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.

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.

Bee, Myself and I #27

Just squeaking in by the skin of my teeth, I have block 18 quilted.

I like this one, it’s a fun psychedelic fabric design and colourway. In a quilt which is fundamentally 30 different variations on a theme, I needed a bit of a bit of a break from elegant florals! I’m afraid it was all quilted at very much the eleventh hour, as I have been hard at work on event organising, and I’m a bit weary, preferring to veg out vacantly in the evenings instead of working on my hand quilting. It’s done, now, though, and I’ve kept myself up to the end of month deadline (just!).

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.

Till next time.

Bee, Myself and I #21

It feels like an age since I last worked on the hatbox blocks.

Time, then, for a spot of concentrated work. I got three done this month 🙂

I think this quilt will end up being one of my all-time favourites. It’s come into being slowly and quietly, over a long period and with fabrics I’ve greatly enjoyed gathering and using. They’re all different, but each one appeals to my taste in a different way, whether it’s a formal, traditional design or something splashy, modern and bright.

But the chief thing I’m enjoying while I hand quilt the blocks is the backing. I hesitated briefly over using the voile fabric for the back, but it’s so deliciously soft that I now think it’s been one of my better decisions. It’s going to make using the quilt so cuddly, like an old favourite that has been washed a thousand times. And I’ll certainly consider using voile for backing again if I’m hand quilting, not only because it’s soft, but because the fineness of the fabric makes it easy to quilt through.

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.

And now, back to Bonnard, and hundreds of 2 inch squares…

Bee, Myself and I #19

And the quilt goes on…

The first two blocks of the second line down are quilted. I’ve had some other things on the go (a rather larger hand quilting job, you’ll recall!), so I didn’t manage the same number of blocks this time as I did last time, but I’m still doing OK. Here are the completed blocks 6 and 7.

The only tricky part is ensuring that the quilting on the body of the hatbox is roughly the same on all the blocks. The two blocks shown here have very different patterns, so I’ve had to be selective about which bits I pick out with quilting.

The easiest way to see if you’re getting it right is to look at the back; without the distraction of the block design, you can tell if the quilting is evenly distributed and not too dense.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not 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.

Hopefully next time I’ll have a few more to show.

 

 

Bee, Myself and I #16

It’s Hatbox time again 🙂

Actually, if I’m honest, it’s slightly overdue, since I normally post about this project on the last day of the month. But what with the recent trip, and being totally obsessed focussed on the caravan quilts, I didn’t allow enough time to get the last two hatbox blocks done by the usual date.

However, here they are at last. These are absolutely the last two of the series, which I find I’m rather sad about, having got into a really good, smooth groove with making the other blocks.

Next month, I’ll show the final layout of all the blocks, and perhaps even the start of the hand quilting which is next on the menu for this quilt. I’m going to enjoy that, because I do like a bit of hand quilting, especially when the piece is not too large and heavy. Time to start building up my quilting calluses!

Lynn at Tialys is also making a hatbox quilt wall hanging, but started later and has fewer to make, so she’s finished her blocks and is on to the quilting part. Click through to her blog to have a look at hers, they’re all gorgeous, being made from Liberty fabrics. She’s in a later timezone than I am, so maybe wait a little before you go over there to give her time to get her post up.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not 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.

Time to return to stash all the pieces that didn’t make the final cut.  

Bee, Myself and I #15

In the home stretch now…

Originally, my plan was for 36 of these lovely hatbox blocks, but I’ve discovered the dratted moths have been at my ‘side and floor’ fabric pieces in a big way, and I have no more fabric to replace them. The quilt will now finish at 30 blocks, 5 across and 6 down. It’s not a bad size, 50 x 60 inches, a good lap quilt or something lovely to hang on the wall. I’ll still have two more to show, next month. Without further ado, then, here are Hatbox blocks 28, 29 and 30.

Before you wonder why I still have two to do, I’ve edited two of them out because I’m not much in love with them any more, at least as part of this series. They were fairly early ones, hatboxes 11 and 12. I’m not sure what I want to do with them, so if anyone out there would like them, let me know – it’s first come, first served. I’ll mail them internationally if necessary. If I get no takers they may evolve into a cushion cover, or perhaps I’ll donate them to someone else’s charity quilt work.

Lynn at Tialys is also making a hatbox quilt wall hanging, but started later and has fewer to make, so she’s finished her blocks and is on to the quilting part. Click through to her blog to have a look at hers, they’re all gorgeous, being made from Liberty fabrics. She’s in a later timezone than I am, so maybe wait a little before you go over there to give her time to get her post up.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not 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.

One more month of block making to go, and then it’ll be time to start quilting and assembling. I’m thinking this’ll be at least partially hand quilted throughout, so it’s going to be a fair while before I’m done 🙂

 

 

Bee, Myself and I # 14

We’re back to situation normal this month, and three hatbox blocks.

As you read this, the Husband and I will be tootling along the Queensland back roads towing Miz Lizzie behind us, on our long holiday journey south. But knowing this, I got my blocks and post prepared and scheduled in advance. Lynn at Tialys is also making a hatbox quilt wall hanging, but started later and has fewer to make, so we’re hoping to finish at the same time. Click through to her blog to have a look at hers, they’re all gorgeous, being made from Liberty fabrics. She’s in a later timezone than I am, so maybe wait a little before you go over there to give her time to get her post up.

Here are this month’s offering, blocks 25, 26 and 27. Which means that I have only nine blocks left to make! Hurrah!

My favourite of these is the duck egg blue with large cream flowers, followed by the lilac paisley. No surprise there, then….

Sorry about the slightly strange curved shadow across the top of the second and third image; it’s the edge of my daylight lamp, and I accidentally let the flash create a shadow which of course didn’t show in the viewfinder. By the time I saw it when I was editing, it was too late to re-shoot.

Bee, Myself and I is a forum for ‘selfish sewing’; any stitchery which is purely for pleasure and not 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.

I think I need to do a bit of an edit of my hatbox fabric selection. I seem to have a strong tendency to prioritise the brighter ones over the more traditional and muted designs and colour-ways. Must introduce some of those…

Bee, Myself and I #7

OK, OK, I’m 5 days late for my self-imposed deadline for this selfish sewing post.

And now that I have that minor guilt trip out of the way, here is the latest offering for the Hatbox Quilt.

It’s a more modern fabric design than many of the others, but I felt the need for some splashy bright freshness after the more conventional prints used on most of the other blocks so far.  And I love this one! So I think you can expect to see some more in the same vein.

So, that’s the first 10 blocks done. If we’re going to get particular (and you know I will), I’ve done 27% of the blocks I need. It’s a whole heap easier than the first one by now, and if you’re interested, here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way:

• Make good quality templates. They take a beating. Mark the straight grain and centre of each piece if you want patterns to line up.
• Starch your fabric. Really starch it. Starch the hell out of it. You want a finish as crispy as paper for drawing round your templates on, and to make cutting out easier, and minimising fraying.
• Use tear-away stabiliser, it stops stitch channelling dead in its tracks. It’s worth every penny of the cost.
• Baste through the appliqué pieces, the background and the stabiliser, with the tear grain running North-South, which makes tearing it out much easier with this particular design.
• Use extra long basting threads, and leave the tails trailing, don’t cut them off. Use them again and again, once you’ve pulled them out. I’m still using the same threads from Block 3.
• Trim out the background fabric from behind the appliqué pieces once you’ve torn away the stabiliser. A bit less bulk will be easier to quilt. I left a ¼ inch from each seam at the back.
• And that Y seam where the three background fabrics meet? Yup, I’m still turning out perfect seams, even though they get cut away at the end. Obsessive, moi?

There’s a bunch of us doing our selfish sewing as part of Bee, Myself and I, and if you’d like to see what they’re up to, scroll down till you see the bee button in the left side bar, and click through.

Bee, Myself and I #1

Despite all my best intentions, I missed my promised January kick off for Bee, Myself and I, Carla’s selfish sewing bee.

I had good reasons, but I make no excuses. I’m here now…

I don’t, however, have a nice stack of lovely blocks to show you. I’ve been prepping piles of pieces (sorry, sorry, can’t resist a bit of alliteration) for my long-deferred, long-desired Hatbox Quilt.

Many years ago, I bought Kaffe Fassett’s Passionate Patchwork. While I’ve never wanted to make any of his quilts, I’ve always loved all his books as a treasury of exuberant colour and pattern combinations. The Hatbox Quilt was an exception. I fell in love with that quilt, and the book has lived for years in my quilting bookcase with a marker permanently at the page showing it.

Carla’s wonderful idea has given me the excuse I needed to start. To begin with, I decided I wanted more consistency of background tone and colour for the interiors of the display than in the original design, which meant selecting a small family of fabrics which will support and showcase the hatboxes without being too emphatic themselves. I also wanted the interiors to be a bit more modern in feel; some of the hatboxes will use quite vintage or reproduction type fabrics, and too much reproduction or busyness is not what I’m after.

I have a selection of 26 fabrics ready for the hatboxes themselves. There are 36 blocks, so some of the boxes will have mix and match colours. Now that I have some fairly tedious preparation behind me, catching up and making three blocks a month for the next year should be pretty straightforward (famous last words…?).

If you click through the Bee link given above, it’ll show you everyone else who’s participating, and it’s a sure thing there’ll be lots worth looking at.

 

See you next month, with the first of the finished blocks!