You Can't Have It ...

... 'cos it's mine!  All mine!

This fantabulous creation was awaiting me in a very unassuming jiffy envelope today.  I recognised the sender's surname (fellow hipBee Reene) immediately and couldn't believe I could get lucky enough to be receiving the quilt she'd made for this summer's Brit Quilt Swap 3.  But guess what?  I was!

This little quilt was no sooner out of it's tissue paper wrapping than I dashed upstairs to temporarily fix it to my sewing room door.

See, how perfect is that?

As if the quilt wasn't awesome enough for a Monday, Reene was kind enough to include some yummy scraps and a wee set of afternoon tea pintoppers from Poppy's Pocket.

Even the back of this mini is gorgeous - I love that purple fabric!

I feel like the cat that got the cream today!  Thank you truly, Reene, I love it all.

BQS 3 Finished!

I am a little ahead of the BQS 3 schedule with this finish, but there are good reasons.  Although the Brit Quilt Swap 3 is running until the end of August I didn't want it to become neglected amid some bigger quilt commitments which I've recently taken on.  So, in order to give it the time and attention it rightly deserves, I devoted time to it early.  And now, here it is all bright and happy and finished!

For the binding, I was tempted by scrappy but it sort of got a bit lost because the centre is scrappy enough.  So I decided to use one of the bright prints from the hexi wheels, but I didn't want the binding to draw attention out from the wheels or compete with them.  I hope I have achieved that with my choice of the green metro circle print and ultimately, that my partner will like it.

I chose to quilt simply on either side of the straight seams and I love the resulting double triangles and the little stars that appeared in the intersections of all those lines.  

I added two wee hanging corners at the top too, just in case my partner likes it enough to put it on their wall.

As a wee extra I stitched up this cute little Zakka pencil case from that book and I'm sure some chocolate may also find its way into the parcel when the time comes too.

So, there it is partner.  I really hope it's something you like and not a disappointment.

Brit Quilt Progress

I've had a big empty weekend so far.  No plans, no chores, no family - all is quiet around here.  Except in the sewing room of course.

With nothing specifically planned and no meals to prepare I have been stitching away to my little heart's content and making progress on my Brit Quilt Swap 3 Mini-Quilt.

Fabrics were chosen, strips were stitched, triangles were cut 'til my brain hurt figuring out which way to turn a 6" x 24" ruler for the easiest slice

Don't those little flowers look like fried eggs?

and hexies were arranged.

Somewhere about 30 mins in to pressing open about a hundred seams I had a brainwave and dropped the height of the ironing board and squeezed it in beside me.  Yes, I know, it can take a long time for the penny to drop with me some days!

Pretend all that clutter isn't really there.

Pressing the seams open isn't something I generally do unless a pattern particularly calls for it, but with these hexagons reducing the bulk in the centre joins really helped keep the momentum with the machine piecing.

With the top all together, I did something I rarely do and pieced a back for this little quilt.  I had some remaining triangles and joined them differently to make a centrepiece for the backing.

Then I pieced this into some white cotton and made the whole thing my quilt label (partner's name is hidden of course!).

See those pins poking up at the corners of the hexagon up there? They are how I tried to keep the back hexagon centred with the front hexagon.  The pins were inserted at the corners of the front centre hexie and then I positioned each corner of the back hexagon over the corresponding pin and voila!  It wasn't perfect, but pretty close.

I am rather impressed with myself for getting this far today.  I'll get the quilting done shortly and then I need to decide on binding.  It doesn't look very big but when I calculated the binding requirement it  is quite a bit more than I had imagined.  Dare I go scrappy with the fabrics already in here?

Brit Quilt Swap 3 - the plan

The partner assignments for the Brit Quilt Swap 3 came out a little while ago and I've been busy cogitating and deliberating (read 'panicking') about what to make my lovely partner.

It's taken a while, but I do have a plan...

The bottom draft gives the better impression of what I'm aiming for.  It looks a little patriotic here but that's accidental as the red and blue were the best sharpened pencils in my pot when I was doodling.  So ignoring these particular colours, this is what I'm hoping to be able to pull off for my partner (with fingers crossed that it'll fit the bill).

Just to check if this was going to be even remotely attainable for me, I made a test block.  Again, ignore the colour of the fabrics.  Given my partners preferences I don't think these will appeal,
so the real thing will be different.

I'm pleased with how the hexagonal block turned out for my first effort and I really enjoyed making it.  I would like to see more of them in a future project for me (way, way in the future at this rate).  Though if I do make many more I'll be investing in an equilateral triangle ruler.  I was like some kind of crazy twisting bug trying to figure out which way to angle my big 6" x 24" ruler correctly at the 60 degree mark!  It's all new to me, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it by the time I make all those little triangles for the real job!

So, that's the BQS3 plan - suddenly feel even more nervous about this as I prepare to hit the publish button on this post!

BQS 3 Inspiration Mosaic

1. DQS 10 Received, 2. Red, 3. Pinwheel Quilt Along Week #7 Block #2, 4. Noise, 5. Kaleidoscopic Kites Front, 6. Lone Starburst, 7. Starry Path, 8. Amber's Design Studio, 9. DQS10 rcvd, 10. April do. Good Stitches Blocks, 11. Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts At The Park Avenue Armory, 12. Robert Kaufman Solids Charm Pack Challenge, 13. BQS pillow swap - All finished, 14. Double Fat Jack, 15. FMF/KJR Quilt, 16. cosmic blue basket weave block


Inspiration mosaics for BQS 3 are popping up thick and fast in the flickr group - some truly amazing inspiration pieces out there.

Here are my choices - hope they'll give my partner something to work on.  But above all else, I'd really just like my partner to have fun in the swap, make something that they enjoy and maybe stretch their wings a little (for their sake, not mine).

Bring on the partner allocations!

Surprise Quilt Finish

I promised to show you the Surprise Quilt finished, so here it is -

It washed well but I am concerned that it went a bit too wrinkly and crinkly in the dryer, but perhaps that's just my ironing OCD kicking in!

I also rustled up a couple of little coin purses for two sisters for Christmas gifts. I would like them to have been finished off a little bit better, but I think they're acceptable and I don't suppose an 8 yr old and a 10 yr old are going to inspect them too closely (she says hopefully).  Besides the tiny Lindt bears should be sufficient decoy, don't you think?

Tomorrow night at class I'm hoping to supplement each of these wee pressies with a matching tissue pouch.  Well, that's the plan anyway and then that'll be another couple of things ticked off the list.

BQS Mini-Quilt Arrived!

Look what the Postman brought to me today courtesy of the lovely Lynda (flickr name - quack quack 22) in the first ever round of the Brit Quilt Swap! Isn't it lovely?

The star of the show!

What you can't see from this photo is that every one of those 16 blocks is just 3.75" square and the 24 tiny leaves are just 1.25" tip to tip!  Lynda has put so much detail and effort into this beautiful quilt and I cannot thank her enough.  She has also been a pretty good sleuth and spotted this year's purple and green theme that I have going on!  I loved this little quilt when I saw it pop up as a work in progress on the BQS flickr group and am slightly in awe of it as I could never do that amazing applique border work that Lynda has poured her heart into for me.  Honestly folks, the photos don't do this little beauty justice! (I'm a quilter, not a photographer!)

As if the amazing quilt wasn't enough, Lynda included some little extras too.

Goodies!

A set of pieced HSTs and a set on the foundation paper (thanks Lynda - that foundation paper template for HSTs is really useful to know about), and the most adorable coin purse which has room for a few essential cards as well.

Aren't these gorgeous colours?

Room for cards too!

I love it all Lynda - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Brit Quilt Swap - Parcelled and En Route

Okay Partner, it's all wrapped up (with a few wee extras) and off to you in the post.

I really hope you like it.

Daisy, daisy give me your answer do ...

So here it is, Partner ...

It won't actually come with the matching blue clothes hanger!

A little bit of quilting.

I think the colours appear a little darker than they are in reality
- there's been no good light at all this week.

Another wee close-up.

Quilt label - whose name could be hiding under there?

Well, it's all yours and I hope it makes you smile when you open it!  Not long to go before it's in the post.

Brit Quilt Swap - Progress Report 1

So here's how my Brit Quilt Swap mini-quilt is going -

There's been...

... a bit of this

folding

... lots of this

cutting

... oodles of this

stitching

... yes, a little bit of this (not too much though)

unpicking

... buckets of this

ironing

... gazillions of this

trimming

and eventually, three of these

daisies!

Still loads more to do, and I am now thankful that a) I started early and b) posting date isn't 'til end of June!

If you're peeking in partner, I really hope you like what you see so far!

Dear BQS Partner

Dear BQS Partner,

Here's what I'd like you to know:

I want to stitch you a little quilt that will make you smile when you receive your parcel in early July.  I hope it will make you glad you joined up for the BQ Swap and that you'll want to swap even more because it was a good experience for you.

To (hopefully) achieve these aims I have puzzled my puzzler trying to figure out what you really like - shapes, style, design, colours the lot and I have fingers, toes and everything crossed that I'm not too far off the mark with the mini-quilt design.  And, if it's not quite right, I hope you'll forgive a trier!

Starting slowly...

I should confess that this is my first ever swap and it is quite a daunting prospect to make something for a complete stranger by means of sleuthing and to perhaps challenge my own skills in order to grow a little along the way.  This little quilt will push me a little further than I have yet been pushed and I hope that in the end that will be to both of our benefits and that you won't be disappointed.  Rest assured, partner, that I will do everything I can to complete this quilt with love and care.  I've already started a little trial run of the paper piecing, see?

Bad lighting in this pic, sorry!
And, these are not the real fabrics, just test ones.

So, on the basis that practice makes perfect, I will practice, practice, practice to make sure your little quilt has a better chance of raising that smile I'm hoping for!  

Best wishes, 

Sarah

Brit Quilt Swap - kick off

Well, I've made a start on the design for the quilt for my Brit Quilt Swap partner.  I did my homework (ie spying), made some notes, scanned the internet and then got out my colouring pencils!  (Actually, I also had a small panic attack in the middle of all that somewhere but it seems to have passed.)

I posted this little teaser to start with over at the flickr group

and clever clogs Lynz guessed what it is.

So now I've drafted up the whole plan and it looks like this

I have really tried to incorporate my partner's likes on several levels, so I hope I won't disappoint her.

Now I'm off to make some fabric choices

and do some maths!

Brit Quilt Mini-Quilt Swap

What have I let myself in for?

What has my partner left herself in for?

The lovely folk at Brit Quilt suggested a swap and I've been sucked in!  I've never had the courage to join a swap or a bee before, but then along came Brit Quilt Swap and their Mini-Quilt Swap plans and somehow in the midst of all the flickr conversations I really, really wanted to give it a go.  I can sit and watch from the sidelines forever and miss out on all the fun (and nervous energy on my part, no doubt) or I can pitch in, have a go and challenge myself too.  So here goes!

The Swap Mamas are busy organising us into groups and this weekend there will be the excitement of receiving an email with our secret partner's name. I'm quaking in my boots!  There is some serious skill and talent out there and sadly, my lovely partner will have to make do with me.  Hope I don't let you down, whoever you may be.

So, no more waffling, I'm waiting for my email and then let the sleuthing begin!