Pssssst...

  but don't get tooooooo excited if you pop in here from time to time because you'll already have seen it. It is after all the season for topping up one's tan ;-)

The invitation

The invitation to the party this Saturday says 'strictly no presents.' Where I interpreted that to mean 'but secretly I'd like a quilt' I'm not sure.

But I have.

It's OK though as the quilt is made up entirely of scraps so really it isn't like I went out and bought a present or anything so it'll be fine.

Honest.
Trust me.

I just took the triangle template that I used for this quilt, laid a strip of Kona Ash down the middle and then added random strips either side, dividing the triangles up into light and dark strips. Except for the middle/centre of the quilt where I did two of the triangles with the strips running horizontally across, so I would get a square effect.

Then I just played around with the triangles till I got a satisfying light/dark pattern going on.

The back is just some fabric to hand, spliced down the middle because it wasn't wide enough and then some wonky rectangles added in. I put one orange one in to stop it looking too safe.

Hand quilted with regular quilting cotton as well as a variety of perle colours.

What do you reckon?

Not technically a present is it?

Just a reuse of scraps really.

Second bee quilt finish

First bee quilt finish is here

This time it was the ladies from the A Twist on Tradition bee. I provided a selection of black and white and red and white fabric as well as some Kona Snow and asked them to make me two 12  1/2 inch blocks based on using the half square triangle only. One block black and white. One block red and white.

What half square triangle blocks they came up with was entirely up to them.

And this is the result:

I love, love, love it.

The blocks were a breeze to sew together (they all really were 12 1/2 inches - thank you ladies!) and then with the spare fabric that they sent back I cut it up to make a completely random half square triangle border.

On the back I appliqued the block I made up as the example to the backing fabric.

Yes Kristie, it's that fabric again ;-)

Quilting was a double cross - hatch over the quilt.

And the binding couldn't have been more apt if I'd tried.

Excuse loose threads, haven't snipped them off yet.

Thank you to:

Queen Bee: Leila
Bee workers (in no particular order): Emily, Jenni, Amanda, Liz, Jenniffier, Jodie, Michelle, Ann and Danielle.

It's my new 'snuggle on the sofa' quilt. Thank you.

The babysitting circle

I am in a babysitting circle.

My mother was in one.

You're a group of mums who babysit for each other. You start off with 12 tokens. Every hour is worth one token and if things get really racey and you stay out after midnight, then it becomes two tokens an hour.

Those nights out have to be got back in tokens though, so I frequently find myself sitting in friend's houses and I need something to do besides watching TV and flicking through their magazines of choice.

I took a jelly roll and I cut it up into what I thought would make strip squares and over the last two years, every time I have babysat, I have taken the strips and hand sewn them together.

I realise I could have accomplished the task a whole lot quicker if I had machined them but that is not the point. I once tried taking my sewing machine on a babysitting session and realised power points and tables in other people's houses are not always close neighbours.

So hand sewing it is.

It's not square though is it? More rectangular. Pity I didn't realise that as I put together 36 blocks over two years.

I thought I was going to assemble it nice and simply like this quilt but when I put the blocks together I realised my mistake.

What to do?
I tried this:

I sliced it on the diagonal and added in a strip to make it square. In theory it works but in practice it doesn't if you are even a millimetre out lining up the two parts of your intersected columns. And I am.
My eye is drawn to the imperfections and it would take too long to line up so this idea was shelved.

Next idea was just to add another strip on the end of each block.

Quick, easy and fine by me.
Next I tried a suitable lay out.

I liked it but I still felt it could be a little bit better.

I decided to add two inch squares to the corner of each block, sew them on the diagonal and when assembled it would make squares on point.

Imagine the green dot fabric face down as a square, sew across diagonally, clip one half off, press back and you have a triangle

Sew all the blocks together and you get this.

This may well be the first and last 'babysitting circle' quilt though...

...as my children inform me...

 

...that they are not 'babies' any more and consequently do not need 'sitting.'

How grown up it must be to be 9 and 11.

"Don't get overwhelmed..."

That's what the note said that came with a parcel today. For no particular reason that I can think of, Kristie at OCD sent me a lovely package all the way from Canada.

Inside was this rather gorgeous beauty:

This in itself is splendiferous but it did feel rather squishy so I opened it up and what did I find?

Not one.

This won't be hanging around, I can assure you; especially as I'm sure things have less calories in them if they are written in French

Not two.

Nor this

But three lovely extras

I can't count - that appears to be four

A magnet which will live on the fridge door

Check out her labels - think I may be suffering from label lust.

And lest they should have been lonely on their long travels, a couple of parcels traveled most of the way with them.

You can never have too much text fabric can you? Especially when it is on sale here and here
(2nd link is not playing ball...type in 'wordplay')

Thank you very, very much Kristie, you didn't have to.

But I'm rather glad you did.

I hate to tell you this, but I was OVER-whelmed.

Is that going to be OK?

W-O-W

That's right.

Wow.

Waiting for me when I got back home were some lovely surprises. First off was my quilt from the first Brit Quilt Swap. Organised by the indefatible Lynne, I was truly lucky to be the recipient of the quilt Lynne made.

You know when you see something and you think 'oh yes'? Well I had an 'oh yes' moment when I saw this for the first time.

Bit like when you have your first crush on a boy in primary school (or a girl if we're being p.c here) but you don't want to say anything for fear that you have read the signs wrong.

Yes, it's double sided. A sort of BOGOF really

That you daren't say out loud what you are thinking for fear you are reading them wrong and really they are just toying with you and are destined to be with A.nother.

Well my first love came to me.

And my true love was not alone.

A witty pin cushion I loved, two quilty magazines, Liberty fabric

And two gorgeous tea towels

I loved this quilt from the moment I saw it and I am extremely grateful to be the recipient of it. There were some in the beginning who said it looked like a toilet seat...I have no idea what they mean.

No skid marks in our household thank you very much

Thank you Lynne from the bottom of my toilet heart for such a fantabulous quilt.

If that wasn't enough, Lynne also sent back to me my block from my month in the Fresh Modern Bee II. When I first saw this on Flickr I declared it to be as good as a dog's appendages. This is apparently not fully understood over the big stretch of water so I will instead say I felt like the cat who had got the cream when I saw this block.

And last, but by no means least, I received my Spicing Up The Kitchen swap package today from the lovely Kate who blogs here.

Again, I can't believe how lucky I was to receive these as this was the one thing I gushed (using the word 'love' four times is gushy for me) about in the swap.

Kate's photo of these is way better than mine - she got an Explore on them

Thank you ladies. I sincerely appreciate the time and creativity you put into your gifts to me.

xx