September Bee Blocks + Liberty Loving

It's been a while.  We've had the inside of the house painted - so have spent the last few weeks packing boxes, moving things out to the garage, tossing junk into a skip, covering things in plastic, and inhaling paint fumes.  And not sewing.  

But - it's all finished, the house looks great, and the Bernina is back in action, so I have some sewing to share!

First up - a mini-quilt in-progress - the Mini Spools pattern from Liberty Love by Alexia Marcelle Abegg.  I had bought the book online, with the intention of maybe, possibly, perhaps attempting the gorgeous Marcelle Medallion quilt, as part of Penny Poppleton's quilt-along.  But then, a little package of gorgeous fabrics arrived from Danielle, including some beautiful Liberty pieces - and I really wanted to use some straight away - and the Mini Spools pattern was the perfect project!

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I added a low-volume border around all the spools, and then thought a little colour was needed - so I added the alternating scrappy colour/low volume border.  I took the chance to use some favourites - Leanne Fanny/The Little House Martin, Heather Ross, Amy Adams/PennyCandy, Kajsa/Syko, Curly Pops, Violet Craft, Denyse Schmidt, Happy Zombie gnomas! - and also some precious fabrics received as gifts from gorgeous ladies I've met through the magic of the internet - the Liberty from Danielle, PKM fabrics from Pam of PamKittyMorning (more about our swap in the next blog post! - read Pam's post here!) and some Uptown Lush and the sweet hexagons from Penny of Sewtakeahike.  

I am so happy with the mini so far, it's just really happy and fun.  I quilted it today and now just need to choose binding fabric!

And now - blocks for Jules, who is Queen Bee for September in our AusModBee.  Jules asked for square-in-square blocks, finishing at either 16.5 inches, or a mix of 4.5 inches or 8.5 inches.  My gorgeous fabric package included some Echino butterflies - so to start with, I made four 8.5 inch square fussy cut blocks.  

And then things went a little crazy for the 16.5 inch square.  I started with the Annie's Seed Catalogue fabric in the middle, then added a few one-fabric borders, then the green spot + solid border, and then ... things got scrappy for the outside border - plus I'd run out of enough of any one particular fabric to make a one-fabric border.  If that makes sense.  So - there's lots of colour going on.

Here are the blocks together.  Jules' fabrics are so happy and bright - she is planning on making two quilts from the blocks, and adding her own blocks in - they will look fabulous! 

And last - a really fun set of blocks for Rachel for our Care Circle of do.GoodStitches (I can't link to Rachel, as Flickr is down for maintenance right now!).  Rachel asked for 6.5 x 12.5 inch blocks, in graduated blues and neutrals - after seeing this quilt made by Alex of TeaGinny.  I really love this idea.  Rachel gave us free-reign in our blues and neutrals, asking only that any one block didn't include both navy and white, since the colour graduation between the two is too great.  My blocks were sewn completely from my scrap buckets - blues, neutrals and texts.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Rachel's quilt, it will look great! 

And so that's it for now.  Don't forget about our colouring book giveaway!  I'll be back over the weekend to share the amazing box-of-gorgeous that I received yesterday from lovely Pam and her daughter Frankie - they have been so incredibly kind and generous, I can't even tell you.  Hope your week has been a good one.   xoxo cat