Showing posts with label Irish quilting Bee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish quilting Bee. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Modern Irish {Scrappy} Bee: October Blocks

Hi I'm Tomomi, hive mama for October! This is my very first to do the quilting bee actually so I am very very looking forward to what I am going to get from you ladies!  After nine month going through everybody else blocks, I was bit worried somebody may come up with the same idea as mine. But you didn't! So here you go!

I would like to have bookshelf blocks please :)

My idea came when I saw this beautiful room.  We moved the house last November and got rid of a lot of books but still we have a lot. Yes we are a family of book worms. And now I want to have a book shelf quilt too.  There are some variation of them if you google it, but since this quilting bee is working with scraps, I want to make something like this or this or this.

I like being organised and my book shelf to be organized by genre. To do so, I would ask you to have a theme for each blocks you make. Grown up section, old books, pop section, Jane Austen  section, future section, exotic, or whatever your books collections are. Just no kids section please. Pretty section, maybe.
Only fabric I wouldn't want for the books are whites or very pale unless some bright pattern on it. I am going to ask you to use Kona Ash for the background, so if you can use anything brighter or darker than it, it's fine.



Blocks size : 12.5” H and about 12.5” W. I need you to make them 12.5” high but the width can be between 11” and 13”. I will explain why later. And two blocks please.

How to make blocks.
The short tutorial
Cut up the scraps of fabric for book parts between 2.5” - 1” wide and 6.5” - 11.5” long. Add the necessary length of the Kona Ash as a background fabric on top of each strips to make them 12.5” long altogether.
Fold the seam allowance to the book side together so the book gets some lift from the background.
Stitch all the strips together to make a block about 12.5” wide. You don't need to make them exact 12.5” wide, shorter or longer, both fine.

Please vary the hight of books especially neighbouring ones, means don't put similar hight books next to each other. And wide colour variation please.

The step by step tutorial.
Cut up the scraps of fabric for book parts between 2.5” - 1” wide and 6.5” - 11.5” long. Lay them in order you like with 0.5” overlapping.
  


Measure and make the total width around 12.5”. I made mines a bit longer to be on the safe side because I usually end up too short.


 Cut one Kona Ash 2.5” wide strip for the background. Measure the length of book strip which is 2.5”, say that was A”. Cut the Kona Ash strip to (13 -  A)” long and stitch it on top of the book strip. That should make the strip 12.5”. Do the same to all the 2.5” books.


Slice the left over 2.5” Kona Ash strip or cut new one to the same width as the next widest book strip. Repeat as above. And proceed to the narrower books. In this way,I Think you don't end up with too much Kona Ash scraps.

Fold the seam allowance to the book side together so the book gets some lift from the background.
When all the books has background attached on the top, stitch them together.  Please verify the hight of books especially neighbouring ones, means don't put similar hight books next to each other. And wide colour variation please.

Alternately, you can make them with this measurement.
Book strips; 2.5” *10.5”, 2.5”*6.5”, 2”*10”, 2*10.5”, 2”*11.5”, 2”*7.5”, 1.5*8.5”, 1.5*7.5”
Background Kona Ash ;  2.5” *2.5”, 2.5”*6.5”, 2”*3”, 2*2.5”, 2”*1.5”, 2”*5.5”, 1.5*4.5”, 1.5*5.5”


I wrote them in order to go together, so don't mix them up! Refert to the pic too. When all the books has background attached on the top, stitch them together whatever the order you like.

The picture is sideways for me to draw easily.  All the measurements are seam allowance included.
  
Please contact me if you find something wrong or difficult in this tutorial. I will help!

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Wednesday, 9 May 2012

It's here....the Modern Irish Bee!!


Thanks everyone for your suggestions on the names for our Bee! Eva and Cindy and I had a little chat about the suggestions and we decided that we liked the "Modern Irish Bee"  - simple and classic.  I did a little button if you are taking part and want one for your blog:


Modern Irish Bee


We had 2 people suggest this name, so we will take the first suggestion who was Judith! Congratulations Judith, will you email me your address details and I will pass them to Eva at Pippablue for your prize to be sent out. Thanks again to Pippablue for sponsoring the contest!

So, I have been working away behind the scenes and I have set up the necessary structures for our new Bee! Woohoo, I'm very excited!!

We are now ready to launch it, starting with the first month in July, and we will be running it through Flickr. We have 12 people who wanted to take part right away, so watch out for your invitation to the Flickr Bee group in your Flickrmail or email today. If you are not a Flickr member, you will need to set up a free account over there to take part.

Over in the Flickr group I have 2 posts set up, one of which you need to read straight away -the "How Its All Going to Work" thread......which does exactly what it says on the tin! This is the basic guide to how the Bee works.  The second thread is about what you need to do when it's your month as Queen Bee and is there for a reference when it comes to your month.

Please please feel free to start threads with any questions you have, for general chat etc. We want the Bee to be about having fun and increasing the social interaction in our little community. So jump in and enjoy :-)

I will take the first month (July) to get us kicked off and so that if its your first time in a Bee, you know what to expect.

I hope you all enjoy it! I can't wait. I'm thinking what I'm going to do for my blocks and what fabric I will use........I'm eyeing my Echo FQ bundle and thinking it might be time to cut into it....but I'm not sure yet :-))

Sarah

P.S. Agnes and Eleanor, I don't have email addresses for either of you, could you email me at fairyfacedesigns@gmail.com with your details please so I can set you up!

Thursday, 19 April 2012

A Contest! Name our quilting bee

Are you looking for the sign ups for the mini-quilt swap with the Atlanta MQG?  Just go here....

We are absolutely thrilled with the incredible response to our MQG of Ireland quilting bee.  But saying "MQG of Ireland Quilting Bee" when we talk about our bee is just painful.  We need a great name.  A fun name.  An inspiring name.  

Will you suggest one or two?  

For the winning name(s) we have a fabulous giveaway from Pippablue in Galway.  If you have not visited their shop or blog before, I suggest you do so as quickly as possible.  They have a gorgeous array of quilting fabrics, yarns, embellishments, books, personalised baby blankets, etc.  Get.On.Over.There.  But what are they offering to our contest winner? 



Yum!  Theses gorgeous 4 fat quarters of polka dot poplin AND a 36x90 inch piece of batting.  The name ideas are coming to you now, aren't they?  What's more is that Pippablue is offering a 10% discount on batting orders for MQG Ireland members.  This batting normally retails at €12/yard and is 90 inches in width.  Just ring Pippablue blue when placing the order so they know to add the discount: +353 91 566972.  Order yours quickly!

So, to enter your name suggestion, just leave a comment below.  We'll ask Eva and Ger of Pippablue to choose a winner by next Friday, 27th of April.

Good luck!

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

An Irish Bee?


Are you interested in joining a new virtual quilting Bee?

Cindy and I have been talking about the possibility of setting up a Bee as part of our Guild activities so I though I would test the waters and see if anyone is interested.


If you are not familiar with the idea of a Bee, there is lots of information about how they work here. Basically, we need 12 participants, and each person is the "Queen Bee" for one month in the year. Each month, participants make approx 2 quilt blocks (sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the size of the blocks) for the Queen Bee for that month, using fabric she sends out in advance, and post it back to her.

Bees are a lot of fun - you get to work with a much wider range of fabrics than just your own stash, you get to work on blocks that you might not have come across yourself, and you get to make a quilt from blocks your Bee-mates have made which is a special quilt.  Plus you make new friends and have some chat when doing it!

For this Bee, the focus will be on Modern blocks - whether that be modern block design, or new interpretations of traditional blocks - using modern fabrics. So lots of exciting ideas to tap into! There is some commitment involved - you will need to be able to do your blocks each month for a whole year, so do think about whether you will be able to do this.

Here are some of the blocks I have made this year in my Bee:






So, are you interested? We need 12 participants, and in order to keep postage minimal we are hoping to keep the Bee to participants living in Ireland (north or south of the border!) Let us know :-)