The Big Reveal

What an exciting weekend I had !
Just over a year ago Maria invited me to join a quilting bee.
We each made one strip of a quilt and then posted it onto the next person, who added a strip and so on until everyone had contributed to every quilt.
We agreed to not post photos of the quilt as it progressed, but instead we sent a journal along with the quilt and everyone wrote about the blocks they added and included photos of the progress in the journal.
We decided it would be a lovely idea to all meet up to give the completed quilt tops back to their owners and Jen very kindly offered to host it for us.
We were blessed with a wonderful sunny day and were able to take our quilts into her garden for the Big Reveal.

This is Sarah opening hers.

Next it was Amy's turn.

Then me !! I think you can tell by the ear to ear grin on my face just how pleased I was with this!

I started it off with the  third row down. Just look at all the different blocks the others added. There are cotton spools, baskets, pinwheels, 16 patches and stars. Some people even used organic cotton as they know I like it so much !

Thank you dear friends !!

Jen our wonderful host, had said in her journal that she liked pink and purple, so we took her at her word and made the brightest quilt imaginable. I think she likes it, don't you?

Maria our Queen Bee was next up. I love her quilt so much. She started it off with the row of houses and I'm definitely going to be making some houses since seeing them. I made the birds on the top row. I actually blogged about them here. I just didn't let on what they were for!

Finally it was the turn of Fran. I don't know how she managed to wait her turn!!

So, six wonderful quilts filled Jen's washing line and we all clicked away excitedly with our cameras.

I am so grateful to Maria for inviting me to join this Bee. It was wonderful to finally meet everyone, and so kind of Jen to host it for us. We had so much to talk about and the time passed so quickly, but at least now, whenever I look at my quilt, I can remember the people I met and our day together.

We sometimes have a tendency to over concentrate on the design, or the fabric choice or the skill when making a quilt, but really they are the sum of their parts and much, much more. They are the thought and kindness that went into making them. They are the comfort and pleasure they give to their recipient. They are a little piece of history.
My quilt and it's  journal will be certainly be treasured, along with the friends I've made along the way.

PS I hope my Bee friends are OK with me posting these photos of you. If not, just let me know and I'll take them down :-)

A Quilted Notebook Cover

A couple of weeks ago I was going to meet up with some online quilting Bee friends for the weekend. We were all very excited and we were going to give our completed quilts to their respective owners. Sadly the day before the shenanigans,  Jen  our dear and generous host fell over whilst buying the food for us. She badly broke her shoulder and has been in a lot of pain since. We will get together another time, but first we had to try and cheer Jen up!! We very swiftly made a small quilted wall hanging -  one block each, in her favourite colours.
Here is mine:

I also made her a little notebook cover. Probably not the smartest idea, as I guess she finds writing very difficult at the moment, but it will keep until she is better.
I quilted it very simply with straight lines on the bottom and zig zags on the top half.
It is so easy to quilt zig zags on polka dot fabric.You literally just join the dots!!

 I appliquéd her initial on the front.

Added the inner sleeves (sorry, forgot to photograph that bit) and the job was done!

I know Jen loved her presents, and we will still get to meet up and swap quilts one day when she is better. This was the first time I had joined a quilting Bee , and I'm so pleased I did. I have made a lot of wonderful friends and tried quilting techniques and block designs that I may not otherwise have tried. A big thanks to our Queen Bee  Maria who put the blocks together and quilted it.
You can see our finished wall hanging on her blog
We couldn't have done it without you Maria!

My Social Side

I seem to be flaunting my social side at the moment!

Over the last few weeks I've joined a quilting bee AND a quilt-a-long.

I was thrilled to be invited to join the The Quilting Bee by Maria over at sew love to sew 

and of course said "Yes"

The Bee is made up of 6 of us

Maria @ sew love to sew

Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts

Fran @ PatchyRose 

Sarah @ Quilt Candy 

Glinda @ Glinda Quilts 

Me!

and we are making one strip each. The finished quilt will be 40" wide and we can choose to make five 8"blocks or eight 5" blocks or whatever else will fill that width.

This is my finished strip

It's a disappearing pinwheel block using a couple of Amy Butler Soul Blossoms prints that I had in my stash. 

It is refreshingly liberating to start a quilt that you have no pre-conceived ideas about, as to overall colour or what room it is intended for.

My second social venture is a Swoon Along! 

It is being organised by Sarah @ Fairy Face Designs

I watched Katy's Swoon along take the quilt blogging world by storm last year and regretted that I didn't join in then. This time I'm on the ball! It only started yesterday, so if you fancy playing along, follow the link and join us!

Finally, I have some finishes to share with you.

If you are a regular follower, you will know I am stash busting my knitting yarn oddments this year by making baby items for  Greenfields Africa

I challenged myself way back in January to make 52 items (one for each week of the year) using only oddments from my stash (I'm including fabric stash too). well, we are half way through the year at the end of this week, so I should have 26 items. With the 2 fabric blankets I finished yesterday, along with a couple of knitted items from earlier in the month, I've made it - just!

These bring my year total exactly up to 26 items.

Phew! That bundle is quite big! By the time it gets to December this parcel will need a sizeable box indeed! But my otherwise not very useable stash will be zapped and a few more babies will be wrapped in something other than rags.

Right now, I'm off to choose the fabrics for my Swoon.

Have a good week!