Bee's and HST's

It has been a week of making bee blocks and about a gazillion HST's!

First up May Queen for the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Liberty Bee chose teeny tiny churn dash blocks with beautiful shirting backgrounds.
There are 16 churn dashes per block and each of them has 4 tiny 1.5 inch Half Square Triangles.
That's a total of 128 HST's in all.  I absolutely love how these blocks turned out.

Then our June Queen chose a block with lots of HST's as well.  This time it was Pinwheels with a gorgeous periwinkle blue background.
I used the Accuquilt die cutter for these and boy did that make the job a whole lot easier.  The half square triangles all came out perfect size so no squaring up or trimming was required.  Which was just as well as there are 72 of them in these blocks.  The Liberty plays so nicely with that background don't you think?

And finally June Queen bee for The Bee Hive chose the Ripples block and again it has a ton of HST's but compared to the previous 2 blocks it was a breeze with only 48 of them! Kat's colour choices are gorgeous and l'm looking forward to seeing this quilt come together.

And now that l'm ahead with my bee blocks l am hoping to get the quilting done on at least 2 of the 12 quilt tops I have patiently waiting for some love and attention.

Until next time.

Sue

Girt By Sea

I am so excited to finally be making a start on the quilt for my mum.

It took a while to get my head around the 'so out of my comfort zone' colours but they are growing on me and I have a plan (well sort of anyway!).

I utilised the colouring sheets that came with the Girt By Sea pattern by Modern Makers Retreat to do a few mock ups but when it came time to start the actual piecing I went a completely different way.  I think my mum is speaking to me and guiding me so I'm running with it.

I am new to English Paper Piecing and I really, really, really wanted to enjoy it but sadly I don't think it is my thing.  I follow so many people who love this technique and they all make it look so simple.  And maybe it is, but for me it is definitely a work in progress!

The middle of my centre star didn't line up very well but I don't have it in me to unpick and redo so I am embracing the imperfections and pushing on.

I still have a couple of rounds of EPP to go before the centre is finished and although l am getting a bit better at this technique I will be happy to get back to my machine for the next stage.

If you are on Instagram (if you're not, you should be!) you can keep up with everyone's progress by following ModernMakersRetreat or the hashtags #girtbyseaquilt and #mmrgirtbysea.
There are some absolutely amazing versions of the quilt being made by some extremely talented quilters.  Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Until next time.

Sue

Angel In There Somewhere

I needed another project like, well you know – you’ve been there. 

I resisted the temptation to join in the Girt By Sea sew along for a while but then I read something on the Modern Makers Retreat blog that really resonated with me and from that moment I was in. 

Let me set the scene by sharing a little history…....

The person I most admire and the person l am most proud of in this world is my mum.  She went through some very difficult times and when my dad walked out he left her with 3 small children and a mortgage on the house they had just purchased.  At the time she was a stay at home mum but instead of crumbling she found a job, worked her tail off, put herself through night school and eventually qualified as an auditor and hospital administrator.  Through shear hard work and perseverance she managed to keep the house and raise 3 children with little assistance from my father.  Life wasn’t always a box of chocolates but my sisters and I never went without.   She was an incredible woman, never judgemental and always supportive of the decisions my sisters and l made (whether they were good or bad).  She showed us by example how to be strong, resilient women.

Now, how is this all relevant to the Girt By Sea sew along?  Well sadly mum passed away early on in my quilting journey so I never had the opportunity to make a quilt for her.  In all honesty, it hasn’t really been something l have dwelled on but when I read this Modern Makers Retreat post something changed.  

I can’t say why but my mum popped into my head as I read the words “there’s no place like home.”  Girt means to surround and at that moment I felt my mums presence surrounding me and I knew that I had to make this quilt for her.

With the decision made it was time to settle on what colour scheme to use.  Normally I would revert to my favourite scrappy ‘throw everything but the kitchen sink in’ kind of style but I wanted this quilt to be different, it had to be done in mum colours.  She loved autumn tones of browns, mustards and burnt oranges – all colours I rarely use so it took me some time to settle on a colour pallet.  I wanted to honour the autumn tones mum loved but needed to add a little punch. Plums and magenta were the answer.

As much as l love the vibrancy of this pallet I must admit that I am also terrified by it.  It is so far out of my comfort zone but I think that is quite fitting.  My mum is proof personified that you can work through adversary and succeed.  Knowing she is on this journey with me, guiding me, I am embracing the challenge and excited to finally be making a quilt for her.

I am still working on a name for the quilt but I am sure it will have the word 'Angel' in there somewhere.