Gorgeous fabric!

These colours are just so me!!

This fabric is gorgeous and my photo does not really do it justice.
Oakshott is a new company to me that I discovered after an insert and discount voucher (never one to turn down a discount!!) in my Quilters Guild magazine, and if you have never visited their website go check them out. They have lovely fabric, some great free patterns, lovely kits and also some extra lovely leather bag handles!!

Can't wait to pay them a visit at the Festival of Quilts to spend a few pennies!!

4x5 Modern Quilt Bee

So I've joined another Quilt Bee!!
This one is a bit different .....

About 4x5 modern Quilt Bee

The idea of this Modern Sampler Bee is where each block is constructed using a different pattern and even if two people make the same pattern, it will be made with different fabrics. We want to celebrate the talents and creativity of each other regardless of their experience level.

What’s in the name? The reason why it’s called the 4x5 Modern Bee is you’ll be swapping 4 times a year with 5 members. At the end of the year you should have 20 unique blocks to make a fabulous quilt! (taken from Flickr)


My fellow members in Hive 2 (I love that we've all been put into hive's!!) have all chosen lovely colour choices and put together some wonderful inspiration mosaics to help come up with fabric and block ideas. 
So I pulled all the fabric and spent ages umming and ahhing over which block to choose but finally decided on "Rocky Road to Kansas". 
Here is the fabric that I've pulled for each member and an example of the block (which I did not make):

So today there was a bit of this.....

and a bit of that......

and quite a few cups of tea in between to arrive at this sample block!

 

 I just need to make one for each of my hive members now!!

{P.S there is an amazing tutorial for this block at Fresh Lemons Quilts}

Machine quilting

A while ago I attended a beginners machine quilting class with Ferret from Ferret Fabrications.
All I can say is that I've caught the quilting bug!!

One of my goals this year is to actually make a completed quilt. So far my adventures into quilting have all been about making individual blocks, which hey look great but don't really stretch too far over my lap or keep me warm!!

This class was so much fun. We spent the first part of the day covering the basics of machine quilting such as what type of needles to use. I learnt that you get about 8 hours out of a needle when quilting! I can't even remember the last time I changed the needle on the machine - so lesson well learnt!
We then looked at different types of thread that can be used, marking tools, quilt sandwiches, basting, tacking guns.... there was sooo much! Then it was time to start!
I was a bit afraid looking around the room at everyone's fancy machines that my little Bernina 1010 would not be able to cope, the only part that let me down was playing around with decorative stitches as I only have a handful on this machine, but otherwise my little B did me well.
We were shown and played around with so many great patterns, tried not to quilt to tiny in case you were having to machine quilt a large finished quilt and quilting particular areas to give texture. Here is my sample (play around) piece for the day:

 

 

 

 

My Bee month

My month as part of Bee Europa 2011 was June.
I had hoped to plan out a really thoughtful, creative block for everyone to make and get myself organised plenty of time in advance but that never happened!
It doesn't matter though as a jelly roll plus a braid strip tutorial on Moda = outstanding results!!
Here are some of the strips that have been made - shared photos taken from Flickr.

From Berlinquilter:

From lieblingsdecke:

From amelieswhirlygiggles:

From mighty_crumble:

From espritpatch:

From Elisa Bernarda handmade:

It's nearly here!!

Look what the postie delivered this morning ......

Yep the Festival of Quilts is next week!!
Having only discovered quilting in the past couple of years last year was the first time I attended the FoQ and I was not disappointed!
Can not wait to go this year, although I think my bank balance is already having palpatations!!

Challenge

I meant to post these photos ages ago but never got around to it so better later than never!
Having joined my local quilters guild group this year and taking part in their exhibition with my mini quilts I also took part in a fabric challenge. We were all given a piece of fabric (mine was the sewing themed one) and had to produce something with it.
Here's what I came up with:

Notice something about the mini basket though!?
Yep went and put the handles on the wrong side!

If you fancy making your own little cute basket I followed this fab tutorial from Pink Penguin!

Busy Bee

Today has been a productive day catching up on blocks for one of my bee's - Bee Europa.
I love being part of these bee's as the blocks really challenge me to try new techniques and ideas that otherwise I would not even think about!
Here is May 2011:

Here is July 2011:

 

I was June so more of that to come later!