I have been sewing, some!

Fresh Modern Bee block for Lynne of Lily's Quilts.

Plus a little pressie for her from the left over scraps.

Some Scrap Vomit blocks for Katy of I'm a ginger monkey, she gave me some Far Far Away II in exchange, too easy! Shhhh, there's a little pressie in the works for her. I love making stuff for pals. I must get back to another, not so little, pressie I'm making too.

Playing around with an idea for my Scrap Vomit quilt, please excuse the disgusting ironing board cover. I'm quite taken with the idea of a black outer diamond, black & white middle diamond and single colour centre cross. Yup, there are two black squares there that should be red, I was just quickly snapping to catch my idea before it flew away. The outers and other block will be utterly and totally scrappy.

Totally lovin this block! I've been wanting to try it for a while. It's the block I'm going to be making for my hive buddies in the 2nd quarter of the 3 x 6 bee on Flickr. They are also the colours I've asked for. The idea was to receive little Spring parcels over the Winter!

I first saw this block in a pic from the Tokyo 2011 Quilt Show on Flickr. I loved it then and thought I'd like to try and replicate it, my way of course! Then, can you believe, Amy from Badskirt had had the same thought. She'd decided to ask her Bee members to make it for her, and posted pics of how to construct it. If that wasn't exciting enough for me, a quilt along group has also started up. My first test block is a little wonky, but I had to have a go. I'm thinking of trying to make the block bigger too, cause I'm a slow sewer that likes fast results!!


This is how I decided to use my Sherbet Pips charm pack. This way I only lose a 1/2" strip off one side of the charm. Another block I've been eyeing off for a while, the Whirligig! I have to say, I really like the results so far. I'll put a aqua border on and pink binding.

And yet another idea I've been wanting to try. I might ask my bee pals to make me some words in July, cute huh!

Lastly, this is my idea for my partner in the Down Under DollQuilt Swap. I've just gathered together a few recent faves from Flickr. I'll be using my Sandy Klop fabric.

Okay, that's yer lot!

Thanks for visiting.

x Mandy

More Fresh Modern Bee blocks

I really enjoyed working with the all the deep purple linen that Viv sent, so soft and floppy!! The print was also fun, with sparrows, hummingbirds and foliage, and the little bit of orange made for a striking combination. Other people in the bee were given the opposite quantities of the solid fabrics, and their printed calico had spiderwebs and grubs on it. It's sure to be an amazing quilt!!

Here are the blocks I made.

I fell off my non buying fabric wagon in January, but I've been a good fabric addict so far in February. Here's the new January additions to the stash. Oldies but goodies, and colours I have very few off in my stash. I can ALWAYS justify buying fabric!!


So........what is this pile then, well........you know how I said I wouldn't do any more quilt alongs until I'd finished some quilts! Well........I've fallen off that wagon too! But I do get to finally use my blue and green Amy Butler fabrics. I've had some of these since I started my stash!


This stack of lovelies is destined to be a Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt. I truly have always loved that quilt. So when I spied that a Support Group had emerged in Flickr and one of the three leading the way was Katy from I'm a ginger monkey blog fame, I just had too! And as the Flickr name suggests, it is a support group, a hand holding, you can do it group!

Not that it's a tricky quilt, so we've been told often, but there is a lot of preparation. Each finished block is huge at approx 22" squares, and made of 4 quarters, each quarter has around 8 different fabrics in an arc, so the whole block has a squarish circle in it. These circles then touch each other when the blocks are sewn together!!!! There are 31 pieces to the circle and the pattern calls for 36!?! No, I haven't read the pattern, it only arrived today. I think I'll read it, and note my questions and then ask my fellow Single Girl Quilters. I have to get some more plastic for the templates before I can start anyway. I didn't think I had enough, but now I'm sure. I hope I manage more than one block, I'll definitely keep you posted!!

Cheerio for now,

thanks for visiting!

x Mandy

Fresh Modern Bee

Fresh Modern Bee
Originally uploaded by mandalin18

This is a wonderful Bee, full of very creative people. I feel the need to produce something fabulous every month. I was a tad apprehensive to begin with, but that's gone now, I'm beginning to trust my instincts. Now I relish the challenge of creating something from my head, rather than scouring on-line quilting sites. Nothing wrong with that of course, I still go in that direction when looking for a particular block. For me, this bee demands I look outside the square. Lovin' that challenge!

Another post coming on the 'Cross' block!!!

Cheerio for now,

x Mandy