Siblings Together Block Drive Quilts - The Big Reveal

Ok folks, here they are at last.  Two finished churn dash quilts for Siblings Together. Hooray!

Wavy line quilted and orange basket weave print binding.

Wavy line quilted with tiny red gingham binding.

In case you don't know the story, I'll quickly recap how these quilts came to be.

Back in May 2013 I noticed a thread on the Siblings Together Flickr group seeking members for a new Bee to spend a year making quilts for the charity.  Reading the discussion thread I noted that many of those commenting loved the idea of contributing to the charity quilts but weren't in a position to be able to commit to blocks every month.  Seemed a shame to me to waste so much enthusiasm and so I added my own little discussion thread and posted on my blog inviting those who would like to make a one off block contribution to a quilt for an older boy to sign up to my Siblings Together Block Drive.

Of course, you folks were amazing and pretty quickly I had offers of more blocks than I needed to make the one quilt I'd planned.  There was nothing else for it but to go for two quilts!!  So, several months of block collecting later I had a pile of 57 funky churn dash blocks from 17 different volunteers to turn into these fun, colourful quilts which I am sure will be loved by their recipients at the summer camps this year.

I cannot thank the amazing ladies who contributed these blocks enough.  They flew in from all corners of the UK, the USA, Finland, the Netherlands and Australia.  It was entirely my pleasure and privilege to co-ordinate these quilts and to allow many of you the opportunity to be part of this year's Siblings Together quilt spree.  I think we did a good job ladies!!

All that remains is for me to package these up and send them on to Siblings Together HQ and to say one final, huge THANK YOU to all of you!


These two quilts also make up the first finishes from my FAL 2014 Qtr 1 list - yay!

At last...

... my real life To Do list is back to the normal 101 things instead of a squillion.

... I've had some sewing hours in my wee room and sanity is slowly being restored.

... I'm working on putting together those Siblings Together quilts!  (Not before time, I can hear the Block Drive Peeps murmur.  Sorry folks, but I am on the case now, promise.)

 From the 57 blocks that the generous Siblings Block drive ladies stitched up I laid out 2 quilt tops.  One 5 x 5 blocks

 
and a larger 5 x 6 one.  There was much switching and swapping of the blocks to try to balance the colours and look of these two quilts.  I could still be sitting there swapping blocks around, but finally made a decision that these were good enough.  I'm hoping that these will work for older boys at this summer's Siblings Together camps.  What do you think?

While I had a lengthy spell behind the sewing machine I went ahead and pieced two quilt backs as well.

The two remaining churn dash blocks were pieced into a red gingham panel and added to some lovely navy, red, green plaid yardage as a backing for the smaller quilt.  It's hard to see in this photo but it is actually very nice (and not pink as it appears here).

The larger quilt backing was pieced from an Ikea print that I call "the wanderers" (no idea what it's really called) and a piece of green/blue tiles print that I've had for yonks and yonks.

I'm so pleased that I'm finally making progress with these two quilts. Bit of a quilting marathon next though!

Quilt Finishes

I had two quilts almost over the finishing line at the end of last month and, after a mini-marathon of hand-stiching binding, they both completed the race.

For me, it's the Grey Wonky Blocks quilt that takes the Gold Medal -

I think that I love this one because it was such a personal challenge not to counteract all that wonkiness which is my normal inclination.  And, I also love the limited and muted palette of fabrics from which it was made.  I finished it with Kona charcoal binding and the Ikea Number print fabric both of which were perfect for this quilt and its recipients.  Best of all, I delivered it to my brother and SIL last weekend and they really loved it!

The true colours in the quilt are much brighter than they appear here.

Finishing in a much respected Silver place is the ladder strip quilt I was finishing was for my Aunt who was visiting from Florida.  While I absolutely love the orange binding that I chose for this quilt (Klona orange) I was really nervous about it because if I had to say for sure, I would have plumped for aqua being my aunt's preference.  However, when I trialled an aqua fabric for binding it really did nothing for this little quilt.  Rather than lift it, it seemed to just drain all the colour from the quilt so I took a risk and went with the orange.  I'm so glad I did!  It made all the difference and I think my aunt liked it too.

So two quilt finishes and two more of my creations out there in the world to be enjoyed and snuggled up in - although I don't expect there's much cause for snuggling up in quilts in Florida!

Fantastic Saturday!

What a fabulous day!  Sunshine, heat, family time and quilts.

Look, look, look - pure blue skies!

Our first stop this morning, after a two hour drive, was an orienteering competition in the very north west of Northern Ireland at Magilligan Point.  The men in my life competed in their class while I had a beautiful morning stroll among the sand dunes in the HEAT, proper glorious sun drenched heat with a gorgeous breeze that just kept it all bearable.

Next stop was one of the oldest original thatched cottages left in Ireland, Hezlett House near Castlerock.  It is now owned by the National Trust and we took advantage of our membership to pop in today and have a picnic lunch in their small orchard garden.  It was pretty, quiet and peaceful.  The staff were fantastic answering the questions of my inquisitive 10 year old, letting him feed their chickens and taking a really keen interest in him.  And, best of all, totally unexpectedly today was the day that the local quilting group was holding an "Airing of the Quilts" event around the gardens.  

We had our little picnic among the quilts and daisies - it was so lovely!  Talk about being in my element!

Prepare for pic fest.  (Please note that none of todays quilts are mine, they were all stitched by members of the Sew'n'Sews Quilting group from Castlerock.)

There were so many quilts, hanging on trees in the orchard garden, strewn across tree stumps, draped over rocking chairs and old bicycles, spread out on the lawn and pinned on two washing lines.  All very different, but all beautiful and stitched by those who love what they are doing.

Among my favourites were these two antique quilts (probably not stitched by the Sew'n'Sews themselves):

I love this red one and the zig zag quilting was so beautifully stitched - I'm just sorry I didn't have the real camera with me to get a better pic of it.

This quilt was so faded and the fabrics had disintegrated massively in parts but somehow that was so much a part of its charm.  It felt like a real privilege to be able to see it so close up.  You can see more of that fabulous zigzag quilting on the photo below.

Oh it was such a lovely coincidence to turn up at the Quilt Airing today and to meet some of the lovely ladies from the Sew'n'Sews group who were lunching in the garden.  If you happened to be local to Castlerock, Northern Ireland, they are looking for new folks to join them and I know they meet in the Christ Church Hall in Castlerock to stitch and chat and drink tea!  I'm sure they'd love to hear from you, and although they had no online contact details I am sure you could contact them via Hezlett House, National Trust property where some of their members are also volunteer gardeners.

By the way, if you didn't know (as I didn't until the ladies told me) it is apparently an old American custom to air the quilts before storing them away for the summer.

After this little quilt indulgence we headed off to visit Mussenden Temple and then my men took to the sea for a little swim around the rock pools.  

Looks like my little one may inherit dad's knees!

Something for everyone in our day out today!  

Doesn't the warmth and sunshine just make you feel gooooooood!

Before Reality Kicks In

This week has been a lovely blip in the reality of our routine, which is why I've been able to sneak off so much and get stitchy!  So, just before the craziness kicks in again let me show you this afternoon's progress on the two quilts I've been working on for Bee Blessed.

First up is the jelly roll quilt -

It's had a double border added and is appealing to me much more than it did previously.  I made the outer border pieced with leftovers from the squares made for the main blocks - I think it adds a wee bit of interest to the very plain stone coloured border.  I've never pieced a border like this and now I'm feeling like one of the cool people 'cos I did it and it worked!  (I'm very sad, I know.)

And then this charm pack lovely -

I really do love this quilt top - it's probably the colours that really make it for me.  Maybe this would make a good quilt to donate to a male Bee Blessed recipient.

Aaaahhh. (Sound of a stitchily satisfied me.)

Bee Weekend

I've been a busy Bee this weekend - the Bee Blessed kind of Bee.

Yesterday we got together as a Bee group to stitch away the afternoon bringing together quilts for gifting to  folks who need a little touch of thoughtfulness in their lives.  If  I had remembered to take photographs with the camera which sat beside my sewing machine all afternoon I could show you some of the five or six different quilt projects that were on the go.  Sorry!

I can show you this fun, bright dinosaur panel which was very generously donated and on which I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning at work.  It's now ready just to have the binding stitched on the back and a wee label added.   Isn't it so much fun for kids?  I think this one is destined for a nursery unit at a Social Action Project in Belfast for families in need.

I also spent today working on a smaller Bee project.  I used the remaining beautiful pink wonky star blocks to make up a little girl's quilt.  This one is just 37" square but would be a great little pram blanket or play quilt.

And, just so you don't think that all of my quilting is waves at the moment here's proof of some diagonal line quilting.

It does now have some gingham binding added but I'll have to show you a pic another day as the camera battery just died.  (Not great with cameras you may have noticed!)

And finally, here's a pic of my Dad's retirement quilt finished - better idea of the navy and cream fabrics in this outdoor shot.

Great fun!