I had a mini show of quilts donated to Siblings Together back in November but this time we are going it alone!

It would be great to have as many people as possible come along, enjoy the quilts and meet up.

Hope you will join us 

MINI BLOCK DRIVE - MAY, JUNE, JULY 2019

Hi everyone, it’s time for the next round of the mini block drive, this time with Kate (@timetosew on Instagram). For the next few months we will be looking at two blocks:

Half Square Triangles (HSTs) 

Snowball blocks

Quilt inspiration 

There is lots you can do with just HSTs and Snowball blocks. We hope to be able to make up different quilt top designs depending on how many blocks are made. In the meantime, here’s some inspiration:

Caption: (L) Indian Summer quilt, (R) Lake Michigan Quilt, both patterns by Suzy Quilts

Caption: Fractals by Jeni Baker, and vintage snowball quilt (image from @allpeoplequilt)

Caption: (L) Mexican tile quilt from cloud 9 fabrics, and (R) variation on a snowball quilt by Suzy Quilts

BLOCK DETAILS

Unfinished size: HSTs unfinished can be 6 ½ inch or 3 ½ inches. Snowball block unfinished size is 6 ½ inches. Please leave all blocks untrimmed. 

Colour: white, off white. Prints are fine as long as the fabric still reads as white. No cream please. For the colours, I’d like mainly blues and yellows, but it can be anything you want as long as it is bright and happy. See the pictures for some inspiration.

For the snowball block, the centre can be the white or colour, I don’t mind. How many: as many as you want to make! If you have big squares of fabric you can make 4 or 8 HSTs at a time. 

Where to post: send me a message on Instagram @timetosew or email kate@timetosew.uk for the address

Colour inspiration: 

  

  

HSTs - How to make 

For two at a time 

Cut a square of white and a square of colour, each 7” size (for the large HSTs) or 4” (for the small HSTs) and place right sides together. 

Draw a diagonal line from corner to corner and sew with scant ¼ in seam allowance on both sides of the line. 

Cut on the diagonal line

Press seams to the colour side.

For eight at a time (see pictures):

Cut a square of white and a square of colour 14” (for the large HSTs) or 8” (for small HSTs) and place right sides together. 

Draw guidelines: along both diagonals, then vertically and horizontally on the halfway points. You can see mine in blue chalk. 

Sew ¼ inch on both sides from the blue diagonal chalk lines (4 lines of stitching in total).

Cut on all the blue chalk lines, press seams to the colour side.

Steps 2 and 3

Step 4 / finished blocks

Snowball block - how to make (refer to picture)

Cut one 6 ½ inch square of the white and four 2 ½ inch squares of colour (or cut a large colour square and 4x small white squares).

Put a small square on each corner, right sides together. 

Sew a diagonal line through the corners.

Press along the diagonal line

Trim corners with a ¼ in seam allowance and press back to get the finished corner.

Finished block

The Furtling that happened in March

Mini Archie is ready with his furtling stick I’m sure so I’m trying to be really ready this time.

There was the second session of Horsham Stitchers at the beginning of the March, where I was thrilled to meet to lovely ladies and gather quilts from some of them for Siblings Together.   It was my first time meeting Sue Blake and Suzanne Foster.

Here are the wonderful quilts they brought

We had two beginners come along and I put them to work making the blocks that Trudi and Viv have requested for the #miniblockdrive just five colour graded 2 1/2” strips, 10 1/2” long, making a 10 1/2” square block...and here they are

Also my eldest daughter has taken to cross stitch and finished off this cute foxgloves kit 

I haven’t been idle either - I’m up to date with putting all the Friendship star blocks I’ve received together.  It’s a real community project and it will be going to Festival of Quilts to show our quilting community just how marvelous you people are making quilts for Siblings a Together.  See next photo bottom right...

And then having sorted out a lot of donations I managed to finish three quilt tops - Clockwise from top left:  Framed stars (due to a mistake in cutting at night ....don't ask !!) ; A top made from Karen Lewis orphan blocks and some Kona Thistle I added in the background; #expandinguniversequilt; and a scrappy strip top...

I also volunteered to do a demo of hand quilting at my local fabric shop, Closs & Hamblin, in exchange for some publicity later in the year for another quilt show of Siblings Together quilts - more on that later.

I was a bit worried beforehand as I don't think I have good teaching skills but in the end I just talked (I can do that forever) and invited people to Horsham Stitchers and also spoke about Siblings Together.  I met lots of crafters who don't do patchwork...yet!

As my demo I decided to hand quilt my snowdrop Hawaiian block which was of interest to many.

This is how far I got on....

I'm loving all that texture.... I'm getting quite into it I have to say and really want to see it finished - I wasn't sure if I should make this a quilt ( the pattern is from www.poakalani.net and there is a calendar of designs available free of charge) or a cushion cover....the jury is still out but it may be something to pick up and do from time to time with the other flower patterns....

So that was my month - what about yours?  

Do link up with the lovely Helen and let's all have a furtle along the blogosphere!

Furtling time !

Hello all you fellow furtlers!

If you are not a furtler yet then please join up with Archie the Wonder Dog and enjoy the fun.

Mini Archie is waiting with a pointy stick in case you are tardy.....speaking of which I’d better address my very own bit of furtling...

After I came back from Thread House Retreat I managed to catch the flu and just stayed in bed and didn’t do much at all.  But I seem to have regained my energy now and have been busy in the sewing room and here is what I’ve done...


February started off with a new stitching club I set up in Horsham - Horsham Stitchers

,

There were nine of us !   And this weekend I enjoyed another session - a few different people came and a few with a Siblings Together connection, which I’m thrilled about as they brought wonderful quilts to donate to the charity - from Sue Blake and Suzanne Foster.

I finished off making this top for Siblings Together with help from my #STQB mates - it was a really easy block made from two fabrics - a print and a solid

Furtling thoughts and plots

My dear dear friend Helen is starting  up a links page for blogs to encourage us to read blogs, write blogs and socialise in general.  It’s a crafty blog sort of a thing ...write about your craftiness done during the past month or look forward to your plans for the coming month and link up  - then review at the next link up.  She will be ably assisted by her tiny friend mA and he will be keeping a sharp eye out for any slackers that need a bit of a prod with a pointy stick to get going...

Indeed I feel a bit of a prickle at the back of my neck ....wondering if that could possibly be him?

Today I’ve been a bit distracted - while feeling ill I’ve been watching back to back episodes of Marie Kondo’s show on decluttering and so I suddenly decided to start tidying up my sewing room today.





I’ve emptied a whole lot of stuff into the lounge - now the whole house is in turmoil!  But part of my sewing room is beginning to look great.

I’ve taken down one design wall and moved it so I can hang up a little quilt hanging I’ve had for ages but no wall space to put it up.

I made this hanging with help from my first ever bee - Sew and Bee Happy.   It was an attempt to work out my making process so has words and images associated with those words and quite good FMQ if I may say so?  A lot better than anything I can do now anyway....