.

I'm still having fun adding into the packages some of my own goodies and trying to choose something to include that I think the Queen bee for the month might like. Among other stuff I sent a cactus pin cushion to Heidi, which I think I blogged about before, and Natalie really loved the pot mitts so perhaps I should do a tutorial?

With the third quarter well underway and my October block wending it's way as I type, I suggest you check out some of these little blogs and see what we've been up to!

The linky party!

So over at The Littlest Thistle the linky party has started and all the folks who bravely shared their works in progress (WIPs) have been busying themselves to finish some of their projects.

I went a bit mad and listed far more WIPs than I could possibly manage to complete here in this post. I have managed to complete a few of them but the rest will have to roll over to Quarter 3 of the Finish Along. 

Here's how I got on:

13) Alex's skirt - the link is here on Facebook.
22) New conservatory cushions - we love them! I wrote a post about them here.
23) Baby quilt - for my gorgeous little Ehsan the post is here 

and also 25) Scrappy Floor Cushion - which I finished just the other day:

This was fun to make! I used up lots of scraps, just sewing them together in random strips and then piecing the strips together to make larger ones until I had quite a large piece of patchwork. 

I used a round plastic lid to draw two circles for the top and bottom and quilted them to an old flannelette blanket for a bit more stability! The side gusset was a strip cut to the length of the circumference of the circle which I backed with medium weight iron-on interfacing to stiffen it a little.

I used ricrac in the seam round the top and added a zip in the bottom side seam to enable the cushion to be put inside (it was still a work of art getting it in there as I used a large, plump and fluffy Ikea cushion which I bought in their 'bargain corner' for £2). 

It is heading to my friend Laura's house - for her lovely cat Xeno!

I have also been busy with my Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt ... but more about that in another post.

LBQB First Quarter Finishes

So the Little Blogs Quilting Bee is well under way with the first quarter blocks all having a 'wonky' theme.

Now I know these have all arrived safely I can show you my wonky wonders!

I can honestly say this has pushed me away from my comfort zone ... anyone who knows me will tell you I am a perfectionist and don't do miss-match! I discovered that I wasn't the only one who cringed at the idea of not matching corners and making things symmetrical ... but in the spirit of embracing the challenge we all gave it a go!

Saying that, I think the challenges allowed some room for manoeuvre and the whole idea was that we would get an opportunity to do something that was someone else's style or colour choice.

These are the blocks requested by Lou (March), Jenny (April) and Joanna (May). 

For Lou who had requested a 'Wonky' star, we were pointed in the direction of this tutorial by Owen's Olivia. This was my resulting star: made from the Curiosities range of fabric by Nancy Halvorsen.

Jenny asked for a 'Wonky' log cabin block, in brights and solid colours so this is the resulting block. It was easy once I had located fabric in the right colours. 

Joanna provided a great tutorial for a wonky churn dash block on her blog. I ordered some Moda solids and once her background fabric arrived in the post I set to work. I found all the scrappy piecing fairly easy and planning the wonky squares was fairly quick, once I had worked round a flaw in the background fabric which reduced the available fabric considerably. 

However I will say that putting the whole thing together was not only time consuming but with all the little seams it was neither a pleasure to sew nor to press! I don't think it turned out too badly considering, here's the result:

I am looking forward to seeing how all these blocks look when they are put together ... and Lou's Wonky star gets the trophy this quarter for being the most fun! Here you are Lou:  

LBQB Trophy Quarter 1 is awarded to Lou.

With the second quarter underway and my June block wending it's way as I type   it will be interesting to see all the other new ideas our Little Blog Quilting Bee members will come up with.

I also had fun adding into the packages some of my own goodies and trying to choose something I could include that I thought the Queen bee for the month might like. 

I sent heart shaped coasters I made to Lou, here's her Instagram post, brown paper packages to our lovely Jenny containing a few of my favourite things and some allotment themed goodies to our green fingered Joanna, here's her Instagram post.  This has been such fun!

Don't worry, I have it covered!

When my hubby bought a second hand conservatory suite I must say I wasn't too impressed. The structure was solid but the covers were dated and had seen better days.

"We'll just get new cushions," he said, which got me thinking. There was nothing wrong with the cushion pads themselves, it was just the fabric that looked like it had seen better days. It had been repaired a few times and wasn't exactly what I would have chosen for style.

I have made loose covers before. For a few different items: suites, chairs armchairs and chaise lounges. I knew that although I needed lots of fabric it wasn't difficult,especially if you had an existing set of covers or a shape to follow. I also knew that I had in my stash some canvas weight furnishing cotton. It was the remainders of a roll of fabric I bought called Mintern, from Laura Ashley. It was left from curtains I made for my Kitchen in my previous house. I still have the cups and the table mats to match. 

My SIL got roped in to help me salvage the zips from the old covers and cut off the seams to prepare the old covers as pattern pieces. It was good to have some company as it was a rather monotonous task. I think it also demonstrated to her that if you start somewhere it isn't too difficult!

I sewed for a few evenings ... taking up the kitchen table as the fabric was heavy and I needed extra space. I also lined the cushion back pads, to allow me to take the covers off without disturbing the padding again.

I made about 15 meters of red piping (from some Laura Ashley Bacall in Raspberry) and am really pleased that I decided to pipe the cushions. This is the finished suite:

Here's a better picture of one of the chairs:

It was a big project and I'm really pleased with the results! 

I am linking up this finish with Kate's Finish Along as this is on my Q2 list of things I hoped to complete! 

Instagram Success

A little over a week ago I reached 200 followers on my Instagram account ... which I thought was amazing, thank you!

I decided to have a little 'thank you' giveaway and made some cafetière jackets and a couple of pincushions. One was for the winner of the giveaway and one for my 200th follower.

This is a quick screenshot from Instagram:

The winner was chosen via the random number generator I found on line ... amazing what you can find to do the work for you ... and the winner is Janice Thomson (aka @janithom) who was 6th on my list.

Well done Janice ... send me an email with your address details and these will be on their way to you down under! 

I will have another giveaway soon, it was such fun!

Katie who blogs over at StVital was my 200th visitor so along with holding a giveaway I made contact with her and arranged to send her some goodies.  

She has 4 adorable kiddies and lives with her hubby in Canada. I love her quilting and her cakes but this has to be my favourite quilt on her blog:

It's a present, present! I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her picture with you, it was such a bright and fun photo, here's a link to the post where she has some more photos in lovely high definition. The binding has little white snowflakes all over, it's beautiful!

It's been a busy week at work and yesterday I was briefly at the Rawdon Summer Fun Day with the local Community Library Craft Group which due to torrential rain and 4 inches of mud across the whole of the field was bit of a catastrophe:

My daughter, Alex, has been off school with a virus and I think I have had a mild version of the same, although I wasn't feeling very well today I'm much better this evening. 

It does look like she might have recovered, she was out in the garden dressed as a blonde elvish princess:

I love the way she mixes up her fairy tales and took with her a basket of red delicious apples, don't they grow up too quickly! 

Hey partner!

Been busy with my planning & layout ... decided to go with a central appliqué panel and some happy Kate Spain "Summertime" ... this might take longer than I expected!

It's coming on nicely and it's great fun!

I think I have such a little blog I'm safe to show you how I'm getting on so far. I've added the cake toppings now and a few other bits since I took this: