Someone commented recently how quick I am at turning round quilts. But the truth of course is I have these wonderful Siblings Together Bee members (see tab above for more info on this charity) sending me blocks otherwise my finish rate would be soooo much lower. And although the blocks we choose for these quilts are usually selected for impact over complexity nevertheless from start to finish they will take a minimum of an hour to make. So assuming you need say 20-30 blocks for a typical quilt then you can see the time saving. Mind you I spent well over that doing some blocks for another mama yesterday but that quilt is going to be so stunning…..

The comment touched a guilty nerve though as I had some much overdue blocks left over from this quilt made last October that needed to be in a quilt.

I had an absolute bumper crop of these scrap quarter log cabins. I’d bought Rachel Hauser’s Lake Cabin quilt pattern and with her permission used it for the first quilt. It’s quite block intensive but Bee members from both Bee 2 and the new  Bee 4 people who were waiting for their official start came up trumps.  I received 75 plus blocks which I then sorted  into those that were more gender neutral and those more flowery and used the latter to make the quilt above.  I had quite a few left over for another quilt but not enough so they languished in a drawer…..

But once spurred on it is surprising how quickly I get motivated by something I’m going to enjoy because first and foremost I am a selfish sewist. I only sew what I want to sew. One of the children in desperation sewed the seams of his own school trouser legs, having taken them off I hasten to add, to narrow the legs. He was lucky the machine had dark grey in it!!  And his twin has a droopy school skirt because I’ve yet to take in the waist.  Oh and there’s a vinyl tablecloth in my sewing room that a friend asked to me to hem months and months, ok well over a year ago, and because it will be fiddly and a pain that 45 min job has just languished. You get the drift?

It didn’t take too long to make up another 8 or so blocks and my blue and green scrap drawers are really quite thin. I decided against the same quilt design as before as there was a lot of sashing involved with the original design.  It was a bit fiddly so I decided to do it on point again but insert plain white squares. I wonder whether I prefer this layout as being more graphic and fresh.

Sewing the top together took way longer than it should have done. I used my Singer Featherweight and whether it’s the old motor or whatever it’s not a quick machine. It’s perfect for piecing blocks but long seams are a bit of a pain. Also I got throughly muddled by the on point setting but lets be honest those block layouts on my lounge floor are hardly precise.  Oh for a full design wall.  So lots of unpicking was involved.

You will notice I haven’t quilted this one yet. Our target for Siblings Together is 100 quilts which we achieved this week and given how many quilts get finished around now that number will get higher. So the 6 or so quilts stacked on my spare bed that I was going to send I’m hanging onto for next year and will hand them to Nicky who coordinates this amazing effort when I see her. To save space I’ve decided to just keep the tops and quilt them later.

…and  because I’ve been mama for two bees this month and these gorgeous blocks have been arriving, so there are more tops to come

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF