MakeClub Bee

Last night was my MakeClub meeting. You may remember that MakeClub is my lovely local group of mums from school who cooked up the idea for a group last summer at a rainswept sports day (wishing we were somewhere warm and knitting!). Since then we have learnt to knit, crochet, quilt, embroider etc etc together, encouraging each other, making lots of lovely friends along the way. I love MakeClub. Its food for the soul.

Last night we kicked off a Quilting Bee. We are going back to basics and making a modern take on a sampler quilt. Making the same block together each month, but in our own fabric palettes. Each block will demonstrate a new skill, so that by the end of 9 blocks you could tackle pretty much any other block with confidence. We all plan to make 10 blocks each then make the orphan blocks into a charity quilt. I am so excited about it all. There is so much energy and enthusiasm about learning a new skill, and my favourite thing is helping people to make their first quilt. They are always hooked!

I know that lots of my blog readers are teetering on the brink of making their first quilt. I thought I would open up our Bee online, so if you would like to quilt along with us month by month I will post the block instructions online as we make them. If you would like to join us, this month you need to get your fabrics planned. I will post tomorrow with the info on what you need to have in order to join in. Happy Quilting!

Confessions of a Colour Addict

Photo from purlbee.com
I'm supposed to be cleaning the house, making a bolognaise sauce, folding laundry etc etc. Before I'd even got my rubber gloves on I had got waylaid in My Front Room this morning. I always love love love the PurlSoho colour wheel quilt.I have this picture on my pin board. I decided to try out my stash to see if i had a colour wheel of my own...... It was so much fun.

Anyway, back to the cleaning.............boo!

Baby Buttons Big Bed Quilt Ta Dah!

I have loved this quilt ever since I first started sewing the blocks. I fell in love with this quilt and wanted my own! It was pretty quick to put together the quilt top but I have been held up finishing by my hand quilting log jam. Last week I really put my mind to it and so here is Baby Buttons Big Bed Quilt finished and really for my smallest girls big bed ( probably a bit early for that yet so it has a nice home over the back of the nursing chair in her little bedroom until then)

If you wanted to make a similar quilt I used Heather Ross fabric remnents from etsy here and here. I really only had less than a yard in total but lots of little bits and pieces ( its the only way it comes these days). Or you could visit spoonflower where Heather has started reprinting some of her designs and buy new. I pieced 6.5inch, 4.5 inch and 2.5 inch squares out of co-ordinating scraps and pieced them any which way to get to the 12 inch by 8inch blocks. The sashing is Kona Cotton Snow.

More Little Folks Dot In The Middle Quilt

As promised here are some more Little Folks Dot In The Middle quilt pics after my blogger frustrations yesterday.

I dithered for quite a long time before I took the plunge and bought some Little Folks. I don't know what held me back. I guess I'm a bit cautious of so much pattern and colour in each fabric, it can be a bit overwhelming if you want to make a quilt I find. But I kept seeing quilts I loved made in Little Folks, here and here.

In the end I decided to go for fat quarters and have a play. As soon as the fabrics came I was in love. They feel sooooo lovely. But I could see straight away that i) any pattern had to have big pieces to make the most of the patterns within the fabrics ii)I needed something to tone down the exuberance a bit ( I'm so English and reserved, I know it!).

After my Hope Valley Baskets success, using a traditional block pattern, tempering colours with a grey, I decided to take the same approach. I used an album block (often used in the past for quilts where the participants would add their names, for charity quilts, or as a parting gift to a member of the community moving away etc). The blocks came together really quickly ( they are 12' x12') but when I laid them out I felt like the middle of the block was just too bare! It's well known that I can seldom make a quilt without circles, so I started with a large circle applique based on drawing around a cup. I strip pieced a square of fabric using the 4 fabrics in the block and then using freezer paper made a circle. But it looked too big. I decided to downscale dramatically, made a dot, based on drawing around a cotton reel ( YLI cotton quilting thread) and ironed over two fabrics pieced together so I had a little half and half dot. Then I appliqued them on. I counted the colours wrongly and ended up with an extra blue. Rather than fiddle about again I decided to adopt the 'humility block' approach and popped the little blue button in the yellow block.

I think I love it! Now I have to plan some quilting. I want to do something a bit more decorative than my normal style. I especially love how the quilting works on this quilt. I'm inspired by old quilts with their elaborate quilting patterns, so I'm off to do some research.

p.s Have you got your copy of Fat Quarterly yet? It's fab, do go and buy one here

Little Folks Dot In The Middle Quilt

Ta da! My Little Folks Dot In The Middle Quilt top is finished and ready to quilt. I just realised that this poor quilt has been a bit un-blogged as it's been going on in the background to my hard slog hand quilting regime that I have put myself on! Every now and again though the spirit has rebelled and I have had a little clandestine sew of this... It's Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Voiles, using a traditional album block with an untraditional dot in the middle. More pics tomorrow when blogger will hopefully play nicely:(

My First Quilt - As Snug as a Bear in a Pram

The biggest of my Smalls is now officially a quilter having just finished her first quilt, aged 6.

I'm so proud of her, isn't it lovely? Scraps she painstakingly selected from the scrap bin, rotary cut by me, sewn together by hand by her, quilted by her in perle cotton in a big flower designed by her, bound by me. Loved by Mr Bear. She asked me how old I was when I finished my first quilt, I told her 21 (ahem!), she looked at me ( slightly pitying) and said 'well mummy I'll be able to do reeeeaaaaly hard quilts by the time I am 21 won't I?', ......i guess she will...

Good Things are Worth Waiting For

In my last post I was having a small overwhelmed moan about how much hand quilting I had to do and how long it all took. I said I wanted to start machine quilting. You all said, but hand quilting is so lovely and special. And you are right. Next time I'm at that inevitable lose hope stage when hand quilting - it's a little past half way, but before the end is in sight - just refer me to this post won't you? You see I always forget just how fab it feels when the quilting is done and the binding is starting to smarten it all up, and the quilt's real potential shows itself. This afternoon I was sewing binding, in the garden, looking at all the long awaited bulbs starting to bloom, and thinking how Good Things are Worth Waiting For -I suppose that's what makes them so good.

If anyone fancies making a quilt like this, I used the Creative Grids Circle in a Square ruler, and the fabrics are a mixture of Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Momo Wonderland and Oakshott Shot Cottons, the backing is Amy Butler Love and the binding is Oakshott. The circle ruler is so easy to use so don't be frightened of circles! I loved making it so much I am already building a little fabric pile for a primary colours circles quilt using the same ruler......

p.s I'm thinking I'd probably better check out those long arm quilters just in case!