The Beehive's Busy Sea top complete!

This is my first Bee quilt, and I wanted to create something that I couldn't possibly have made as an individual. The Beehivers have achieved that with great success!

In these blocks you can see the Beehivers' individual creative input, in colour, subject and style. This means there's a great variation in the blocks, and I wondered how that would work- as you can see, it's what makes the quilt hold the attention. 

Congratulations and thank you to the Beehivers, and to Teaginny for her design inspiration!

Look who I picked up by the side of the road...

...it's Headless Hattie!

She and her companion were no longer a good fit. But Hattie and I have heaps in common- same height, same shape...

...and she's a singer, like me! 

The Beehive's Busiest Sea Ever!

The stellar members of the Beehive quiltting bee have really excelled themselves in making blocks for the Bug's Busy Sea at Night quilt.

The Beehivers sent so many extra blocks that I'm able to add a whole extra row, making a generous king-single size, which will give the Bug room to grow.

I'd love to show you a completed top, but I've run out of Kona Nightfall for my sashing! Stay tuned...

Miss Brown Inspects the Spring Plantings.

The patch on the left is the Bug's. He chose broccoli ("Because I love broccoli"), "beans that when you open them up they have peas inside" (I interpreted this as beans, but we've since established that he meant peas), a green capsicum (his favourite colour) and a strawberry (the only food he's ever eaten to the point of vomiting, so hopefully we won't have a bumber crop!). 

I chose a cherry tomato, zucchini, basil and a red capsicum (my favourite colour). Actually the capsicums are identical plants, we will just pick them when they are the colours we like!

Spring Clean Screen Prints!

I've been giving my kitchen a mini makeover, replacing the tatty tea-towels and potholders with a fresh look for spring. I've been inspired by Amy's dishy screen-prints, so when I saw Louise Snook's screen-printing workshop at the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair, I signed myself up.

Louise is a textile artist based in Western Australia, and was the lead artist at the Fair. The workshop was ninety minutes long, but within thirty minutes we were starting to produce screen-printed linen tea-towels in our own designs. It was speedy and very satisfying!

I printed these giraffes, a favorite motif, and had enough time to purchase a second tea-towel (and then a third)  for some unintentional but valuable trial-and-error learning. See the blotches on the giraffes? They were done with a cunning secret technique shown to us by Louise. If you're in WA, I highly recommend doing a workshop. Thanks for a great class, Louise!

do.Good stitches {a charity bee}

Here are my first two blocks for Do. Good stitches {a charity bee}. I have joined Kay's group, "Cherish", which is based here in Australia, with members from Australia and the UK.

I'm glad to have found this way to make my contribution, because I feel I can't always contribute financially, but am happy to offer my skills and my stash and scrap-box.

There are many different ways of organising quilts for charity. Sometimes quilts are sold to raise funds. At other times, as in this case, they are given directly for those who need them. Our leader Kay has found a distributor (http://needystitches.com/), and we have been given some details about the person who will be receiving the quilt. I liked doing it this way, because when choosing my fabrics I could think about the recipient and what she might like .

If I ever had any doubt about how much value there really is in giving a quilt, I've seen the results with my gran. I made her a quilt when she was in hospital recently, and have seen how much comfort and enjoyment she continues to get from her quilt. People have different needs at different times in their lives, and sometimes comfort is the only thing- and the very best thing- we can offer.

If you're a quilter, have skills and fabric to offer, and would like to join a web-based group, take a look at do. Good Stitches on Flickr. Thanks for organising our circle, Kay!

Bug Eyes

The Bug was helping me in the garden yesterday. He likes to help with the weeding, and I like the chance to see the garden through his eyes. We discuss garden philosophy as we potter.

"Mum, a weed, is really just a plant that's in the wrong place". That's one he's learnt from me.

"Mum, even if somethings a weed, it can also be beautiful (pointing to a clump of feathery oxalis leaves). See, that's a weed. And it's also beautiful".

Garden Bugs are beautiful too :)