Sunday 6 October 2013

Busy Bee!

Busy at work, busy at home ... so busy that the deadline for this round of the Strip Bee Quilt jumped out at me and I had a bit of a panic when I read everyone's emails on Friday night saying they were ready to post ... how did that happen?!

Just a reminder, there's six of us involved - from all over the UK - who have never met (hoping that might change one day), each adding a 40.5" strip to each others' quilts as they get passed from one quilter to the other. This was my strip  - which I passed on to Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts:


Round 2 - I received Fran's @ Patchy Rose strip - stars from a star:


And tonight, I finished adding my strip (Round 3) to Maria's quilt @ sew love to sew which had been to Fran before coming to me. Aren't Maria's houses the greatest? 


So, next week, I think I'll be receiving either Julie's @ Mack and Mabel or Sarah's @ Quilt Candy quilt and will have 6 weeks to add my strip ... it's such fun! I can only say that now I've finished - this time yesterday, I wasn't so calm but I only have myself to blame. 

We're not supposed to put pressure on ourselves but when I received Maria's strip from Fran, what she had added was so amazing, I just felt I had to 'step-up' and decided I wanted to paper piece either bird or butterfly blocks. Yes, I know - silly woman!

It's not like I've paper pieced that much before - a couple of square in squares cushions and Pants a Bags so ... SERIOUSLY ... what was I thinking?? I bought this pattern off Craftsy (very reasonable) by Linleys Designs:


and it worked very well but the first block was wayyyyyy too big for the quilt and some of the pieces were so small, I didn't see how I could reduce it in size - that was yesterday morning! So, back to ye old faithful Google Images and I found a couple but they weren't quite what I was looking for. You know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention? I made my own! 

We're only supposed to post sneak previews of the strip before passing it on but I don't think Maria will mind if I share with you the ingredients of just one block - I drew my pattern, cut out some templates for the wings and background, sorted through my scraps, paper pieced the wings, unpicked LOTS and made a heck of a mess:



But, it was worth it - all done before dinner tonight and it will be in the mail tomorrow! I have really enjoyed my sewing this weekend - I pushed myself, I found a solution, I had to take my time but I cracked on with it and am really really pleased with how it all ended up - hope Maria will like it! Just need Glinda to wave her wand again and for my sewing room to be tidied!!






10 comments:

  1. Your strip bee sounds like so much fun. Hopefully someday you can meet your bee mates. I'm so glad you had a good weekend. I, too, need to tidy up...again. I just don't know where to start.

    I can't wait to see all these strip quilts.

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  2. Those butterfly blocks you made look sweet. And here you were thinking since you were pressed for time, you should buy a pattern. Love your version! Those strips are all very cute. I love the yellow and pink together. Can't wait to see more of the progress! Now wave that wand!

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  3. What a fun project! It will be great to see it when it's all finished. =)

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  4. A person either loves paper piecing or hates it ; ) enjoy

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  5. Oh, so impressed and can't wait to see your strip!

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  6. They all look fantastic and wow on sorting the paper piecing! But tell me, how do you get the vacuum up the ladder? :-)

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  7. You drew your own paper piecing pattern!! I'm so impressed. I would love to be able to do that!!
    I too have paper pieced one of my blocks (ready drawn that I found online) in the Bee this month, so you're not mad, but I did stop at one. I think it was only good luck that it went together OK and I wasn't going to risk doing any more. I'm loving this Bee so much, I'll be really sad when it's over.

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  8. Wow! I feel honoured that you've gone to so much trouble just for me! It looks fantastic.
    You have Julie's next.

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  9. Very excited (as usual) to receive this, it looks intriguing :) I have never paper pieced anything but I can totally imagine the frustration. It will be with me very soon...yay! However, I'm feeling the pressure sightly!!

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  10. that should be *slightly* ...sorry the 'l' key on my machine is sticking!!

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