:: finishes ::

i know it is only march but i am giving myself a huge pat on the back on how driven i am by keeping to my new year's resolutions of tidying the studio and getting projects finished before starting new ones. at this point ruby will be coughing **modest**...

but seriously, as you are well aware, i am always distracted by something new and shiny, so to even finish 1, start 2 (oh ok maybe still 3 or 4...) is a huge achievement.

i am not wholly sure if finishing a gift counts but still...a finish is a finish.




it was my sister's 50th last week and the quilt was gifted last friday night. as you can see, she absolutely loves it...or maybe she is a good actress. either way it was a success and i was ready to move on to the next...

i can't believe i allowed my studio to get into such a terrible state. the advantage to having it tidy is i can actually see what WIPs i have. previously they were hidden under piles of, well quite frankly, piles of who knows what. it was a disgrace.

with 2 of my WIPs now staring me in the face i'm onto getting them finished.

finish number 1 is my kiss quilt...
this has now been quilted and waiting for the final job of binding. i'm hoping that will be today.

finish number 2 is my beautiful Bee a Brit Stingy hourglass quilt top that is sitting under the machine as we speak.

3 quilt finishes in a week? what is the world coming to? 

to be honest, if the year finishes here, it will have been a successful one.

with a little help from my friends...

it all started back in September when i was queen bee for bee a brit stingy flickr group...a fab bee filled with lovely british quilters.

i have never been in a bee before so i wasn't very sure what to expect or how it was all going to play out.

my first dilemma was what block to choose. the bee started in january and some peeps had already picked some blocks that i may have chosen so that was those out. some demanded a more cohesive palette, some were too large and some were just too fiddly.

i eventually decided on this hourglass block and requested low volume, 1930s, liberty, vintage type fabrics.

to be honest i wasn't entirely sure how it

was all going to pan out. when i create my quilts i spend forever picking fabrics moving them around until they don't jar in my eye anymore and remove any fabrics that just don't sit well. in the bee group we are all very different, have different styles, different fabrics to pull from and i was a little nervous with how this would work for me.

but apparently what i love most about this is that it is full of little jewels of fabrics that normally i don't get to see in my own work, from overtly pretty florals to more muted geometrics. every single block that arrived filled me with EEEEEEKS!

honestly they are a magical bunch this crew.

i'm not even sure you can tell how wonderfully everything gels here, but in the flesh it is all so alive. the bee group made about half the blocks and they all look stunning with the ones i made.

it's all been a great big success in my eyes and hopefully we'll do it all again next year. (i hope so because i have already picked my block...)

and if you want to see how everyone else's quilts turned out go and check out the group here. there are some stunners.

the only question that remains is...

how on earth shall i quilt this thing??