A New Kid on the (Bee) Block

…well perhaps not a kid, but definitely a new woman in  Brit Bee.

Our  sassy friend, Terri, is stepping down from the sewing part of Brit Bee  I have been nominated to fill her ginormous shoes. This is both exciting and terrifying. Terrifying, as Terri is irreplaceable and I only hope that my sewing is up to scratch. Exciting, as the bee is trying something new this round and I am going to be part of it.

So the mission this month was to select our colours and make a sashed star block. I have taken ages agonising about what colours to select as my inspiration and hopefully to act as a reference point for my fellow bees. 

So my colours that I have chosen are greens/pinks/soft terracottas/yellows/greys as the seeds designs above. I would also like a splash of aqua to mix it up a little too.

Fabric colours for Brit Bee

The colours were hard to choose. I wanted colours that would fit into either my bedroom or living room. After consultation with Younger Son and Hubby it was decided that these  colours would be perfect. We have apple trees in the garden so my son thought that those colours would be apt.

I found choosing the actual star pattern relatively easy . I have used a star from the Solstice Star Series from the Fresh Lemons blog. It is aptly called Star of Mystery. 

Star of Mystery for Brit Bee

This quilt will be growing month by month but until it comes back to me it will be a mystery as to how it will be completed. I love the idea of a little mystery incorporated into sewing.

I am going awol for the next 10 days, as I go on my travels, but keep an eye out for me in Northern Ireland!

Di x

Round Britain tripping

On Friday this week I am leaving home for multiple destinations and it will be 10 whole days before I return home. I am a home bird, and whilst I like going away, 10 days is more than enough for me. This means that my sewing time is limited for the rest of October, so don't expect to see an awful lot of sewing going on here.

As I travel from Lincolnshire, to Southport, to Cumbria, to Manchester, to Northern Ireland and back to Manchester and finally home, I will be seeing different friends as well as family. I also hope to spend some time with these two lovely ladies. 

We are staying with some dear friends in Northern Ireland. I last saw them in June and I made them this cushion to say 'thank you' for their hospitality.

Cushion for A & W

As my hubby and I are imposing on our friends again, I thought that another cushion was in order. I know that they liked the last cushion so I had been keeping the fabric in order to make them a 'matching' one.

Cushion Number 2 for A & W

Cushion (2) Back

So that is another item off my 'to do' list. I am going to sew prolifically today and try and get a couple of bee blocks made…. I will report back later in the week.

Di x

A Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion

I have a lot of presents to make in the next week as well as bee blocks to complete. I feel a little overwhelmed with my sewing schedule and shared this with Trudi, Moria and Tanya at our get together last night. The advice was a) don't panic and b) write a list. 

So armed with my list, and deciding what was going to be sewn today, I have spent the morning making a Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion following this excellent tutorial.

This is number one on my list with a great big tick beside it. 

Liberty and Linen Wallflower cushion

The cushion is long and thin and was an absolute horror to insert the pillow into it. As this is a birthday present for a friend, it won't be my job to take the pillow insert out when the cover requires washing and for that I am truly grateful!!! 

It was not the most pressing item on my list however it was half completed and it feels good to have a finish today.

Now onto item two…

Di x

Frantic Bee Sewing

Since I last blogged, I have managed to do a little sewing in the manic-ness of life. 

I always try and do my bee blocks near the beginning of the month as it feels good to know that I won't be late or if things go wrong (for example, cutting your thumb with a potato peeler) then it won't affect others. This is a good principle, but I tend to find that 'life' can get in the way of good principles! 

So far, I have completed the bee blocks that Erin asked for in the Bee a Brit Stingy group. Check out this excellent tutorial. These blocks are easy and quick to do if you know your left from your right. Unfortunately that part of my brain doesn't work too well and consequently these blocks took me an age to complete. 

Herringbone block (1) for Erin

Herringbone block (2) for Erin

Herringbone block (3) for Erin

Once I had got my left and right sorted, I then was given a little help with the photoshoot!

The hipBee group are going to do some string blocks for Reene, as she is our October queen. Unfortunately Reene has had to undergo an operation recently and is still not A1, so these blocks might be done at the tail end of the month once Reene gets her troops organised for the Post Office run. This is good as I have lots of other sewing to be getting on with and relieves the pressure on me!

The final bit of bee news is that the fab girls over at Brit Bee have asked me to join them. Terri is dropping out from the regular sewing so I was asked to take her place. They have a new round starting this month and I need to sew a star block. I have ideas of paper piecing one as I so enjoyed making my cushion cover top below.

I also have a couple of secret sewing projects on the go. I can only give you a peak of the first one…

…and say that the second one involves Liberty and Linen. The latter one has to be started and completed within the next 24 hours. Yikes! I need to go…

Di x

Hello…is anybody there?

Helloooooooooooo.                Are you still out there…….? 

I feel as if I have dropped off the blogging radar for a good while now. First there was summer and then I managed to cut my thumb, on my dominant hand, really badly on a potato peeler. We have dispatched Elder Son to university (with the offending potato peeler) and last week my hubby and I had  five nights away (one our own) to Kent / East Sussex. We had a great time and the weather was gorgeous - sun and warmth - a real Indian Summer. Whilst we were down in that part of England, we dropped in and had coffee with Terri and spent a morning with this trio of lovely ladies - Ceri, Liz and Nikki. It was really great to meet up with my sewing buddies whilst we were 'down South'.

On the sewing front I haven't really achieved much. I managed to get September hipBee blocks completed for Sarah. I ran out of the outer black fabric for the second block but I know that Sarah completed it with the scraps that were returned to her by the other bees.

Two box in a box

I also struggled to get Fiona's hipBee block completed for August. I had difficulty in making the gorgeous Amy Butler fabric go round. Fi wanted an improv sort of block. This is what I sent her, but it wasn't how it looked in my head! I had to use every scrap of the AB fabric to end up with this block. Not my greatest block,and it took over a month to complete!

In Bee a Brit Stingy, Karen asked for LV with 1930s feel, blocks. I really enjoyed making these blocks and found out that I wasn't as good at doing QST as I thought I was!

Pretty blocks

I think that Karen is going to end up with a beautiful quilt.

Yesterday was the first free day that I had to sew since the 'potato peeler incident'. I decided that although I should be doing lots of other jobs, or sewing for others, I wouldn't. It was definitely a sewing for pleasure,  kind of day. I have been wanting to do some paper piecing blocks for ages so I decided that I would start with an Economy Block. This is what I achieved.

Having fun!

By the end of the evening, I had made a cushion top.

I enjoyed the preciseness of the paper piecing but above all, it was pure pleasure to be back at the sewing machine, enjoying my own thoughts as I sewed. I have missed it so much.

Di x