September 6, 2023 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #60, Parterre blocks 30 & 31

Two more done!

These blocks are pretty labour-intensive, but so satisfying once they’re done. I was able to use two of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics I picked up while we were away, and I think they work pretty well!

I have another set of fabrics curated but wanted to actually get a post out rather than wait till I’d done another one, so here you go. It’s good to actually be doing something productive again. I’m looking at the other projects on my work table with a fresh eye…

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column of this blog.

Another block is curated and ready to go, but that’s for another day.

July 28, 2023 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #59: Parterre block 29

I promised you another one this month…

Before I completely ran out of steam after the Ovarian Cancer quilt, I got this block done.

One more, and I’d have enough for my standard 5 x 6 block lap quilt layout. Only thing is, I find myself wanting something bigger… something queen bed-sized. I’m not sure that’s a good idea, given that Mouse has taken very firm possession of our bed for daytime snoozing and any bed covering needs to be protected from a) black hair and b) his nails. I expect I’ll end up making something lap sized after all…

I expect I’ll have decided what I’m doing by next time!

June 30, 2023 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #58: Parterre Blocks 27 and 28

It’s been a year. A YEAR!

I found a spare couple of hours today, wondered what I could do with it, and hauled out the Parterre project box. Two blocks later, I wondered again why I’d left it so long. And then, I looked up just how long it had actually been…

Exactly a year. Gasp… The last BM&I post (Block 26) was on 30 June 2022. Embarrassing, much? Anyway, here are two new blocks to add to the line up.

I won’t leave it so long another time. One of these fine days, I’ll have made all the blocks I can (the grey background is a limited quantity and will determine the final number), and it will be time to start thinking about how I’m going to assemble it. I do have sashing for it already, so sashing is a given. The quilting is another story.

I’ll try to be more conscientious and have another ready for you at the end of July 😊

November 8, 2021 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #56, Parterre Blocks 24 & 25

Obsessive, moi?

Some mistake, surely. I’m not obsessed…. I’m driven!

In evidence of which, I present Blocks 24 and 25.

If you make a block once a month, it needs to be relearned each time, and takes longer than it should. If you make a bunch of them in a row, it gets easier and a lot quicker, and you fall in love again with the colour and the finished result, rather than concentrating on the process.

Till next time.

November 6, 2021 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #55, Parterre Blocks 22 & 23

And here we are again.

I was having so much fun that I decided to crack on with a couple more, and having done that, I thought, well, why wait till the end of the month? So here’s some more eye-candy.

Another pair of brightly coloured flower blocks, more eye-~~searing,~~ er, -catching colour, and it seems I’m back in the swing again after those months of absence. Some of these fabrics are making a repeat appearance, some are new. As always, the yoyos are recycled from an earlier quilt project.

7 more blocks to go, and I can start assembling. I have more fabric pairs sorted out, plus a trayful of others, so it should be a relatively simple task to just pick another set, make another block, rinse and repeat. But you know how it is. Stuff gets in the way. Let’s see how I get on.

Till next time.

April 30, 2021 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself & I #52, Parterre Block 19

Gosh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

End of January, to be exact. When time is short, it’s always the projects you’re doing for yourself that fall by the wayside, and Parterre is no exception. It’s probably just as well all the blocks are all slightly different and assembly is involved, as they form sort of mini-projects in their own right. The process is very familiar by now, as is the order in which things need to be assembled. The difference comes from the colours and combinations of fabrics.

This one is a tiny bit different in that the flower almost matches, rather than being quite different from the other fabrics. I like the effect, and I may make a few more like this and sprinkle them around the layout of the finished quilt. At some point, I’ll also have to decide how many blocks I’m making. These blocks are 10 inches square. I suspect I will lose the will to live if I have to make enough blocks to achieve lap quilt size, so I’ll probably end up bordering each block to bring it up to 12 inches, and then sash. That will also have the virtue of standardising the final size of each block.

Until next time… whenever that is!

January 31, 2021 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself and I #51: Parterre Block 18

Didn’t think I’d get a block done again this month, but I squeaked in!

Block 18 is back to my bright, colourful preferences. Some might say too bright. I’d say they were fuddy-duddies. What’s wrong with multicoloured paisley mixed with bright green on bright turquoise, with a pink and purple flower? It makes me smile.

I really do need to set them all out some time soon to check for colour-gaps. I know, I know, I said that last time, but I really have had one or two other things on my plate.

Until next time…

February 28, 2019 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself and I # 36

Just one more to go 🙂

This is Block 29. Another gorgeous fabric from Philip Jacobs for Westminster Fabrics. One of my most favourite fabric designers. I got this one done during my Melbourne trip and after – I took two with me but that was overly hopeful, I was having waaaay too much fun to get both done. I’ve got this done and scheduled well in advance because I know that right now I’ll be in the middle of demolishing things, making lists, deciding where power points should go, etc.

Anyway, to return to the subject…. Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not to a deadline or for anyone else. The original concept belongs to Carla of Granny Maud’s Girl. To find out more, you can click through on either her blog link, or using the button a fair way down in the left hand column of this blog.

Till next time.

February 1, 2019 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself and I # 35

And another one to add to the growing pile 🙂

This is Block 28. Just as No 27 was very appropriate for Christmas, this one is equally appropriate for now, as the colours are perfect to go with my colour choices for F2F – and February is my month! I’ve chosen soft greys and lilacs, and you can be sure that the rest of the hat box fabric will be going into the fabric pull for my F2F blocks.

Two more blocks to go after this one. February is crazy (moving house, trip to Melbourne, working on ITAA month). So I reckon I might just be in a position to start assembling this quilt in around April. If I think of it, I’ll take the last two blocks with me as handwork for the trip to Melbourne – there’s a lot of hanging around in airports and I’ll need some evening handwork for the days we’re there. You never know, I might actually get them done!

Till next time.

December 30, 2018 by katechiconi

Bee, Myself and I #34

Despite the festive jollities, I’ve managed to quilt another block 🙂

This is Block 27. It was just the next one in the layout series, but don’t you love how appropriate that fabric is? White poinsettias, sheet music for Christmas carols, white-berry holly, etc… It’s like it was meant. As it happens, this fabric was sent to me by Esther in a fabric giveaway a few years ago, and I loved the vintage feel of it. Christmassy without being in an obvious colour scheme.

Three more blocks to go. It would have been great to get two done, but at the current rate of progress, it’s going to be February (ie, moving house month, going to Melbourne month, working on ITAA month). Yeah, right! So we’ll just call it March or April before all the blocks are quilted, shall we? And then it can join the stacks of blocks waiting to become quilts. Like F²F² (aka Bougainville Nights) and Pastel Rainbow Scrappy, and by mid-March, F²F³ (aka Amethyst & Slate). I need to make a rule that I can’t start anything new next year until I’ve finished those three.

Till next time.