QCA Bee 5

During 2014 I participated in a 12-month Quilt Bee hosted by Quilt Club Australia on Facebook.  There were 12-members in our group.  Each member was designated a month which they would be the Queen Bee.  The Queen Bee would stipulate which quilt block she wanted the other members to make for her and the members would make her at least one block in her requested colour scheme and mail it to her.

 

These are my contributions:

 

January - Lisa's Stamp Collection Block

 

 

 

February - Jenny's Overlapping Squares Block

 

 

March - Melissa's Radiating Sparkler

 

 

April - Michelle's Rocky Mountain Puzzle Block

 

 

May - Kathryn's Mondrian Block

 

 

June - Racheal's Coxeys Camp Block

 

 

 

July - Tracy's Butterfly Block

 

 

August - Fiona's Cross Maze Block

 



 

September - Carlie's Solid Sampler Block

 

 

October - Kendra's Migration Block

 

November - Diane's "Eye Spy" quilt. 

As Diane will be trimming the blocks herself, I have only sewn a 2.5" border to a 4.5" centre block of little boy's fabric.

December - Judy's 16" Mondrian Block

I decided not to continue with this Bee this year.

Bee Hive Wall Quilt for sweet Carolyn

Bee Hive Wall Quilt. 21"

 

Earlier this year I was privileged to meet a lovely sister on Instagram via the "Quilty Sisters Instabee".  I recently had some challenges to face and my sweet sister Carolyn had truly been a "loving friend and sister during times of distress" (Proverbs 17:17).  I knew that Carolyn was my bee block recipient for December and I intended to include some extra special loving in her parcel as my way of thanking her for what she has done for me. 

 

I know that Carolyn loves orange and that she loves bees.  I had slowly been squirrelling away some items for her over the past months, but when I discovered this pattern on Craftsy, I knew that I had to make it for her (pattern link below). 

 

I headed off to my local quilt store as I remembered seeing some bee related fabric the last time that I was there.  The light brown background fabric & the small hearts is "Secret Garden" by Lynette Anderson Designs (printed by Lecien); and I have used "Bees Pls" by Saffron Craig on the back (purchased from Spotlight).  I believe both are Australian Designers.

 



Laying out my fabric selections for piecing.

 


Machine sewing the borders and background pieces.

 


The flowers, beehive and bees were all hand sewn using needle turn applique.

 


This quilt just cried out to be hand quilted with Perle 8.

 


The back of the quilt.

 


A close up of the hand quilting detail.  I colour echoed a 1/4" outside of the applique.

 


I hand quilted the borders in orange and yellow 1/4" inside the top and bottom solid triangles.

 


A close up of the hand quilting detail.  I colour echoed a 1/4" outside of the applique.

 


The bees' flight path was hand quilted in black perle 8.

 


Cards by "Willow Fox Design" in Bendigo

 

 

It is no longer a secret that I have been making each of my Quilty Sisters a bible cover which I am sending out with their bee blocks. I had a bit of a giggle when I discovered some orange Tula Pink bee fabric amongst my stash and found some bee ribbon to match, therefore Carolyn also ended up with a specially tailor made bible cover.

 

The bible cover that I made for Carolyn featuring Tula Pink fabric

~ ~ ~

 

As this bundle of love has now safely arrived with Carolyn in America, I can now share all of these photos with you.

 

The Quilty Sisters portion of the parcel contained: Carolyn's Quilty Sisters Bee Bock, a Bendigo magnet, some Australian Tea tea bags, ANZAC biscuits, a Caramello Koala, my signature block & her bible cover.

 

Oh yes I can assure you the bible covers fit - I personally test each one before I send them off!

 

Some extra loving for this special sweetheart!

~ ~ ~

Bee Hive Wall Quilt Pattern by The Patchsmith. 
Please click on the Craftsy logo above to access the pattern.

December Bee Blocks

Well December has finally rolled around and 2 out of 3 of my monthly Quilting Bees have now come to an end.  The Quilt Club Australia Stars Bee for 2014 has now ended, and I have a month off before the 2015 round kicks off in February.  I have resigned from the Quilt Club Australia's Hive #5 so this is my last bee block for that group.  Our Quilty Sisters Instabee continues with 2 new members joining us in January.  I will set up new page tabs for the 2015 quilting bees...

Meanwhile, here are the three bee blocks that I have made for December 2014:

Quilt Club Australia - Stars Bee (paper piecing)

This month is Alissa's queenly reign. Her chosen colours are Lime green & Grey on a solid white background.  I chose to make the Ohio Star for her:

 

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

 

Quilt Club Australia Hive #5

 

This month is Judy's queenly reign. Judy loved the Mondrian blocks that we made back in May so she asked us to make her a 16" Mondrian Block with blue & turquoise and a sparkly print to coordinate with a fabric range that she loves called "Tree of Life" by Chong A Hwang for Timeless Treasures.

 

This is Judy's inspiration print - "Tree of Life"

The block I made features a lovely peacock feather print.

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

Quilty Sisters Instabee

This month I made Carolyn's block which is the Come Together Block. Carolyn sent out the grey, teal & white fabrics and asked us to use whatever we wanted for the inner squares.  I used my Dashwood Annali fabrics.

 

 

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

Utter Schmadness....!

You may have noticed that I was missing in action from my blog for the past 10-days whilst I have been busy with some secret squirrel sewing projects (many of which I cannot share with you yet).  There are a number of very special people whom I am madly trying to create special thank you presents for - some of which have already been sent & received so I will blog about those shortly - some are still in production and/or still in transit through the mail.

 

Recently I have also been doing some pattern testing for Juliet at The Tartan Kiwi and Kristy at Quiet Play (neither of which I am permitted to share with you yet), and I am currently assisting my friend Sharon with another sewing project.

Next Year's Swaps:
 

There are a number of swaps via Instagram set up for early next year and I seem to have gone slightly insane by joining "just a few" of them:

 

The "Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap (round 3)" is being hosted by Schnitzel & Boo and is due to be completed & dispatched by 23 January 2015.

 

The "Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap" is being hosted by SoooCharming and is due to be completed & dispatched by 02 February 2015.

 

The "Kitten Mini Quilt Swap" is being hosted by Marni at Frankenstein Fabrics and is due to be completed & dispatched by 31 March 2015.

 

The "Rainbow Mini Quilt Swap" is being hosted by Kate Basti and is due to be completed & dispatched by 06 April 2015.

 

The "IG Mini Oz" swap is being hosted by Michelle Rees and is due to be completed & dispatched by 10 April 2015.

 

There was also a "For the Love of Bonnie & Camille" swap which I *JUST* stopped myself from completing & sending off my application once I had realised how many swaps I had already committed to.

I have also been in discussion with a quilting friend in New Zealand about the possibility of starting up a Trans Tasman mini quilt swap, however we decided to put those plans on hold until at least mid next year due to the large number of swaps already set up for the start of the new year.  Meanwhile I have offered my services as a "Swap Mama" in one of the above swaps so that I can gain some more experience, however I am yet to hear if my offer has been accepted or required.

 

I have a lot of stalking and sewing ahead of me....

 

Existing Bees:

 

The current round of the Quilt Club Australia Bee 5 (QCA Bee#5) concludes this month and I have decided not to continue with this group next year.  Although it was good experience for me and helped to improve my sewing skills, I feel that I have enough commitments and something had to give.  Despite my queenly rule being back in August, I am yet to receive a quarter of my bee blocks from this group...

 

I have been promoted to assistant administrator in the Quilt Club Australia Paper Pieced Stars Bee (QCA Stars Bee).  We have a few of this year's members who are either retiring from our group at the end of this year, or are taking a sabbatical next year, so Carlie and I have been busy recruiting new members.  We now have 11 members for 2015 so we are taking a break in January and commencing the monthly bee in February 2015. I thoroughly enjoy this bee and we had a wonderful group of ladies this year.  I know many of the new recruits so I reckon next year should be just as much fun.

 

The Quilty Sisters Instabee continues and we have two new members joining us in January.  I have completed all of my blocks & gifts for this year and have already made a few bee blocks in advance for next year. 

 

So there you have it.  Utter Utter Schmadness!!!

 

If you need me I will be in the sewing room...

 

 

 

 

 

November Bee Blocks

Here are the bee blocks that I have made for November 2014:

Quilt Club Australia - Stars Bee (paper piecing)

This month is my queenly reign. My chosen colours are:
Main Colours: Lime green & Teal/aqua. 
Highlights: orange, yellow, purple, white, hot pink.
Background: plain black. 

So far I have received 6 blocks from the girls so I will post these instead as I am yet to make one for myself.



The three down the left hand side were all made by my dear friend Carlie. 
The top right was made by Ineke. 
The middle right was made by Sue. 
The bottom right was made by Wendy.
There are 6 still pending including my own.

 

Once I have received all of my bee blocks for this year I will do a separate post and feature them all.

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

 

 

Quilt Club Australia Hive #5

This month is Diane's queenly reign. She has asked us to make her a block for her "Eye Spy Quilt" for her Grandson.  We were asked to sew a 2.5" border around a 4.5" centre block.  Diane will trim the blocks herself, so I have shown a photo of an "Eye Spy Quilt" so that you can understand what the blocks will eventually look like:

The two blocks I made for Diane.  She will trim them herself.



What an "Eye Spy" quilt looks like. 

 

 

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

 

Quilty Sisters Instabee

This month I made Jo's block which is the Baseball Curves Block.  Jo wanted us to use low volume fabrics for the curves and something bright and happy for the background.  She requested that we do not trim our blocks so that she can adjust them all to fit.

 

See my other blocks made for this bee here.