"It's The Stupidest Tea Party I Was Ever At" Said Alice

Super, super excited to share April's NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Block with you, I'm just loving the challenge set by
Queen Bee Emily N.

The Bee Block package included a piece of green cotton and instructions to create an applique block on the theme of 'Tea'.  Emily is obviously a girl after my own heart and tells us she's obsessed with tea.  We can use any fabrics from our stash as long as we use the green fabric somewhere in the block and Emily suggests to applique items such as cups & saucers, mugs, tiered cake stands, teapots and more.

It doesn't get any better for this English girl abroad, immediately I knew what I was making - it just had to be a teapot and rather than sketching my own to save time I pulled this teapot image by Colleen from her blog justpaintit.

Pulling fabrics was easy - 

in my stash I had this scrap of British Icons: London by Timeless Treasures and then I pulled some Olive the Ostrich pink heart fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.  A multi dot (C3095 White) fabric from the Timeless Treasures Indian Summer collection is absolutely perfect to link the colours together with the given green which I'm going to use as the background fabric for the finished block.

I've an idea to include some of my Queen's Guard ribbon (Berisfords Ribbons - The Best Of British Art 13605 Soldiers) and a strip of Alice in Wonderland cotton twill ribbon too.

The strip of Alice ribbon was given to me by Dee, one of my Late Night Sewing students,

she's used it in my classes to make tea cosies for a couple of her friends and she gave me this piece.  This seemed like the perfect time to use it, thanks Dee xxx

Here's a look at one of Dee's tea cosies too, isn't it fab?

 Back to making the block, here we go, step by step:

I cut the image into sections - I'm not going to use the lid handle so I didn't cut that bit out;

I transferred each section onto the paper side of the Pellon Wonder Under fusible web Emily provided being sure to draw the pieces back to front so the final applique will come out the correct way round;

I pressed each piece of Wonder Under on to the appropriate fabrics

and cut the pieces out.

Emily asked for a 9.5" block so I placed the pieces under a 9.5" square ruler to see how best to lay them out.  I'm opting for a blown apart design, having gaps between each section leaves the background fabric visible and pulls the colours together more.

With the placement decided I marked the outline of the block and the pieces on the green background fabric using a FriXion pen that'll disappear with the heat of the iron then peeled the backing paper from each piece and pressed to fix them in place.  (Be sure to test any marking pen first on a scrap of fabric first to be certain it will 'disappear' from your project - also note that FriXion pen marks are known to 'reappear' in cold temperatures.)

Before fixing the teapot lid I sewed the looped piece of Soldier ribbon in place as the handle.

With everything ironed and permanently fixed in place I freemotion scribble-stitched two or three times around the pieces and within minutes it was all done.

 I love, love, love how easy raw edge applique is and if you're interested in learning more click through to any of my other applique tutes below:

And photos of that finished block

  with a closer look at the scribble stitching,

and the tea pot lid/handle

and a peep at the back.

I've put so much of me and my home country into creating this block, I do hope Emily loves it as much as I do.

And now I think it's time for a well earned cup of tea x

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For Mother's Day - Another Divided Basket

While I was in England we celebrated English Mother's Day.  I wanted to make a Noodlehead Divided Basket for Mum and I thought she'd find one most useful in her bathroom.

Raiding my stash I pulled three fabrics by Lonni Rossi for Andover fabrics that are the perfect match for Mum's decor.
Bare Branches - Patterns 7530-MK & 7535-MKN (2014)
Facets - Pattern 7180-MK (2013)

This is the finished but very empty basket.  I fussy cut the lining so the pattern's continuous on both sides of the basket divide.

It just wouldn't be right to give someone an empty basket so I trimmed some cream hand towels with the same fabrics I used for the basket.

And then I added some bath time goodies.

Now that's looking much better, though having to put the towels upside down (with the open folds visible) so you can see the trim is really upsetting me!!!

The front...

The back...

And here's a few more close up pics just because I love the details on these baskets.

For the handles I've used softer, smoother apron tape along with a layer of fusible fleece to add firmness rather than my usual cotton webbing.

Before I sew the body of the basket I always ensure that the side and bottom seams line up perfectly.

 And it almost goes without saying that Mum loved it and just look at it in it's new home,

Are you making any Mother's Day gifts, do share your ideas with us in the comments?

Click the images below to read more about other Divided Baskets I've made.



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February's Bee Block - NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild

Quite late making my February Bee Block for Queen Bee Ariana, haven't done any sewing for 5 weeks due to travelling and health issues but with several deadlines looming this was an easy project to get me gently back into sitting at the sewing machine.

Ariana provided the fabric - not 100% sure but I'd guess they're peppered cottons, I love the texture and softness.

The brief was to make a square within a square - the inner square to be abstract or geometric and any size while the outer square must take the overall block size to 9.5".

This is my finished block - initially I wanted to just do the tiny 9 patch surrounded with the outer square but, having created it using 3.4" strips which produce tiny 1/4" squares, there just wasn't enough of the outer fabric to complete the block :( .  As you can see I added more sections to the 9 patch to create a larger centre square which enabled me to achieve a 9.5" finished block.

See just how tiny those squares are compared to a US dime and a British penny.  You can also see how the fabric distorts given it's weave and softness.

Fingers crossed Ariana likes it.

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