Pinwheels for Siblings Together

Happy weekend everyone! I hope you got to enjoy some lush sunshine today!

66" x 77"

This quilt is called Pinwheels and Prairies!

A couple of years ago, my daughter was pattern testing for me and made this quilt top.

During a recent re-structuring clear out of my quilt cupboard I re-discovered this flimsy.  A good friend quilted it up in the cutest hearts, and I bound and labelled it!

So that's another quilt off to Siblings Together.  We are just over the half way mark, with lots more quilts being worked on!  You can see them all here.

Happy sewing!

Jude xo

Siblings Together Quilted Blocks

Since I started blogging over 5 years ago, I quickly became part of a wonderfully giving and generous community of quilters.

I have made friends with folks around the world, we have laughed and cried together, shared our achievements, disasters, tips and tricks!

And now and again I get to meet some of these wonderful people in the flesh!

This is an old pic of me and Marie, who comes to Belfast each year, all the way from Oz!
I'm so privileged to call Marie a friend, she is a talented quilter and a truly generous and inspirational person. Today we met again for coffee, and our short time together always goes too quickly!

And she ALWAYS has a gift for me!

Thank you Marie for my pretty roses, and your smiling and passionate heart!

Another way to be a part of this amazing online quilting community is to donate blocks.

Over on the Siblings Together blog, they have put out the call for quilted 20.5" blocks, following this tutorial.

These are super quick and easy to make, and if you want to practise your patchwork and especially your quilting, then what better way than on these 'mini quilts'.

The tutorial says you can either 'quilt in the ditch' (see my tips on ditch quilting here) or quilt them another way.

Here are some examples:

Echo quilting the seams (sewing at least 1/4" either side of the seams) ...

Diagonal lines (mark these out first with chalk or non-permanent fabric marker) ...

Free motion squiggles (you need to drop your feed dogs and attach a darning foot to do this).

Whatever way you decide to make your blocks, have fun with them, and know they will be made up into a quilt for a sibling separated by the care system.

Happy quilting!

Jude xo

Back In The Saddle!

(Message for Rosemary/Nellieduclos: I'm unable to reply to you directly as your email address doesn't register with your comment.  The tutorial you are looking for is here on my Tutorials page.)

We've had some beautiful sunny days here this week!  And March seemed to go out like a lamb yesterday!  A perfect end to the Easter holidays.

But the Lion seemed to come back today! Boo!

Nevermind, it's a new month, which means new seasons to come! Yay!

Here is my round up mosaic for March:

I also got these bee blocks done for Siblings Together Bee 2 ...

...and some scrappy rail-fence blocks for Bee Blessed.

Bee Blessed is back at the production wheel tomorrow!  You can keep up to date with all our progress and monthly block requests over on the Bee Blessed Blog!  And check out the 2 quilts Bee Blessed are donating to Siblings Together this year!

Happy sewing!

Jude xo

Scrappy Nines!

I finished a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt over the bank holiday weekend, but have been holding off showing you until today!

Many of the fabrics in this quilt were donated by a friend from Southern Ireland (thank you Kerry). As some of the scraps were already 4.5" squares, I started from there, threw in a few more of my scraps & some Kona Silver and made lots and lots of D9P units!

Instead of sewing the D9P units back into blocks, I laid them all out on my design wall, shifted them around until I was happy with the distribution of colours and prints, and then sewed them together in rows!

The back was pieced from stash and the quilting is a simple free motion 'figure of 8'. There was only ever going to be one binding on this one (my fav!).

All that was left to do was wash, dry, affix label and post!  Tick, tick, tick, tick!

The current tally for making 100 quilts for Siblings Together this year is currently at 60.  There are still more being worked on, but we need 100 quilts completed by June, ready for the summer camps starting in July.

So if you could spare the time to make a quilt, blocks or donate fabric/wadding/binding I know there will be a camp full of reunited siblings this year delighted to receive your blessings!

Linking up with Leanne and Nicky's Scraptastic Tuesday!

Jude xo

Seeing Double (Hearts)!

This month in the Siblings Together Bee (2) Catrin has invented a beautiful double heart block.

My youngest and I had some Bank Holiday sewing time together today, and we rustled up these blocks!

Tutorial is here if you fancy having a go yourself!

It seemed fitting that as these blocks are destined for a teenage girl quilt, my 13 year old chose all the fabrics for these blocks, and helped me to sew them together!

And I also got another Siblings Together Quilt finished last night.  Perfect photo timing for the sunny weather we've had today!

But this is all I'm going to show for now!  I'm saving the full reveal for Scraptastic Tuesday next week!

Jude xo

Little and Large!

This week I made 2 teeny pinwheel blocks (3" finished) for this pencil case present ...

And much larger 'disappearing 9 patch' units for a Siblings Together quilt....

A lady in Southern Ireland very kindly donated some fabrics to Siblings Together so with a little added Kona Silver and a few more scraps of my own, I've made this so far!

It's certainly bright and scrappy, but most definitely pink and girly!

It's been another gorgeous sunny day here today!

Hope you are enjoying some good weather wherever you are!

Jude xo

Siblings Together Collaboration!

This cute quilt was pieced together by a lovely lady in Morocco, quilted by a super talented lady from America, and finished and bound by a wonderful lady from Northern Ireland!

Bee Blessed were delighted to be able to donate the Funky Wrench quilt to Siblings Together, a charity that helps children who are separated by the care system. And when Annabella asked for someone to help her quilt the beautiful top she had pieced, we offered our services!

So in Bee Blessed we set to getting the collaborative ST quilt finished in time for Fat Quarterly retreat in July.



I love it when quilters from all over the world get to be united in friendship & great causes!

So we will send these 2 quilts off with all our blessings and comfort for the recipients who get to snuggle under them & remember good times with their family.

Jxo

End of Term!

My kids finished school last Friday!  Yippee!

My Spring/summer programme of classes finished last Friday! (pics of finishes to come)

Bee Blessed finished yesterday for the summer!  Here are 2 pics from the day:

This is 1 of 2 quilts we are donating to Siblings Together next month.  Based on the Funky Wrench block here, we have put together most of the donated blocks we received to make this wonderful quilt.  Isn't it a beauty!

And the Starflower quilt top is now finished:

Love how this one is shaping up!

And just because I don't have enough quilts of my own waiting to be quilted (?????), I thought I'd make another one!

This is a class sample for an Autumn Quillow class, based on the Disappearing 9 Patch block.  My original sample from previous classes is based on a scrappy block with sashing . ...

... but I wanted to offer folks a non-sashed, design alternative.  I will be updating the Quillow pattern in my Etsy shop soon with this additional design option.

So that brings my stockpile of quilts needing quilted up to 7 (with another one waiting in the wings!).

What am I like!!!

Jxo

Summer Sorted!

The new In Stitches Summer Programme of Classes is out now!

If you fancy a summer of sewing, dressmaking, or simply getting those WIPs and UFOs finished, then have a look here at the selection of classes to choose from.

Just drop me an email if you'd like to get registered.

And something else you could do this summer, is make a few Churn Dash Blocks for Siblings together 2014!

Sarah has come up with an inspired solution for those of you who are too busy to commit to a 12 month bee, but would still like to make a contribution to the 2014 drive for ST quilts.

You can get all the details here, and you have loads of time to get them made!  Sarah has also posted a tutorial for the Churn Dash block here.

And following on from Saturday's successful Apron workshop, I have listed the pattern in my Etsy shop  so that you don't have to miss out on the fun either!

Given the lack of sunshine so far, I think a summer of sewing may be on the cards!

Siblings Together Quilt

When I read about Lynne's call for quilts for kids earlier this year, and the wonderful Siblings Together initiative, I knew that Bee Blessed would want to respond.

Through Bee Blessed, we know the impact that the gift of a quilt has on people's lives - bringing hope, comfort and pleasure.  We regularly donate quilts to children of all ages (as well as adults) so it was a no brainer for us to pass on one of our kid's quilts to Siblings Together.

 
Siblings Together is a charity which brings together siblings who are separated within the care system.   This summer, a residential camp is being organised to give these siblings valuable time together, and each child will be given the gift of a quilt to keep as a reminder of the time they had with their brothers or sisters.

This is such a great idea and a brilliant charity. You can read more about what Siblings Together are trying to achieve this year here on Lynne's blog.

Give Away Your Quilts, Not Your Underwear!

Well the Il Divo concert last night was absolutely amazing!  The live orchestra were fantastic, and the power and passion in the voices of the 4 male singers was spine tinglingly awesome!

There were a few flying objects making their way on stage (much to the surprise of the singers!).  And there was me thinking this would be a civilised concert!!!

Moving swiftly on!

You've probably heard about Lynne's call for quilts to be donated to a UK charitable organisation called Siblings Together.  Siblings who are separated in care, get to come together during a summer residential, to spend quality time together.  A quilt will be given to each child at the residential, which they can then keep and take home as a memory of their time there.

Bee Blessed love making and donating quilts, especially to children.  So we have posted over to England one of the dino quilts we recently completed.

Panels kindly donated by River Fabrics

We hope that this quilt will bring some comfort and memories to a little boy separated from his family.  And check out the flickr group to see the other quilts being donated from all over the world.

I've also managed to get a name tag made for my secret swap partner for the Fat Quarterly Retreat in June. 

Can only show you a sneaky peek!!

The back

I've stalked her on flickr, and have tried to incorporate some of her favs.  Let's hope she'll be wearing her badge with pride at the retreat, rather than an embarrassed red face!