Happy New Year and Thanks to Y'all...

Christmas is over for another year and it seemed to go by in a flash. I hope it was a good one for you and that you managed to get some time to let your creative juices flow.

It seems an age since we last posted and this is what has happened since...

We gifted these quilts to two lovely ladies:

And this one to a lovely gentleman:

They hopefully went some way to letting people know they're not alone in the midst of their circumstances.

We continued making the Wheel of Time block which we set in November and you'll find the pattern here

We find ourselves always struggling to find a quilt suitable for a man so we decided to set a 'male appropriate' block this time.  You're still in plenty of time should you wish to send us one.

The Friendship Star quilt is coming together nicely:

That's about it for now, apart from a few dates for your diary.  For those of you who would like to join us our contact details are here.

We will be meeting in Christian Fellowship Church, Holywood Road, Belfast from 2pm to 5pm on the following dates:

9th January 2016

6th February 2016

5th March 2016

2nd April 2016

7th May 2016

4th June 2016

The dates etc are on our 'where and when' page too. Looking forward to connecting with you in the New Year either in person or online.  We couldn't do this without you, so....

Happy New Year and thank you for all your support xxxx

November Bee Blessed

I'm a little late with this...oops...it's been one of those weeks.

We are growing in numbers!! Each month we have the pleasure of welcoming new faces, and best of all we have a great time together, so if you're in the area and can sew, why not join us!!! Our contact details are here and this is where we meet.

This week we sent these beauties to their new homes:  

I must let you see how beautifully this has been quilted.

Pippi made her way to the home of a beautiful young girl

The Bear Paw went to a lovely lady.

And finally we parted with these lovelies... 

Haven't we been busy!!  We also laid out our Friendship Block quilt. Here's a peep at some of the blocks.  If you can't spot yours it's because I was sewing the others together.  Many thanks to all who contributed in any way.

Apologies for the poor photograph, taken in the fading light. The blocks look amazing together.

We also made a start on our new block.  If you haven't seen it yet the tutorial is here.

So that's all for now. Phew!!!! Thanks to everyone!!!

The Wheel of Time Block

We realised we're very short of suitable 'man quilts' so when we spotted this block on Modern Quilters Ireland we thought it would be ideal and were very grateful when Louise gave the thumbs up. Pop over and look at her block, as she combines grey beautifully with aqua and orange.

Christmas is just around the corner so we thought if anyone out there wishes to send us a block that the ninth of January would be a good cut-off date. Thanks in advance for taking time-out to support us.

We would like to have either medium/dark grey or navy as our background colour with each wheel being made up of four different fabrics of the same colour - red, blue or green. It doesn't matter if this is combined with the grey or navy, so grey/red, grey/green, grey/blue or navy/red, navy/green, navy/blue.

Requirements:

Four  5 ¾ inch squares in either medium/dark grey or navy 

Four different 5 ¾ inch squares in either green, blue or red (keeping the same colour-way in each block)

Method: 

Assume ¼" seams throughout

1. Pair one background square with one coloured square, right sides together

2. Sew a ¼ inch all around the inner edge of the square

3. Cut the square diagonally to make 4 triangles

5. Press the seams open and trim off the 'ears'

6. Repeat for the other 3 triangles

7. Repeat steps 1 to 6 for the three remaining pairs of 5 ¾ inch squares

8. Lay out the squares in the desired formation

9. Sew each row together, press the seams open and then sew the four rows together making sure to line up the seams.  Press the seams open.

The finished block will be 13 inches

Many thanks to all.....

Many thanks to all who support Bee Blessed in any way, whether by donating fabric, making blocks or  joining us monthly............you know who you are and we appreciate you.  We received a beautiful card and message from a lady who received a quilt recently and we have her permission to publish this.  It has encouraged us and I'm sure it will encourage you too....but more importantly it touched someone's life. 

''I was sitting in the lounge feeling somewhat my jaded self these days, when a knock came on the door- the dog was barking madly and I thought.. oh great, someone selling something, but it was the postman with a huge package. I was mystified but thanked him for it and sat down and opened it.......(this was about 5 mins ago). I read your card and I felt an overwhelming joy, it made me tingle and brought tears to my eyes. This is one of the most lovely things that anyone has ever done for me. I just wrapped myself in the quilt and breathed in all the love and prayers of you all. I then dashed up the stairs of my cottage and laid the quilt out on my bed.. a couple of amazing things.. how did you know my favourite colours were turquoise and purple!!- it looked perfect against the bedspread and bed is where I spend most of my time now. I am in so much pain and discomfort and yesterday was a really really bad day, so I was hoping today would be different and I was trying to be positive...and your quilt arriving...well it felt like an affirmation that I was not alone in all of this. I would so like to thank you all. I feel so blessed by this and just wanted to say a big big thank you for this spontaneous and generous thought. I will keep this quilt always, it will always be so special to me...I can look and enjoy it every night- after reading my bible and saying my prayers which is now an integral part of my life.''

It just shows how all your individual contributions are being appreciated and how receiving one of the quilts you subscribe to can be such a huge blessing in dark days.

Baby quilts handover

Last time I posted a picture of  the Baby Boy Contemporary Blocks Quilt and mentioned that it was just one of the many quilts which would be going off to the Mother and Baby HIV Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

We're so pleased to be able to show you some pictures of Judith meeting with Pat and handing the quilts over, 15 in total!!!!!

It's so good to see these beauties going to their new homes.  Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way. I'm sure you're as excited as us to see the end result.  

Old and New Faces

It's great to welcome some new faces to Bee Blessed (with more new faces to come) as well as catching up with some old faces we haven't seen for a while. Judith popped in to see us with her contribution of two beautiful Friendship Star Blocks.  It's great that although she no longer co-leads Bee Blessed she still continues to support us by making blocks. Thank you...

It was a beautiful sunny day outside yet we beavered away in the basement.  We made some progress with our new Friendship Star Block and put the finishing touches to some quilts...but the ladies took some time to smile for the camera.

Unfortunately I couldn't capture everyone...it was just after tea break and there was some clearing up going on elsewhere...or were they finishing the lovely scones??

These lovely quilts were finished and go off to their new homes next week.

I had the pleasure of binding and quilting this Baby Boy Contemporary Blocks Quilt last week and I just love it.  It is just one of the many quilts which will be going off to the Mother and Baby HIV Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Green and Peach Trip Around the World Quilt

And finally the Scrappy Triangles Quilt

The photographs don't do these beautiful quilts justice.  We know they will be appreciated and much loved and we thank all of you who have contributed and all of you who continue to support us in any way.

Friendship Star block

Time has come for us to set our first block and we thought the ‘Friendship Star block’ was appropriate for a few reasons; we’re friends meeting and sewing together once a month, we hope to make some new friends as others join us and also we look forward to becoming acquainted with anyone out there in blogland (and elsewhere) who wishes to participate.

This is the block and you can find the tutorial over at Sarah's blog

For this block Sarah chose one bright print for the friendship star and two other prints for pairs of opposite corner triangles, as well as a solid white cotton as the background to the block. Bright colours are definitely the way to go with this block. We love it and can't wait to see it in a quilt.

Many thanks to those of you who have contributed to Bee Blessed in the past and to those who have encouraged us to keep going. We hope you enjoy making this pretty block

If you the need the postal address for the blocks please send an email to beeblessedquilts@gmail.com and I'll forward it to you. 

Great to be back...even though it means summer's over

Summer's over, such as it was here in Belfast boohoo, and we met for the first time last Saturday. It was good to be back and we're excited to be continuing with Bee Blessed. Sewing is such fun but sewing with like-minded people takes it to a whole new level, so if you're in the area or not too far away why not give it a try!!!  We meet monthly in Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast and our contact details are here .

It was a day of putting the finishing touches to these beauties before they go off to their new homes, as well as familiarising ourselves with the things we've ignored until now...until now we just turned up to sew and left the nitty-gritty to Sarah and Judith.  

Here are the beauties...

Double Four Patch Quilt

 Strip Step Quilt

Sailing Boats Quilt

and finally...

Orphan sampler - Snails and Sails

We'll be whizzing them off to their new homes asap.

Many thanks to all who contributed by sending in either blocks or fabric. We appreciate your support and your encouragement to keep going and we hope to connect with you again, pretty soon.

Keep your eyes out for our next block...it'll be on this blog in a week or so.

A few dates for your diary....

We'd love you to join us!  Just send us an email to the address on the contact page.

We will be meeting at Christian Fellowship Church from 2pm to 5pm on the following dates:

Saturday 5th September
              3rd October
              7th November
              5th December

A New Era

Hi and welcome to our new blog!!!!

Bee Blessed is a charity quilting bee which presently meets monthly in Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast.  It was started in 2011 by the very talented Sarah and Judith and was borne out of their love for sewing together with friends.  Their aim was to create quilts and other little projects to bless and comfort those who are going through a tough time by giving them something to remind them that they are cared about.  

Life’s twists and turns mean that unfortunately Sarah and Judith are unable to continue leading the group but.......it’s not the end!!  We have had such a fun and rewarding time both sewing together (not to mention chatting, eating yummy food, laughing and learning) and knowing that ultimately we would be handing the quilts over to a new home......that we can’t stop!! Our last get together was in June and we will be taking a break over the summer, meeting again in September 2015.  It was sad saying goodbye to Sarah and Judith but no doubt they’ll be popping in to join us when life settles down again.

We had a ball at our last meeting in June...

....a vintage tea party no less. 

We even managed to squeeze in a group photograph of those of us who could make the last meeting.. so here we are...

Left to right: Kelly, Ruth, Judith, Lorraine, Sarah, Angie, Ros, Heather and Marion  (that's not all of us)

Until now we have been fantastically supported by Sarah and Judith’s bloggy friends contributing regularly by sending in blocks and unwanted fabric, and we have heard whisperings that this may continue.  Whoop whoop and thank you in advance...we would love your participation and it would be great to get to know you.