Bee-autiful!!

I'm playing at being Queen for a day a month in the Modern Stitching Bee.

This is my first ever time as a queen bee and the possibility of all those blocks I could get my wonderful bee mates to make me was just overwhelming!

I did finally settle on a block design however

I was mostly motivated by my jealousy of everyone else's stashes, that and my love of stars! I was worried about how lots of blocks made from potentially different white solids would work together....I know from the birdie stitches quilt that even a subtle variation in white can be quite obvious when a top is assembled. The perfect solution was to reverse the block, having the star in white. This way the different white will not be next to each other AND I get a little bit of everyone's gorgeous fabrics to swoon over!

I have some amazing bee mates, they are very talented, funny and sweet. My first blocks arrived on Saturday from my friend Nicky, the 6th of the month no less, wasn't she quick off the mark! And they look splendid with my test blocks too :-)

I found time at the weekend for a little solitary stitching and managed to almost make my Nan's birthday present, bar putting in the ribbon (a lined drawstring bag using Jeni's tutorial). More on that soon when it is completed....I also finished off the panel for the front of my Mouthy Stitches 2 tote, the rest of the pieces are cut

I am hoping to quilt and assemble the bag later this week once I have some pennies to buy the batting, I seemed to have cleared my bank account out on Saturday at noon ;-)

Bees and Post

I am now in 2 bees, both done for the month, except a signature block for Leanne in the Modern Stitching Bee.

Grannie block for Leanne in Modern Stitching Bee, I really wanted to keep this one for myself, loved the colours :-)

Grannie block for Leanne in Modern Stitching Bee

Uneven Stacked Coin Block for Lisa In the Stash Bee

Wiggles from the lovely Sarah

Little Apples from Sarah too for my Aneela Quilt and a selvedge for 'that' dress I am supposed to be making! Thank you so much Sarah for the fabric, I was starting to worry about not having any apples and perhaps having to leave it out, thanks to Sarah I don't have to now :-)

If anyone has any more Apples they don't want I'd really love some more, whether you want to swap or sell, just let me know.

Wiggles from Pamela French (sorry no blog to link too)

On the wiggly front I have now collected 94 which is amazing! I know there are a few on their way to me, I really hope we can get to 100, that would be so fantastic. A massive thank you to anyone who has made and sent wigglys.

No sewing today, just baking, gardening, sun bathing and drinking wine....speaking of which, the later requires more attention, tata!

No time to talk

I have been busy, busy fielding squabbling children (are we really still in the first week of the holidays?!) busy cleaning and washing whilst the sun shines and happily busy sewing when I can.

So with the kids wrapped up in bed I am going to give you a whirlwind update of what's been going on here before whizzing off to do some more (or possible collapse in front of a film, I will see how far my legs take me!)

First up, my new wallet! I have been drooling over the wonderful purses Ali at Very Berry Handmade makes for months and every time i get out my tattered old wallet I swear I am going to make myself a new one. I finally did it and I love it! Best of all the fabric was in the bargain bucket at a local quilt shop and I found they also sell fusible fleece (amazing, no-where here ever stocks anything useful or modern!) so I got everything I needed, hurrah!

I took photos of it VERY late at night, hence the poor quality, obviously I couldn't wait to use it!

Next I trialled a block for my month in the new Modern Stitching Bee, Alleyways from the book Modern Blocks

I did a quick mosaic to give me an idea of how this would look as a quilt, although it is hard to imagine because each block will be made from different fabrics from their own scraps, so it will be less uniform but I think I will like it. I have a few more to trial when I get a minute!

I also finished my frame purse last week for my swap partner, I had a bit of a mare with the glue, which was very frustrating after all the care I had taken to make up a pattern, embroider and sew the purse together. Thankfully some lovely smelly acetone took care of my spilt glue :-)

The front, thankfully now glue free (almost!)

The back...fly birdie, fly!

The inside, yes, more bargain Amy Butler, but when it is so gorgeous why not?!

My not so little purse is now stuffed with goodies and ready to be wrapped up and handed to the postie at the end of the week.

Finally last week just because I could I made a quilt! It is not on my FAL list, it didn't need making, but sometimes you just have to. I had a beautiful Cape Ann charm pack from one of the lovely ladies in the rainbow charm swap, sent as a thank you. As soon as I received it I knew it would be a quilt for one of my girls but it promptly got stroked and put in the fabric cupboard, where I forgot about it!

So I pulled it out last week (does this mean I can buy new fabric now as I have used up some stash?!!!)

Love that vintage sheet stripy binding, my favouritest binding ever (and yes that is a word)

 Vintage sheet backing too, quilted with free motion loopy hearts

 It is amazing how far a charm pack can go! This is a generous fit on little Juliettes toddler bed and I am hoping it will sit widthways across the bottom of a single bed when she moves up to one as it too pretty not to keep using.

So that's me pretty much upto date. Tell a lie, I did finish my BQS3 mini today but was too busy hand sewing the binding and sunbathing to take a picture, so you'll have to wait!