March Block - LBQB

I blogged out Lou's choice for her block the other week. I had a bit of spare time this afternoon and decided to make a test block.
A tutorial for making the block can be seen here.

 

It's a strange block in that on the one hand it looks really easy to make, but on the other if you are used to traditional patchwork, it's quite hard to be random! I found if I wasn't careful, my random points were looking quite uniform!

 

The units look a bit strange as you are piecing them

 

 

But obviously a bit neater once they have been trimmed

 

 

So this is my test block completed

 

 

It was made using Kona Cotton Black and a scrap of the Rainbow colourway I had left from the Essential Gradations collection. I wanted to see how it would work using just a fabric like this and I think it works pretty well.

Now to decide what colour fabrics I think Lou might like! Judging by her choice, I think I might try and find a fabric in my stash that I can fussy cut for the centre square........

A bit of progress..........on the allotment

I haven't done a huge amount of sewing this week, been a bit side-tracked in the evenings watching the Olympics on my laptop and stuff like that. I did start work on a new project for the magazine with some fabrics that EQS have given me and did a little bit more quilting on my Kaleidoscope quilt.

So today's post is about the allotment as it has finally stopped raining!

 

The over-wintering onions are doing well

 

 

We moved the redcurrant bush down to the perennial bed today so it is with the blackcurrant bush. We'll need to put some kind of cage over these though as the birds pinched all the berries last year.

 

 

So the perennial bed is ready and the rhubarb is growing nicely

 

 

Last weekend was Potato Weekend at the shed shop and we picked up our seed potatoes for this year together with some onion and shallot sets.
First up are Rocket, the first earlies

 

 

Second earlies, Kestrel

 

 

Two main crops, Picasso which we grew successfully last year, and Desiree

 

And finally Sturon onions and Golden Gourmet shallots, the latter are supposed to be good for pickling!

Let the chitting begin!

 

LBQB - We have a go situation!

So our first Queen Bee is Lou.......kind of had to be seeing as she roused this rabble of twelve quilters together! Her month is March and she has chosen the Wonky Star as her block

 

This looks like a really interesting, and on the face of it, easy block to make. At the moment I'm trying to think about how I can make it a bit more interesting with my fabric choice!

My month is May so I have a couple of months to decide what block I want. I had originally thought of the Ohio Star block that has always been a favourite

It also has lots of design possibilities by changing the arrangement of fabrics and also by changing the centre square to a square on point. I'll explore these a bit more when I do my post for my month.

 

In the meantime......its back to the Wonky Star!

 

Joanna 

 

 

The Little Blog Quilting Bee

So! It looks like I have signed up for my first quilting bee! All the hard work is being one by Lou at http://imstudiolou.wordpress.com/.

The blog is for UK quilters who have never done a quilting bee before and who have blogs with less than 50 followers........which is me!

We have a lovely logo

 

which we need to make into a blog button too (hint hint). We are all hoping to share our tale via our little blogs, instagram and twitter.

 

We are each going to chose a block each month for the twelve of us to make.

So who are my fellow partners in crime? Well there's me and Lou for starters. Then we have (in no particular order):

Claire at www.corblimeyclaireepoppins.blogspot.co.uk

Rosanne at www.notafloralgirl.blogspot.co.uk
 

Alison at  http://patchworkalley.Blogspot.co.uk

 

Jenny at http://notetofollowsew.blogspot.com

 

Sheila at www.mindfulquilter.blogspot.co.uk

 

Nessa at http://nessahux.blogspot.co.uk

 

Celine at http://espritpatch.blogspot.com

 

Heidee at http://handmadesomethings.wordpress.com

 

Gina at http://www.occasionalquilter.blogspot.co.uk

 

and finally

 

Natalie at http://lovenatalieuk.blogspot.co.uk

Looks like we have an exciting year ahead!

 

Joanna

Yea Gads!

I have become a really crap blogger!

 

August?

 

I haven't blogged since August?!

 

In my defence I have been blogging, just not on this blog. There's the blog for my business, the occasional post on the magazine's blog and then the parallel blog I started to chart the journey of TK and me as we took on an allotment.

I think it might be best to merge the allotment with this one........as then at least I might say something every now and then!

 

So new year and all that, let's have a bit of veg growing as well as quilting on this blog.

 

First off, here's what the plot looked like when we took it over in May last year.

 

 

A tinsy bit overgrown!

The plot extends as far as the metal frame at the far end. Its quite a big plot. I love working on the allotment; it gives me the chance to get a bit of fresh air, a bit of a workout as well as a bit of time to think.

 

And here's what it looked like at the end of December

 

 

It actually looks like an allotment again!

 

We had a small harvest last year and are just gearing up for a new season.

 

In the meantime TK and I did a little bit of sewing today when we visited a quilt group. Block D1 of our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt.

 

 

 

So this could work right? A bit of quilting with a bit of vegetable growing?

 

 

Where have you been?

Months have gone by again without me managing to write a post. I'm actually getting quite good at not writing them now!

I seem to be consumed by work these days and all work and no play has made me a dull girl. The editing work, ie the work that pays the bills, has been so manic the last few months as we have had to fit putting together an annual special magazine on top of the regular monthly issues.

And then there is my quilting and a lot of my recent quilting is so tied up with my fabric business (the work that doesn't pay the bills), that I don't like to post pictures of them here first.

 

But hey ho

 

I have been quite productive over the last few months and have finished quite a few of the quilts I've made from Hoffman pre-cuts; I really love working with them now!

Here's a few pics of them........

 

 

This was made from a Cherry Bali Pop

 

A Tiramisu Bali Pop and Snap

 

This quick quilt was made using a Tonga Treat Mini pack from Timeless Treasures

 

And this final quilt was my first attempt at free motion quilting, which was a little silly as its straight lines and would have been better quilted with my walking foot!

 

So a lot of quilting has been going on but very little quilting for me.......



 

Blog Silence

I've had trouble finding the time to do a blog post recently, mainly because I have been busy with work; both the editing kind and also the quilt shop owner kind with two quilt shows since mid May.

 

It's not like I haven't been working on quilts in that time, far from it!

 

Hopefully I can remedy the situation shortly!