Big Hexies!

I have to start this post with thank you's.  Big thank you from mum to all who commented on her Siblings Together Quilt!  She was delighted.  Secondly, an even bigger thank you from me to everyone who commented on my freaking out Big Raspberries post!  Seriously, thank you so much.  Still think this whole baby lark is a bit of a conspiracy, but there you go - I suppose we'd never have them otherwise!
I had a haircut, which I hate as per usual.  Thankfully they didnt cut it as short as I'd wanted so I can still just tie it back!  I am terrible with haircuts.  Almost always disappointed.  I think there must be a hairdressers language, and that we should get one of those wee translation books for each time we have to go...  Imagine that in the tall spinny round travel books stand - where do you want to go? France, Italy, hairdressers...
Anyway.  Hair still falling out, thank god it was super thick to start with.  Must be stopping soon tho' eh?  Mum and dads drains sure hope so...

Fingers crossed me and Moo are getting a wee visit this weekend, from my longtimealltime bestie and her wee one.  Since I sent her a wee peek already I can actually share the wee quilt I made for my wee "niece".  First finish of 2014.  Phew!

Its giant hexies, obviously, in Cape Ann from Oliver & S.  I used a layer cake and 1 yard lilac solid, half yard gingham for binding, 2 yards Hopscotch by Sarah Jane for backing.  I think Cape Ann didnt get enough press when it came out, it really is beautiful but I never saw much done with it on our bloggysphere.  I was going to use the lovely, simple, half hexie patterns for this quilt, but then I wanted the prints with the clothes to remain whole.  There in started the nightmare that was the whole giant hexie quilt.  Never again! Man my template making SUCKS!!!  And all those Y seams...  I did 3 rows by hand, then tried the rest with machine.  Honestly couldnt tell you which took longer...  But anyway.  Got it done, loved it.

Mum came up with the genius Daisy quilting, and I sucked up the fear and went for it with the free motion....  actually thats a weeeee bitty of a fib cos I got mum to draw them all on first so I would have an idea where to go.  What can I say.  I'm no artist, either with pencil or needle!  They worked well though, I must say I'm chuffed with them.
Hope wee one will like it.  I look forward to showing her the fun stuff to do with a quilt.  Giant cape anyone?  Quilty sausage roll?  Inside Tent?  And, I hope, I might even get a wee sofa snuggle too.  If I'm super lucky.

Siblings Together Bee

As promised, I'm delighted to share with you mums Siblings Together quilt!

Mum took part in the first year of the Siblings Together Bee - her first bee - and had a great time!
Each member was allowed to choose a fat quarter bundle courtesy of moda, and mum went for the beautiful Blue Bird Park by Kate & Birdie Paper Co.  Choosing the bundle was easy, but the block?  That took a great deal of deliberation and many hours on EQ7!  Fortunately it also gave her something to do in between holding my hair back as I spewed my way through pregnancy...

Eventually she hit upon the Broken wheel block, and I gave up my hoarded Moda Grunge Cookies and Cream to use as a background, and it all came together.  I must say this block is now in my top 10 must make soon list!  Mum certainly made it look a lot easier than I'd expected it would be.

It was so much fun seeing the blocks come in, the bee ladies did mum proud and they all pieced together with no trouble at all.
The blocks came out at 18" finished, so with a little sashing and border, the finished quilt came to 60" x 80", a bit of a whopper in our house!


The batting was Sew Simple 80/20 and was kindly donated by Lady Sew and Sew.  For the back, Amanda from Westwood Acres generously donated yardage of a panel print from the range.  The panel actually looks like this,

picture taken from Fabric.com

but we needed it wider, so mum joined them in the middle of the flowery bit, canny huh?  It looks absolutely perfect!

We're not all that used to doing big quilts, mum and I, so the quilting became a bit of a mental hurdle.  It didnt help that the basting had been tricky and had needed to be re-done twice already.  Most bizarre, the tape we use to stick the back down when we baste just wouldnt stick to the back this time, kept pinging off mid pin!  Nightmare.  Anyway, the back puckered each time mum started quilting.  Third time lucky though!   It took a good bit of nagging encouraging to get mum started but boy when she got going it was done in a few hours!  A little glass of red may have been involved, but I think mostly it was down to the days I had spent going on at her about it.  Annoying?  Moi?  Well, I dont want mum losing her quilting mojo, its way too much fun having a quilting partner!
She did a free motion sunburst / bicycle spokes sort of thing in each block, and a lovely meandering line with hearts around the border.  To me the quilting is just an ideal fit for the "day in the park" theme of the fabric.

The binding was made with the off cuts from the back, mostly from the same pattern area too, and I think it works really well.  Suffice to say mum was awffy chuffed with it, and I love it too.

We'd like to give a big thank you to all the generous companies that have contributed to the making of these quilts for such a worthy cause, and of course all the ladies of the Siblings Together Bee.

Goodness knows I love my brother dearly and cannot imagine having had to grow up separated from him.  The work Siblings Together does is so special.  Here's hoping mums quilt goes some way to giving someone a big hug and a lovely reminder of fun times.