Making Music

The last Star Of Africa Bee block was due back in the summer, but it has sat on my to-do list for ages.  I have really struggled with this theme.

Irene requested: My theme is: MUSIC!!! So you can make your blocks with anything related with your nation - folk music, instruments, musicians, dancing and/or costumes. This can be the time for The Beatles, Elvis, Beethoven, Riverdance, bagpipes, kilts, bush bands, country music, manjiras... -the list is endless- come up to stage, you may let the brainstorm come!  My project will be a wall hanging to be hung over my piano, this is my sketch: www.flickr.com/photos/idearagon/9290819902/   As you can see, your blocks will be "floating" on a white background.   Color of your background: Bright colors. Any color you like, that gets a good contrast over the white/black background.
Any technique, and being for a Wall hanging, embellishments are welcome!


I am the least musical person I know, so I really struggled with this. I asked family and friends for help, and finally my daughters' Godparents suggested an idea based on our house number being 4B.

This music instruction (so they tell me) is to play the note B four times, so 4B!

My grandfather was a concert standard pianist, and my oldest daughter learnt guitar and the youngest daughter learnt drums for a while, so I was really pleased to find these instruments as charms.   I was so bad at singing (still am) that I was the only girl in my class not allowed to join the choir. I had to do woodwork with the boys during singing lessons, but one of the woodwork teachers played saxophone, which also happens to be my favourite instrument, so I added that charm too.

The satin stitch is really tactile, and catches the light, as do the assorted silver charms (notes and squiggly things as well as the instruments).  I have not cut it to size as I couldn't decide whether to have the lines at an angle or horizontal, so I have sent it to Irene untrimmed so she can decide when it arrives. 

I do hope you like it Irene xxx

Pretty Patti Post

After a few really busy days at work, and interrupted sleep at night, I came home tonight just wanting to collapse, but I soon perked up when I saw what was waiting on the mat for me. Patti sent me this gorgeous zipped case as a thank you for a few bits I sent her with her Star of Africa block

What a lovely gift, from a lovely lady: a really useful size, fab fabric and a sweet little sewing machine on the zipper! Thank you, Patti, a lovely surprise, and a much appreciated gift! Xxx

Posted with Blogsy

Picture Postcard and Plagiarised Poetry

I'm still catching up with the overdue Star Of Africa blocks: Leanne asked for a block representing a postcard: I already had in mind what I wanted to make for her, but needed to find the postcard that matched it (not necessarily the conventional way, but it worked)

So I was delighted when I found this postcard

with swans, the castle, and bearskin guards, it ties in perfectly with this embroidered block

Hope Leanne likes it

Best Friend, oh Bestie,

How do you love me?

Let me count the ways *

(I apologise to poetry lovers everywhere for that awful mutilation of a lovely romantic poem)

Actually, I'm not sure I can count how much Jackie loves me - she loves me enough to sizzix all these hexies for me.  She has sorted and cut and trimmed and then posted them to me so I can get on with the Yellow Hexi quilt

Love you Jackie x x x

				* "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Wordsworth Wednesday

As a treat for getting through 50 or so polo shirts (another dozen or so to go) I decided to work on one of the outstanding Star of Africa blocks.

Veena wanted a flower that represents our country, and black and white fabric bordering the flower.  I know daffodils are Wales' national flower, but with Wordsworth's Wondering lonely as a cloud 

And then my heart with pleasure fills, 

 And dances with the daffodils.

and Daffs being my favourite flower, I decided to use them

To tie it more to the UK I used some London themed fabric (although all the Images are also seen in Windsor) for the case, and finished it off with this lovely "how to sew a cushion" fabric.  Hope Veena likes it!

Stars On Sunday

Yesterday I finally got started on some of the outstanding Star Of Africa Bee blocks.

Cindy was Queen Bee for April, and wanted bright blocks (think of the brights in a box of crayons.) on a background of white  Our blocks will be added to a rainbow coloured Around The World top, and our positions have been allocated!

She wanted the block to represent our home, and to show our name and our location.  My home is the most boring looking home imaginable, so I decided to make the block  show my life instead

My family

My sewing

My church

And my school / work

Tomorrow I will put them all together to follow the colours Cindy is using in her quilt

Sunday Stars

Today I worked on the Star of Africa blocks.  These have been arriving from Bee Buddies all over the world, and today I had the time and the space, so I got on with attaching the strips to each other and to a fleece blanket in one go, using my Slik & Quick method:

I started spray basting one strip (from the eventual centre) to the fleece,

then I pinned and then stitched its next-door neighbour to it (stitch and flip). 

I then spray basted that one in place then pinned and stitched the next one, then the next, and the next.  Now it's pieced, basted and quilted, in just 8 lengths of machine sewing

I am actually going to hand quilt the stars, to make them pop out even more, and it does needs binding, but it's done enough that I can use it.  Sod's law, we have lovely weather today so I don't need it!

Once I'd finished working on it took it out into the garden to photograph, it didn't take long for my assistants to sit on it,

 

then play it, with one on top, one underneath !

(Just one green eye from the cat under the quilt!)

Star Tree Block

I'm slowly catching up with the Start of Africa blocks - this is March's block for Brinda.  She wanted trees.  With a number of us living in the UK I decided not to go for an English tree.  I toyed with the idea of going Norwegian, but then I saw this on the Urban Threads website, and decided this was perfect for an international Bee.

A tree, as requested by Brinda, but have you noticed the foliage clumps?  All the continents are represented, and even better, Africa is pretty much the centre - hope Brinda likes it

Super Stars

A day trip to Mum's today. As she has clear floor space i took all my Star of Africa blocks . . . A bit of star speed dating later and we had this arrangement.

Super Star

The final star block from my month of the Star of Africa bee arrived today:

The lovely Sana lives in Berlin, and made me this picture of the iconic Berlin TV Tower for my Star of Africa star quilt.  I love the ribbon with the skyline that she added to the applique.

And with the other four blocks that  very greedily asked for from each of the girls . . .

How awesome is that?  Now I need my mum to come home from holiday so we can arrange the blocks on her spare room floor as I don't have any space big enough!

Second Squishie

I did receive a second squishie yesterday, but felt it deserved a post of its own. The Ladies in the Star of Africa Bee have changed over the last months from being names on a screen to being real friends, even though I wouldn't recognise any of them if I saw them in the street.

I received a package from Irene yesterday which had me stumped - I received my blocks from her months ago. She wrote that she had wanted to send me a silver necklace for my silver anniversary, but she had only now found something suitable. She sent me the most beautiful silver necklace, in a lovely little patchwork purse. She told me the history of the style of the necklace too.

Thank you so much Irene xxxx

Easter List - day 4

I'm not quite up to date, but there are a few hours left, so things could improve!

I've done a fire cooking pot embroidery to go with the caravan, I really enjoyed these and hope Fiona likes her block

And I've done loads more polo-shirts

Now time to do a bit more boring paperwork while I watch Last of the Summer Wine

Easter List - day 3

I didn't manage everything on "The List", but I did manage to get a few things done, in between helping husband put in a new loo!

This is going to be a sample for Chertsey Museum - nor sure what to do next, felt and a button?

I started embroidering tshirts for the local pre-school

And then I started working on my plan for the Star Of Africa "House" block for Fiona.  Fiona wants houses.  My house is too boring for words, and I did think of doing Windsor Castle, but Nicky said she was planning on a castle.  So have I got anything else local that I can use for inspiration.

Well yes I have!  It's probably ironic given that I was thinking of a castle, but we have a lot of 'settled travellers' living in our village.  There is a long historic story involving the village church's graveyard, (particularly the lack of restrictions on grave decorations in the 'extension' graveyard) and this has resulted in a number of travellers settling here.

Although they mostly live in static or touring caravans, they do occasionally bring out the beautiful traditional caravans (or 'vardo') that traditionally would have been home to a family

Well, it's not finished yet - but here is the start of Fiona's block

Perfect Post 10

Just look at the yummy squishie that arrived today all the the way from Leanne in . . . Well see if you can guess!

A perfectly Australian fabric, and one that I didn't manage to collect on holiday there 15 months ago.  Thank you Leanne, a great addition to the collection

This is the 10th block for the Star of Africa quilt, its getting close to being able to be assembled!

Shocking Shoes

The Star of Africa international Bee reach Tina's month in January.  Tina is a self confessed shoe addict, and wants to make a quilt representing shoes from around the world.  There are 4 members of the bee based in the UK, so I have been trying to stick to machine embroidery to make my blocks different to other people's.  I live within 5 miles of Windsor Castle, so I think I am allowed to be influenced by the castle.

Tina was happy with whimsical representations of shoes, or realistic ones, so I went for a bit of both.  I found an embroidery design of Victorian boots, and did my own design of Queen Victoria.  I had some fab fabric printed with Converse type boots and matched the Victorian Boots with the bright yellow, and then Queen Victoria with the shocking pink.

I hope Tina loves the block as much as I loved making it. 

Next - Fiona's block, she wants houses, I think I may need to move away from machine embroidery and try paper piecing for this one.

Home Sweet Home

While my embroidery machine has been methodically stitching the fleece jackets and sweat shirts for my friend Debbie, I have been planning and designing the Star Of Africa blocks for Miss December (Sana) and Miss January (Tina)

After 25 fleece jackets and 10 sweatshirts (boring, but I console myself with the thought that each one is worth a FQ of fabric) I switched designs for a while to stitch Sana's block.

Sana has asked for a theme of Home Sweet Home.  I considered a map for a previous block but it didn't work, but the idea stayed with me, so I embroidered a map of a 5 x 7 mile area around my house and the added some landmarks.  Sana has already told us that it will be a wall hanging so I knew I could use buttons and stuff.

I embroidered some land marks and added buttons or shrinkies for other items.  I hope she likes the little corner of the world that has been my home for 26.5 years!

(And the money that I'm earning from the t-shirts - well this little squishy that arrived today will take a bite out of that!

February Fun and a Flutterby

Carrying on with the calendar blocks, I have now done a February block - well actually I did two as I'm not sure which one I like best:

I also have been working in Janine's block for the Start of Africa Bee.  Janine wanted a butterfly, where the wings represent our home location, and the centre has some words, preferably foreign.

This has had me thinking since November, very unsure what to do.  There is enough OCD in my genetic makeup that if I make a butterfly, it has to be symmetrical and that didn't really lend itself to anything I could think of.  I did think of a map, but went off that idea.  Then I thought of a windmill - there is one within two miles of my house, we watched it being built, about 20 years ago.  It's not a working windmill, its a cross between a home and a folly - the owner wanted to build one, so he did!!

 

 
I tried a machine embroidered picture of the windmill, I could easily do another one as a mirror image to achieve the symmetrical wings, but I still didn't like the idea

This morning I was clicking around some blogs (anything other than get up and go to work) and saw a pinwheel block described as a windmill - and a light bulb went off.  I stitched two halves of a pinwheel block (but symmetrical) and used them for the wings. 

Then I had to consider the requirement for foreign text.   Well I AM Norwegian, and you would think that having lived there until I was three I would be able to speak some of the language, but sadly very little.

One of about three phrases I have left is "Jeg kan ikke snakke norsk", so I machine embroidered that (and it's mirror image) onto the centre strip.  I will save you having to go to translate.google.com - it means "I cannot speak Norwegian"!!!

I hope you like this Janine x x


(Why Flutterby?  That's what I used to call them when I was a kid, and the alliteration worked better!)

Perfect Post 10

My month for the Star Of Africa bee was September, but I haven't yet received all the blocks that will be coming my way, and its actually lovely to get a surprise stand-alone squishy when I don't expect it.

I was very excited when I saw May's name on the package as I'd already see a pic of the block she was making for me.  She's emailed to ask if I minded an ice-breaker, but I don't mind at all - I think these are awesome boats!

May had wrapped all the contents beautifully, but I didn't stop for photos, I just did my frog impression - rip it, rip it, rip it!


First there was the Ice Breaker Star

And if you cant see enough detail on the Ice Breaker . . . here it is again

 

I shan't even mention the box of yumminess that made it as far as the photo before, he'hem, vanishing rather quickly in my personal waste disposal system (far too yummy to share, good job the family don't read my blog)

There was also some fab sewing themed fabric tried into an intriguing roll . . .

. . . that opened up into this awesome travel sewing kit

Thank you thank you thank you May

Working from The List

Well one item from the list has been achieved.

The October block for the Star Of Africa bee was a book, and Nicky plans to make a wall hanging based on a library shelf.  I guess I could have used a favourite book, but the background to the bee is that we come from lots of different countries (although Nicky isn't actually that far from me), so I decided to base it on Windsor, or more specifically the Thames.

So I would like to present Wind In the Willow - Mr Toad driving his motor vehicle

(sorry the photo has reduced the contrast, I think it looks better in real life!)
 
Now I just have November (sorry Janine) and December (sorry Sana) to do and I'll be up to date not be behind any more.

Not on the list was the Rainbow Swirl (Rainbow Vortex?), but that now does have another round of triangles (it now measures 36 inches acros at the widest).  It will go away again for a while but I wanted to make sure I had the method sorted before I did Janine's Africa block and then I can return the books she very kindly lent me.

How Generous is Janine? (Perfect Post 9)

You may remember me having blogged about Janine (The Rainbow Hare) before.  She and I have been following each other's blogs for a long time now.  She made this fab hexie spiral mini quilt

 earlier this year, and very kindly sent me the books so I could make one myself,and she and Nicky (Mrs Sew and Sew) blogged about the Star of Africa Bee which I then joined.

Janine's Bee Block arrived a few days ago, but I was feeling so full of cold, and achy and generally bleugh, so I made myself wait until today before I opened it.  It was lovely to have something to look forward to even though I had already seen the block when she posted it on FlickrL


The Out Of Africa Bee Blocks each represent something from our own locality, and while my geography is rubbish, I recognised this block as soon as I saw it: The White Cliffs of Dover

And here it is in the centre of it's star

Thank you Janine

But before I even came to the star blocks, I shrieked.

Seriously!  Its so lucky there was no-one else home as they probably would not have understood - but you - my bloggy patchworky friends will understand.

You understand that when a stranger (lets face it, Janine and I have never met) sends you not only a lovely block, but also something beautiful, intricate and painstakingly made, and in this case something also previously lusted after, there is no correct response other than a loud, girly shriek

Prepare yourselves

This is now mine

 

 Words cannot describe how I feel, but I tried - I found Janine's phone number through BT.com, and called her to thank her.  We had a lovely long chat, and Janine, I hope you realise how delighted I am!

Slightly paling into insignificance, I have done *some* sewing today, and this misshapen collection of  Christmassy blocks is the result.

It might be clearer from this side

Tomorrow I am meeting mum for a spot of Christmas shopping, and I will pass these pieces over to her, and when I next see her (if she has taken a break from the cardigan she is knitting me) she may have made me a Christmas Waistcoat!

Thank you mummy!

So the Christmas List:

• 
  
• Nicky's book block
• I-Spy for Dina
• I-Spy for Liz
• I-Spy for Jane (Chloe)
• Christmas sack for Chloe
• Christmas sack for Richard
• 12 place mats for Carol
• 2 Pairs of Patchwork boots
• Warm Stars quilt for Philippa
• Christmas Tree by Candlelight wall hanging
• Napkins for Anna
• Batik Square Dance
• Christmas Waistcoat