Post coming in!

My lovely fellow bees in the FSBB have been busy making floaty stars! and the first four have arrived home! Did you want a look? Of course you want a look!

here goes!


from the lovely Diane!
















 The amazing Fiona!

the fabulous JoJo!

and the gorgeous Sarah!

Take a bow ladies!

and here is the collection!

It will be fantastic when the rest come and join them!  I know at least one is already in the post to me, and some more to come! I am tickled to death with them, well, wouldn't you be? 

ok, can I bore you to death with the garden now then? please.... 

That little lobelia is a leftover from last summer... flowering it's little socks off! Now there is an image to conjure with, lobelias running round the garden in socks! ho hum... nonsense moment struck again...

May hips

Okay, I admit it, I have a love/hate relationship with foundation paper piecing. I love the result but oh, how I resent the waste! I resent the waste of paper, and I also resent that there tends to be a waste of fabric. Though those little extra scrappy bits really would never have been used anywhere else.

But a very simple and pretty star was chosen for this month, and the paper was printed and sent with the fabric. You may find the pattern  at Fresh Lemons

A neat package arrived..



























and pretty turquoise and vibrant green fabrics appeared, , which may be used in whichever position we feel  is best.

 I folded the papers, to make the positioning of fabrics easier,

and I got sewing...













and sewed the pieces together... wrong...


a little stitch ripper action and a little more sewing... and you get






this!

and a day later  this also appeared!

I am holding on to these for a short while, as it is my month next month, and I shall plan to send my fabrics back with these...

May comes early

I am the queen bee for the month of May, in the Fat Stash Brit Bee. So, I had to try to be organised. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am not really an organised sort of person. I try, but any little piece of 'organised' is only the precursor to the next wee bit of chaos. But I have done really well this time, I hope...

I have  chosen my block- months ago- and been hunting up fabrics, as I have to send some fabric out, so my bee mates have something to start them off. They will make one block, 12.5" square, or equivalent, and return that to me.

I have chosen, this:

It is a floating stars block, which, in my head, is bright colours on black backgrounds. But I wanted black which was not dead black, I want the blocks to sing! I also am asking for the central star to be in one colour. They may choose which one colour, be it blue, green, yellow, whatever, but that centre should be one, and then the rest, bright cheerful singing anythings.

Do you know just how difficult it is to find tone on tone black?  It is a good thing I started hunting early. I eventually obtained 5 different prints, and the central black square is a plain black. Each black square is 4.5", and then the corners are made from 2.5" squares which use up all those grotty little scrappy bits which are too big to throw away, but too small to be really useful. You know the ones.

So, I have packed up sets like this, with two different prints, and a square of plain, and added something else in a couple of cheerful colours, but big enough to be useful somewhere, which may be included, but really do not have to be, but it gives the black background pieces. And something left for the bees to keep.


So, I had an array like this,

which soon turned into this,














which then became this!

You see how chaos intrudes? 

And all these got posted this morning... ready for May. 

Mummy I shrank the car! and issues!

scene outside a neighbours house this week!
but if you get a car for your third birthday, what on earth will you expect when you are 21?

I have an issue. The trouble is, I do not know with whom, I just know, I have an issue.

For a couple of years ( yes I do not know where they have gone) I have had this blog, and I collect some blogs to follow on my side bar, and off I go and take a look, and sometimes I comment and sometimes I do not.

All good thus far.

Now. As long as I have done this, I have NOT been a no-reply blogger. And delightful folk have received my comments, and I have had little cheery notes back from them.

This month, all of a sudden, instead of their cheery notes, I am receiving  'Delivery failure notification' . Not from everyone, but from quite a few.

It seems, my comment appears on their blog- but perhaps it is not following through and landing in their email inbox.

So, they then cannot reply...
I do not know what has changed. and I do not know if anyone else is getting the same issues...

If you are, anyone?? please comment and let me know! I hate to be the only person in the world with this issue!

And, if you are getting that issue commenting on my blog... Please let me know!

Bee blocking

At the moment I am taking part in two bees. These each run a little differently, and one asks for one block to be made, and the other, two blocks. This is very straightforward, but I seem to have trouble remembering that they do not both want two blocks!

So, first, the ' fat Stash Brit Bee' . For this one, you send a FQ's worth of gift fabric, and ask for what you wish, and the bee members create a block, 12.5", using fabrics from stash, with or without using the gifted fabric. Clearly, you want to send fabric which will help tie together all the blocks when they return, so, this month, Celtic Thistle sent fat quarters of cheerful plains, to be made to her pattern, adding in low volume neutrals, to really make the solids pop. I was lucky enough to get red through my letterbox, and quickly got a block made. However, my careful planning just missed...




 Do you see where I went wrong? I transposed two quarters.. Now I need to get that stitch ripper busy. Not having spotted that one, I happily got on with number two..

I had forgotten that only one block is needed...
and happily this one seems to have behaved itself. So, I shall have to sort that first one, but not just yet, as I have had to pack away the sewing machine for a short while. More on that later...











The other bee is the HipBee. With that one, we are sent a sufficient quantity of fabric to create a block, and return any extra with our TWO blocks. Jill waned beach huts, and sent a pretty selection of fabrics for us to do our worst, and create whatever our imaginations may come up with. There were also two pieces, one blue, and the other white, as backgrounds for the blocks.  So, a good bit of thinking, and a little bit of drawing, and these blocks came up.

  I had great fun working out how to introduce the 3 D effect on the parasol

There would be room for a little extra on this one, but, on balance, I am going to leave it now, quite apart from the fact that my machine is in hiding.








Why is the machine hiding away?

because of this! That is a hole in the ceiling




We are to have a plasterer coming in tomorrow, and she will be repairing this hole. So, my usual sewing haunt will be out of commission, and I think, once the ceiling is done, I will probably need to continue and redecorate the rest of the room.. It is a good job the Easter break is coming, and should give me time to do it.. With a bit of help I hope!

Wish me luck getting my sewing back up and running soon!

stringy star!

Svea asked for a 12 1/2 " block, for our 'fat stash Brit bee', and I made an astronaut on the moon. But that only used one of the fabrics she supplied. And I had a little idea lurking for another block. About 18 months ago we made scrappy string star blocks for Jennie , and I just thought, that one would be ideal for Svea. as a small extra, as you do.. So, I got started. And wouldn't you know it, I made a 'rookie error'. I sewed the first piece onto the back as well as the front of my piece of paper.. 

 Looks fine, there, doesn't it?

 but turn over and....


 please can Mr Stitch Ripper come and play?

The next 'rookie error' I made was, I forgot that half these should be diagonal right to left, and the other half, left to right!

So, another couple of pieces had to be made...




But, eventually, it all came together, and the block has not only been made, but it is in the post, with it's little friend, on their way to a quilt for a space mad child!

If I did it again, I would ensure that the strings closest to the star were more of a  contrast, but, really, I was not ready to start again by the time I realised! It will have to do! And the recipient likes strings! so all is well!

Moonwalking..

Our bee mamma this month has asked for space inspired blocks. She sent the blue spotty fabric out to me, and we were then to use our own stash and come up with a block to fit the brief. 

Now space is such a broad subject that it took a lot of whittling down to end up with this block. I trawled the images of moon, earth, astronauts and all sorts of variations on that theme, and ended up with this. I actually found an image very like this, with the half full earth, seen from the lunar landscape, and an astronaut also big in the picture. Could I locate that image a second time? 

well, no, I could find it nowhere. So, I either dreamt it, or it is just elusive...

She also sent a rather interesting 'constellation' fabric, and I am considering a second block, making use of this... Not quite got there yet... but hold that thought!