Essential sewing tool - a camera!

I don't know what it is about the process of making but sometimes you can get tunnel vision in trying to complete a block and when this happens, somehow, I just can't seem to see what is right in front of me. It's only when I go to upload a photo for the blog, that I properly see what I've made.  Sometimes it works our brilliantly and I get perfect points;

but most of the time its because I've gone and done something daft like this:

For the second time last week, I managed to piece some green triangles in the wrong way around!  I didn't notice I had one of the star points made into a mountain instead of a star in this Stash Bee block until I was writing my stash bee post.  It was a case of run to the hall table, take back the parcel, rip it open and start unpicking again!

Of course when I ripped it apart I poked a hole in the white with my seam ripper and had to re-cut and re-sew quite a bit of the block!  Doh!  That's what I get for rushing.

My camera came in really handy on Saturday too as I was out in the Limerick Quilt Centre buying fabric for Yvonne's Snowflake Shimmer Quilt-A-Long.  I wanted a subtle kind of a snowflake quilt so was going for bright white, a frosty blue and a warm grey.  I thought Kona Ash might be too dark so picked shadow and blueberry.

The shop didn't have these but did have Lake and Silver.  In the shop light Silver looked ok but in B&W on the back of the camera it looked far too similar to work.

So its back to the Shadow again!  The QAL has just started and its fabric selection in the first week so I have to get some ordered!  And the silver?  I have plans for that for another Christmas type quilt ... and I may yet go with Ash.  Decisions, decisions.

So after all that fabric selection and unpicking of green HST's it was nice to have a random improv style block to make for Stash Bee July!

This HST block is made by randomly selecting squares, making HST, putting them in a bag (I used a big Ikea basket bag to make sure I didn't peek!), randomly pulling HST out and sewing them together - only rule was one of the triangles had to have a pop of colour suitable for a boys quilt.  I picked green - I was on a roll at that point with green, right?  This block is impossible to sew things in upside down, well you can but it doesn't matter!

Thankfully it wasn't all unpicking for me with this one -back to perfect points - at least in the centre section anyway!  Taking the small victories when they come.

Wilbur on the other hand had enough of me messing about with the camera and the seam ripper!   It might look like he was keeping me company while catching up with Stash Bee but no, he strategically placed himself between my machine and the ironing board and had a great chat with me,  telling me, via whistles, whines and Mutley mutterings it was time for a break and our evening walk!  He also woke me up yesterday morning before 7 to go outside and get his morning tablet for epilepsy (with Philadephia cream cheese!)  Better than an alarm clock. No snooze button though ...

Bee Block update!

It had to happen - the popularity of this block on Stash Bee really meant it was going to come up sometime! Last year one of my hive mates was thinking about it and changed her mind.  I breathed a sigh of relief, this year in this month of all month's my hive mate picked the Union Flag.  Without wanting to offend anyone let me try and explain why there may have been a few groans when I saw this months choice of block.

As most of you probably already know I'm from Limerick in the mid-western part of Ireland. The island of Ireland is made of Northern Ireland (6 counties) and Ireland (26 counties).  Not Southern Ireland please!  We had a colleague from South Africa and a few in the office really enjoyed getting people to ask him what part of Australia he was from.  He knew it was a joke but watching him turn red in the head and trying to bite his tongue was regular entertainment in the office.  I get that same emotional reaction and have to try my best to bite my tongue when Ireland is referred to as Southern Ireland.  Usually happens when I'm trying to give my delivery address to some poor customer service person in the UK who tells me they don't deliver to Southern Ireland.  That's nice I think to myself, but I don't live in Cork!    Identity is a funny thing and we are emotional creatures that surprise even ourselves sometimes.

Carla's paper pieced instructions make all of  these little lines so easy to keep straight and crisp!

The relationship the whole island of Ireland has with the Union Flag is complicated.  Helen@Midget Gem Quilts also in Stash Bee, who has made this block twice, lives in Northern Ireland and has written about it here and here.  In the North, there are regular protests about the flying of the Union Flag and its the National Flag.   On our side of the border, some see the Union flag as a symbol of imperialism, colonialism, the destruction of the Irish language - flags are powerful things.  Tomomi who lives in Carlow joked that she would have to go into hiding to make that flag and she's Japanese!  I in turn joked with Helen, saying if it came up, I might have to ask her to make it for me!

This month we have St. Patrick's day our National Day and we are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the 1916 rising.  The rebellion against British rule in Dublin on Easter 1916 is credited as a pivotal event in the road to Ireland's independence.
   

The Union Flag is made up the flags of St Patrick, St Andrew and St George but is not symmetrical!

There were a number of rebellions but the Easter 1916 rising declared Ireland an independent Republic calling Irish people to her flag which is a tri-colour modeled on the French Flag but in colours Green, White and Orange.  Green to incorporate the old Nationalist flag of a gold harp on a green background, Orange for the Orange order, a protestant group founded in memory of King William of Orange and white to symbolise peace between the two.

In the spirit of that aspiration for peace, much has been done to respect the past and find a way forward.  A really big event was the Queen's visit to Dublin in 2011.  She made a speech with some opening sentences in very well spoken Irish and laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, (a memorial garden that honours those who died in pursuit of Irish freedom, including those executed for their part in the 1916 rising).  That was a really big gesture.

So if the Queen can take Irish lessons, then I think I can make a Union Flag block, especially in these colours.  When I told G I had to make that block the first words out of his mouth were not in those colours though?  See, it's complicated!  I showed him the finished block and he did admit it looked good.  So this is on it's way to America!  I find that quite funny for some reason too!

My not so complicated bee choice of the Clover and Violet Scrappy Star block in low volume fabrics have been arriving in abundance and they look brilliant!  Thank you Hive#4 and Yvonne who crashed last month and sent me an extra!

I'm loving this one in not so low volume colours and think it will make a brilliant focal point for my quilt!

Finally, the last of the blocks for February included the Murder Mystery QAL over at Whipstich.  This month we got more clues, a possible attempted murder and instructions for the second block!  So far a car park and a waterfall.  This is going to be one interesting quilt!

Friday block finishes!

As I am not up to quilting my queen sized flower power on my small Pfaff, I have been getting on with piecing bee blocks.  I am totally in love with this block chosen for us by Kate in Hive 4 of Stash Bee. 

The red and white combo is just classic!  The tutorial for this one is over at Anyone Can Quilt.  I'm thinking about this for the centre of a Round robin quilt starting this month with Modern Quilters Ireland!

I managed to finish off the last of Modern Irish Bee 2015 blocks too so all caught up with that one!  Suzanne sent us the Green and Gold fabric and told us to make anything we wanted with it so I made Christmas presents for her festive themed quilt.

The blocks are from the free pattern by Kate Spain, called Flurry and can be found here on the Moda website.  I checked with Fiona @ Celtic thistle Stitches and Christmas bee blocks are ok to link up with Ho Ho Ho and On We Sew which is being hosted on her blog this month.  If you are trying to get ahead with Christmas makes or making up for a forgotten present from last year head on over to Fiona's where she has a collection of free tutorials with a Christmas theme!

Finally I have a block of the month club finish to share.  This is a block from Whipstich's Murder Mystery Blocks of the month.  This one is great fun!  You subscribe and every month you get a chapter of a story giving you clues to a murder mystery.  You also get a block to make and extra clues if you make your block on time.  You get one chance to guess Whodunnit and be in with the chance of winning a prize at the end of the year.

If you are interested head on over to Whipstich.  I'm really loving this one!
Happy weekend everybody!

I've been bee block busy!

Being in 2 bees I have 3 blocks to make every month - 1 for Stash Bee and 2 for Modern Irish Bee. I managed to keep up to date with Stash Bee but this month made a big effort to get all blocks for Modern Irish Bee made and in the post! So I have lots of blocks made but not yet shared.
First up Stash Bee!  We had 2 people pick the same Ripples block from Gnome Angel designed for Hive Bee. The colours couldn't be more different but apparently my sense of photo taking is pretty much the same even though these were made 1 month apart! Creature of habit I guess - this was a surprise to me writing this post and I think I must make a better effort to change up the angles a bit next year!

For September we were asked to make these really lovely tulips from Podunk Pretties.  I love these and can imagine them on everything from pillowcases to cushions to aprons to borders on a quilt!

For Modern Irish Bee Louise picked a Wheel of Time block in greys, aquas and oranges and Jacinta picked greys and lemons in her block for October.

I really like this one too and can't wait to see it finished into a quilt top. It's from Hyacinth Quilt Designs called Garden Fence.

Lastly for November, Stephanie picked the Patchwork wheel block by don't call me Betsy in bright scrappy colours.  This was the first ever bee block I made for Global scrap bee 2 years ago so I smiled when I saw this one pop up again!

So all caught up with Bee blocks and though Stash Bee 2015 is now at an end I still have December to go for Modern Irish Bee.  Suzanne gifted us some green and gold fabric and challenged us to make whatever we wanted for her Christmas themed quilt.  I have ideas!  I'm on a roll now and am aiming to get them made this week!

WIP Wednesday - Bee Blocks Stash Bee Hive 3

Every bee I've ever been in has had me making string blocks!  They really are a great project choice for a bee as many hands really do make light work and its a great way to get lots of variety in your quilt.  Plus they are great scrap busters! 

Last month, Martina asked us, in Stash Bee hive #3, for happy bright colours and I chose as many Me and My Sister prints as I had on hand to include in these.  Somehow on the day I must have been feeling a green vibe!

This month Debbie picked a block I'd never made before. 

 It's a traditional block called Winged Square with a fussy cut centre surrounded by Half Square Triangles.  This was really fun to make!

The idea is to pick a centre piece and choose 2 colours that speak to you from the image.  The bit I liked about the fabric I had chosen was the hummingbird and the pink flower so I chose and aqua colour with hot pink!

 Not colours I'd normally use together but I do like them a lot!

 Hoping to continue this trend of getting Bee blocks done earlier in the month!

Linking up to

Bee Block Finishes

I have bee blocks to share today.  Between getting 4 quilts ready for the exhibitions this month and the busy day job the bee blocks were last to be ticked off the list in May and I finished them up this last Sunday right in the nick of time on the 31st. 

For modern Irish Bee, Maya asked us for boxy stars in pink and green against a black background, an unusual colour combo and it makes me think I should use black a little bit more.  The blocks are made with this free tutorial from Quiltville.

They go together log cabin style and then you add the black squares on the corners.  Of course for my first block I added the squares to the wrong corners.  Doh!

It does give some interesting design options though like a cross instead of a star.

I see a foxes face in this one though Tomomi and Louise on facebook saw T-shirts!

We all quite like this one though.  Possibilities it has…

For stash bee the request was Churn dash blocks.  Love these!  There is something about a churn dash that is so satisfying to make.

We were asked to make 3 with a low volume background and bright fabrics and 1 the other way around. 

I really like this duck egg blue and flower pattern, something vintage and soft about it to me that reminds me why I wanted to make patchwork  pieces in the very first place.  Tutorial for this one is here on Stash Bee.  Happy weekend everyone!