Double Goosed Kaffe Style

 

It all started with this lovely piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric called "Purple Big Leaf" from his 2014 Fall collection.  I wanted to send a special gift to a dear friend of mine overseas but had been undecided what to make for her.  When I posted a photo of this purchase on Instagram, she commented how much she loved this print.  I knew then and there that I would use this print for her gift.  I know that my friend especially loved the teal and the purple in this print so I wanted to make a feature out of both of these colours.   I spoke to the squirrels and we selected a pattern - "Double Goosed" by Jeliquilts.

 

My friend had no idea what the squirrels & I were planning, but she did get taunted with the following photos which I tagged her in on Instagram...

 

Snowy the Squirrel cranked up the Bollywood music and danced in his Sari whilst we sewed





I couldn't work out why I had such a hard time removing the papers after I had pieced it - later I realised that I had forgotten to change my needle.  Instead of a 90/14 I was still using a 70/10.

Binding - purple & teal.

The parcel decided to take the slow boat to America, but after 4-weeks of anxious waiting (and stalking of my friend's Instagram feed) it finally arrived YAY!!!! Now that I know that she has her parcel, I can share the rest of these photos with you...

 

Completed top with border number 1 attached.

The completed mini.  I decided to use teal binding to enhance the centre circle of teal geese.

 

  

Click on the logo above to access Jeliquilts' pattern shop.

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.

October Bee Blocks

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

Quilt Club Australia - Stars Bee (paper piecing)

This month is Tina's queenly reign. Her chosen colours are aqua & red on a solid white background.  I chose to make the California Star for her:

California Star

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

Quilt Club Australia Hive #5

This month is Kendra's queenly reign. She has asked us to make her a 16" Migration Block. 

Background Colour: solid white

Geese Colours: pink, orange, red & yellow

Migration Block

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

 

Quilty Sisters Instabee

This month I am making Jade's block which is the Triple Star Block using Kona white, Kona black & Kona coral. We had a choice of solid colour (I chose Coral) and we could present our block in a choice of two versions. I ended up making both options for her:

 

Triple Star Block

Triple Star Block

See my other blocks made for this bee here.

Fiona's Block Swap




My original advert on Instagram





 

I suppose some of you have seen the hashtags on Instagram #FionasBlockSwap or #QuiltySistersInstabee and wondered what they were all about?  Well it all started back on the 8th of May when my dear friend Cassie posted a photo on her Instagram feed of a gorgeous blue Trellis Crossroads bee block that she had received from one of her fellow hive members.    

 

I was absolutely smitten with this design and went looking for a free tutorial so that I could use this pattern as my chosen block when it was my queenly rule for QCA Bee #5 in August.  I was soon to discover that this was in fact a licensed pattern designed by Jessica Kelly and to not breech copyright I would have to purchase the book "Modern Bee - 13 Quilts To Make With Friends".  I then realised that I would not be able to use this block for this Bee as we are only permitted to use free (non licensed) quilt block patterns.

 

I had commented on Cassie's photo how much I loved the design and a few mutual Instagram friends offered to make me a block or two.  I was totally blown away by their generous offers so I put my thinking cap on.  "What would be a fair way to do this?"  I was still a bit of a newbie at quilting and desperately wanted some more piecing experience, so I thought that a block swap would be a fair thing to do.  If anyone wanted to make me a Trellis Crossroads block, I would happily make them a block (or more) of their choice in exchange. I trotted down to my local Spotlight store and purchased a copy of the book and whipped up a test block in my chosen colours - scrappy lime green, scrappy grey & solid white.

 

My original test block





 

I duplicated a photo of my test block in InstaCollage app to check the overall design effect.

 

I posted a copy of the photo above on Instagram and pretty quickly the offers came flooding in.  I kept a list of everyone who responded.  There was no initial time frame of when I needed the blocks (I was in no hurry) but I was eager to find out what everyone wanted in exchange so that I could sort through my fabric stash and buy any necessary additions and get started making all the various blocks. 

 

What fun I was to have over the next few months as I played with various designs that were new to me and colour schemes that I had never used before.  Here are some of the blocks that I made:

 

Cassie wanted some single coloured blocks for her Rainbow Trellis Crossroads quilt.  The orange one was a bit of a disaster so I made her an extra one in Red and also a Yellow block.  The lime & grey one is my test block.

 

Alison's Trellis Crossroads block - bright scrappy

Alison's 2nd Trellis Crossroads block - bright scrappy

 

Raquel's Stacked Windmills block in Grey & Radiant Orchid

 

Janine's Bluebell's Cabin block - bright scrappy

Janine's 2nd Bluebell's Cabin block - bright scrappy

 

Jo's Come Together block - Bright Happy Colours

 

Julie's Triple Star in Raspberry & White

Julie's 2nd Triple Star in Raspberry & White

Lisa's Stacked Windmills Block with a medium pink middle row.  I dug out my Tilda for this one.

Lisa's 2nd Stacked Windmills Block with a medium pink middle row.  Lisa loves red & pink together so this one has more red in it.

 

I had never been on the receiving end of a quilting bee or swap before (as I was yet to experience my Queenly Rule in either of my Quilt Club Australia bees); so I was pretty surprised that instead of receiving just a card with my block/s, PARCELS started appearing in my letterbox!  Yes, parcels! And in these parcels were lots of lovely gifts of fabric, lovely assortments of beautifully home made  & shop bought items, chocolates, mini quilts, chocolates, Nutella, lollies, chocolates, oh and did I mention the chocolates!!  I was (and still am) so blown away (and full of chocolate)! YUM! YUM!

 

As I received the blocks from each of the girls I set about putting together a special parcel of love and thanks for each of them containing various items of love (and chocolate) together with their quilt block/s.  Acts 20:35 states "There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving."  My heart overflowed with happiness as they each received their parcels and I read their messages! 

 

I cannot believe the friendships that I have made along this amazing journey and the beautiful craftpersonship that each person has demonstrated.  We all live in various areas of Australia (& Raquel is in America).  We may possibly never get a chance to meet in person but I feel such a connection with these gorgeous ladies! 

 

Along the journey I started to make many more quilting friends online and have since discovered a large network of fellow Jehovah's Witnesses who are quilters (some of whom were members of my original block swap).  As our network and friendships grew, Raquel decided that we should start up the #QuiltySistersInstabee  We are Sisters united by our faith, and our mutual love of Jehovah and of quilting.  We commenced our quilting bee in July 2014 and so far we have over 20 members.  Click here to see the blocks that I have made for the Quilty Sisters Instabee Group.

 

Originally I had expected that I would have to make more of the Trellis Crossroads blocks for my quilt myself, however I have decided to carry this block through to the #QuiltySistersInstabee group as we are using the "Modern Bee" book as a basis for our bee. So far I have received blocks from 5 Quilty Sisters members and another from a friend in my QCA bee #5 group.

 

Here is an updated photo of the blocks which I have received so far - 22 blocks as at the 26th of September 2014.  I anticipate that I should have a full quilt top (30 blocks are needed for a queen size quilt) in time for next winter & a very fancy quilt back made up of any extra blocks & the signature blocks.

 

The quilt so far hanging up on my design wall (26 September 2014)

There is also a signature panel representing each person who has contributed to this quilt.  I plan to turn these into blocks which will adorn the back of my quilt.  I am yet to decide on a design for these or for the back of the quilt.  



The signature panels ready to be made into blocks to adorn the back.

 

I am really looking forward to snuggling up in this quilt when it is finished and when I do it will feel like I am being hugged by many many very wonderful and special friends! 

 

Thank you to all of you - you know who you all are!