The Genial Hearth

I’ve just put the kettle on, join me for a cuppa and a chat.

(Somewhat) Virtual Quilting Bee

July 16, 2009 at 10:11 am · Filed under Craft, Domestic Life, Food, Organisation, Sewing

I’ve been all inspired recently (for a range of reasons… so many pretty things!) about patchwork and quilting! So now, I’d like to try a (Somewhat!) Virtual Quilting Bee (I’ve been watching this one for a while). (Melissa talked about some of the others here.)

Basically, each person signs up and is assigned a month. They send some material to each other participant in time for their month. If you like, you can nominate a theme (I’ve seen Nature, specific colours, specific patterns). Everyone uses your fabric, and supplements however they choose, to complete a block (other fabrics from their stash, embroidery, appliqué etc). Then they send this back to you after your month. This means you get to sew with others, without having to actually get organised to be in the same location:-)

Essentially you will complete a block a month, and end up with (hopefully! depending on numbers!) a quilt’s worth of blocks. It’s then up to you how you use your blocks, whether you make them up as a quilt, as cushions, as a pair of laprugs, turn them into a bag—or leave them to sit in your to-do pile:-)

You do not need to have done any piecing or quilting before (it’s probably a good idea to have done some sewing before…. but if you’re keen, the lack probably wouldn’t stop you! In fact, this may be an ‘approachable’ way to give it a go:-) ) You may choose to hand sew or machine sew (I’ll probably do most of mine by hand… because that’s more convenient for me, but there’s at least one that I’ll be considering that I’ll do by machine).

I’d like to ask that all blocks are put online (probably not until after the recipient has received them though!), and it would be nice if you put up pictures of your finished object(s). This could either be on a blog, or on flickr or something else like that. However, don’t let the lack of your own space be a hindrance to this… I’m happy to post photos for anyone who can’t!

So, specifications are as follows.

2 or 3 pieces of fabric, about 10 cms (1/8 yard) of each (or half a fat quarter). (Please stick to cottons to assist with washing).
Block size 32 cms x 32 cms (finished size 30 x 30). (That’s near enough to 12.5 in square, with 12 in. square for the finished size.) If you would like a different size, just ask for it (you may need to send more material if you want something dramatically larger!)
Notes? (Theme, any specific requirements or things to avoid—for example, if you’re intending to use it with a baby, you might request no 3d items, like buttons or beads).

Let me know if you’re interested, and we’ll sort out months—I figure we’ll use August to sort it out, and get going in September. I was going to suggest Craft Sunday as the handover, but seeing as I’m putting it out on the blog, there might be some non-locals involved, so posting may be the way to go.
I’m really hoping to have about a dozen participants, but I guess we’ll wait and see! Feel free to pass this information on to anyone else who might be interested, all replies to the blogpost.

Some block tutorials, to give you ideas (I may have gone a little overboard!)…
Nine patch
Disappearing 9-patch
Crazy 9-patch
Pinwheels
Cartwheel
Shoo Fly
Variable Star
(actually, there’s a whole pile of directions here!)
Paintbox
Crazy
Hourglass
Gretchen
Amish Dahlia
Scrappy Hedgerow
A number of different blocks
Flying Geese
Teapot
Come Over to My House (a whole quilt’s worth of block patterns, only some will be accessible)
Vehicles

There’s a mass of beautiful quilts linked here.

There’s a tutorial on appliqué here.

(Oh Fransson has a number of quilt related tutorials, for once you have your finished blocks!)

So, who’s joining me?

Permalink

5 Comments »

Fiona wrote @ July 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

OK, I am in.

I take it that each person can set their own theme? Will seam allowance be 1/4″ or something metric? (I’ve only ever quilted in inches … not sure what is standard seam allowance when quilting in metric).

Fe wrote @ July 16th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

Yay:-)

Each person sets their own theme (if they want to… otherwise it’s the maker’s free choice:-) )
I have no idea about seam allowances inside the block, so long as the outside allows 1 cm on each side (which is about 1/4 inch). I guess… if you want to be sure, you could specify that your blocks are to be done in Imperial… most of the info about quilting is certainly already that way:-) I just tend to think in metric when I sew.

So, that’s two of us:-)

Fiona wrote @ July 16th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

Ahhh – I missed the bit about the finished block dimensions!

As to metric vs imperial … I definitely think dressmaking in metric. Quilting has me thinking in a mix of measurements. I can picture block sizes in inches … but completed quilts I need to convert to metric to be able to picture the size. I’m just generally confused!

Frances Brigg wrote @ July 27th, 2009 at 12:51 am

Hi Fe,

I’m in – it didn’t take me long to get over being all quilted out

Fe wrote @ July 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am

*grin*

You don’t have to quilt if you don’t want to… you can just piece:-)

I know what you mean—but it is only one block a month:-)

Glad to have you on board:-) I think that makes 5 (not everyone has replied here:-( ) definites, plus another 3 possibles. I’d still like another couple though… (I did say a September start though, so there should be time to gather them:-) )