Thank you!!!!

We were truly blessed on Saturday. A lovely lady called Irene arrived to see us with a bag full of goodies.  Irene belonged to a group of ladies who decided to get together and make some quilts for charity.  Not only did we receive quilts, but other fabricy goodness as well. We have a wee bit of work to do on some of the quilts, some in need of quilting or binding etc, but we couldn't be more pleased.  Unfortunately, in our excitement, we didn't get a photograph of Irene, so if you're reading this Irene, whoops, my mistake!!!

A few photographs of some of those goodies.....

Male quilts, female quilts, quilts for young and old, just what we needed.

Thanks again ladies. I hope you are truly blessed in return.

HAPPY SEWING...

Great day at Bee Blessed

We had such a productive day at Bee Blessed.  Everyone was doing something different, new skills were learnt and we had a ball.  Lots of photographs to follow.

This is how we spent yesterday!

The Wheel of Time quilt has turned out even better than we expected and is basted and ready for quilting.  I love how the different shades of navy and grey make it so interesting and I could look at this all day.  Thanks for the blocks you sent to us. We are like kids in a sweet shop checking them out.

Last month we set The Churn Dash block and whoop! whoop! they have been arriving with us throughout the month.

So....this month we made a start on the reverse Churn Dash which we will alternate with last month's blocks. The pattern is here.

 Thanks Ceri for donating this stunning quilt top, which is much appreciated and will soon be ready for a new home. 

Another kiddie quilt is almost complete...

...as is our New Orleans Star Quilt, which still gets referred to as the Trudi Quilt.  Just the borders to add and it will be ready for basting and quilting.

Someone, before my time (lol I mean before I became involved),  kindly donated some fabric to Bee Blessed amongst which was this cute jelly roll. The pattern is Hopscotch by Thimble Blossoms and it will definitely bring a smile to its new owner with its cheery brightness.

Last, but not least, another quilt top from a donated Layer Cake was sewn together and is now ready for borders, basting and quilting.  

So I can safely say we were productive in between the chat and catch ups.  

We too at Bee Blessed were blessed with a donation and I'll post that tomorrow.  

We loved and appreciated it!!!

Happy Sewing...

February block...another churn dash????

Isn't it sewing weather!!!!  I don't know what the weather is like where you are but if it's anything like Northern Ireland you'll be glad to huddle in your cosy house and get some sewing done. That's what many of you did last month, sewing together Churn Dash blocks then whizzing them off to us.  THANK YOU!!!  It was a fun block to make and a great tutorial. Thanks for letting us use it Sarah.

We were so inspired by Sarah's Ruby quilt (photograph above) which is on her blog here, that we thought we would try the same layout, white background fabric with a patterned Churn Dash, which was January's block, beside the reverse, a patterned background fabric with a white Churn Dash.  Hence this month's block...a patterned background with a white Churn Dash,which is in the photograph below.  Phew, what a mouthful.  I hope it's clear!!!

The pattern is the same as last month's and you'll find it here. The white churn dash pops out against the strong background colour and once again we're not stipulating a specific colour. 

We would like the blocks to be with us by the Friday, 4th of March, please, and as always we thank you in advance for your continued support.  Our email address is here, should you need it, and we meet here monthly. Actually we meet tomorrow, whoop whoop, so I'll have some updates for you at the beginning of the week.

Happy Sewing...the days are getting longer 

Back in the hive!!!

It was so good to get back to normal after Christmas and especially good to get together for a catch up, coffee and biscuits and, best of all, some communal sewing.  Here's what we got up to...

We checked the progress of The Wheel of Time block and realised that we're a bit short of blocks with a navy background...task number one.  This is going to look so good when finished.

You've probably heard me harping on about 'man quilts' recently and having handed one over before Christmas, witnessing how deeply it touched the person, has made us determined to have some more in reserve. We're thinking about how best to do this.

We made a start on this month's block and the pattern is here. As someone commented, 'It's hard to beat a Churn Dash...' and Sarah's pattern is so well-written and easy to follow.

This kindly-donated beauty is being sent off to its new home next week.

Bee Blessed relies mainly on donated fabric, quilt tops, blocks and perhaps unwanted projects which people no longer have a need for. If you are having a destash or have any fabric or precuts which you have fallen out of love with, or no longer want, we would welcome your donations.

We were gifted the layer cake in the photograph above and found this pattern for a Double Slice Layer Cake Quilt by the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We're still playing about with the layout but it came together very quickly.

Last but not least, we finally trimmed and laid-out these beautiful blocks for The New Orleans Star Quilt, before adding the borders. Thank you so much Trudi Wood for donating this amazing project. It was a labour of love and we all agree that it's going to be stunning when finished. 

Till we chat again...happy sewing

Churn Dash Block - January

 

Many thanks to Sarah for allowing us to use her Churn Dash pattern this month.  It's very easy to follow and you'll find the pattern here.  We aren't setting a specific colour this time but we would like the background to be plain white, as shown in the photographs above.  We'd like the blocks by Valentine's Day...an easy date to remember...and thank you in advance.
 
It's always exciting to see the varied blocks that we receive from you and we can't thank you enough for your continued support.

 Here's to 2016...happy sewing!!!

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.