We’ve been torturing you all for a year now, showing sneaky peeks of teeny areas of blocks, pixelated images, and employing frankly devious techniques to avoid letting both you and the eventual quilt owners know what the end result would be! The time has now come to show off our beauties, which have finally wended their way home. One of the best bits of this has been how 8 women scattered across the globe, from the US to the Czech Republic, Switzerland to the UK, Morocco to, err, the UK again, have managed to pull together a final quilt, when all any of us but the final ‘top-assembler’ have seen are photographs, e-mailed between us, of the blocks as they’ve been made.
Our rules were thus – we were all to create a starting point that everyone would see, issue a set of instructions on the Flickr group about what we wanted everyone else to do in terms of theme, colours, and dimension, show a mosaic of what we were thinking of, and then send the starting block (or blocks) off to the last person in line behind us, who would be the final block maker and be responsible for assembling the entire top. We were to use one fabric unique to us in every block (which I admit I forgot about a couple of times, so mine ended up in the siggy blocks instead!), and the rest was whatever we had in our stash that would fulfil the brief for the block in question. Overall I contributed 3 strips and 4 actual blocks (which was all dependent on how we’d decided to lay things out)
My fabric, which I based my theme on, was from the fabulous Monaluna for Birch Fabrics, Circa 52 collection, with my main fabric being this one:
I asked for the following:
Effect:
I’d like to replicate the vehicles from my chosen fabric (1 and 2 in the mosaic) on a large scale, and I’ve included a few other pics for inspiration.
So, I’d like you to make 1 24″ square block. I shall make 2 to make it up to 9
Feel free to paper piece, regular piece and/or applique.
Fabrics:
Please use a white background – I’ve used klona white, which is a pretty pure white
I’d like you to mainly use the main colours from the fabric line, that is yellow, teal, orange and grey, but I don’t mind if you use solids or patterned fabrics.
I do not like batiks either, nor am I fond of big swathes of civil war type prints.
And my mosaic looked like this:
And this is what my first 2 blocks looked like (a couple of us opted to have a 9×9 layout of square blocks, hence provided 2 to start with to make up the numbers)
This is what came back to me. Isn’t it fabulous? Several of the ladies reported bursting into tears when they opened theirs, I always knew I was wired a little differently because I burst out laughing! It’s hysterical, I’d never imagined I’d get rockets shooting to the moon, or bikes complete with luggage, or such a collection of motorised vehicles, and isn’t the robot on the planet a hoot? I had left a naughty, not so subtle hint to Annabella, my assembler, that I thought my mad atom shape would work well in the centre, but really, I trusted her implicitly in whatever she decided (didn’t she decide well though? ;o) ) Also, I apologise, it was blowing a gale as I tried to take this photo!
In no particular order, the close ups…
Di N actually sent me a photo of the car she used as inspiration (the taking of which caused some marital strife!), and can you see that she stitched the name of the car onto the bonnet?!
Susan indulged my love of VW camper vans (it’s straight, honest, but remember it was blowing a gale!)
Hadley sent her herons into space, they gave me a definite giggle:
Di S did this amazing bike, and can you see the passenger on the back? She got a photo of Jack and printed him onto fabric, then popped him on the pile of books – I spotted him in the car park as I was taking this and about died laughing:
Danny gave me a robot pal
Annabella gave me another rocket, although this one is bereft of visible passengers
And Helen replicated some of the cars from the original print:
My original plan was to do something for the back, but then I’d planned originally to actually use it, now I think it will have to be a wall hanging, so I shall save my back plan for another day! I took this up to show Carole and Brian the long armers, who were amazed by it too, and we had a brief discussion on how I might quilt it. I think I shall maybe make the quilting specific to each block, and use it to emulate the movement of the contents of the block with some FMQ (on my machine rather than the long arm though, since it’s not that big)
I love how this turned out. Lots of fun. I'm so glad I was able to contribute to your quilt! I had fun with the little robot guy!
Oh this has some marvellous detailing. The ladies really did well with your brief!
Wow this is amazing, worth waiting for the big reveal!
The colors are delightful, as are the blocks.
What a fun quilt!
it's brilliant!!! What a fab bee 😀
Phew, thank goodness all that waiting is over! I love your quilt top, especially the herons in space!
Oh, I love it! You've got lots of space to play with quilting, too – can't wait to see what you do!
Stunning! What a wonderful surprise to finally be able to see your beauty, I'm sure. Such an inspiration!
How fun! Did the last person in the bee put the blocks together? I think I got confused somewhere along the line as to how this bee worked….
Very fun quilt top… everyone made amazing blocks!
At the beginning I thought this was just seriously impossible…couldn't imagine how on earth it would all come together – but it's really fabulous!!! God, some of those women are so seriously talented – it scares the socks off me!
Blimey! So cool to see something so different – suits you! Love that Jack makes an appearance too… x
It is lovely, and you all must have had such fun doing these projects!!!
Ah – they are atoms…not planets :-/ I love your quilt and my choice of block was easy – the last option available! Glad you love it Katy! Good luck with the quilting 🙂
Your centre block brings all the others together. I put off doing your block forever and then actually really enjoyed doing it. I think that the quilt top is terrific!
Congratulations to all who contributed to this – is there no end to your imaginative talent? You are very lucky to have so many talented friends, Katy, and I'm sure the quilting you do on it will do you all proud. Looking forward to seeing it when it is not in a wind tunnel.
Oh gosh, that's fab!
This is so much fun! What an awesome bee. I can easily see why you'd not "use" it but would rather put it up to feast on it in all it's glory all the time. 🙂
Brilliant! I think it will have to be a wall hanging, not a quilt for stains and wear and tear. Juliex
I loved making your block! And like Helen said, I doubted it would make a coherent quilt. But it's wonderful!
What a super fun quilt and all the more special because it is the work of many hands.
Man, this was my first block – just a tad worried, but turned out brilliantly xxx
Amazing!
Fantastic, just really brilliant 🙂
Rachael
I'm glad I made you something to make you smile. I couldn't resist adding Jack, after meeting him last October. It was so great to get to know you better through this bee. I look forward to round 2
They kept to your brief v.well! Great wallhanging! Jxo
It looks great Kate! Sounds like you all have had a great year with each other secretly making blocks or rows. Looking forward to joining the group for round 2.
Wow! I can see how this would make you smile. 🙂 You inspired such a fun, original quilt. Bravo to your stitch tease mates for rising to the challenge in such an amazing way!
brilliant quilt – love it – there's lots of white space so you could add a few more 'planets'….just a thought
What a fun quilt, it will look wonderful on the wall!
That is going to be the most fun quilt! I love ALL the blocks and how well they go together, and your inspiration! Love love love!! 🙂
Awesome! They all turned out brilliantly, though I think this is one of my favourites :o)
What a fantastic happy quilt – I am really looking forward to seeing it quilted and finished!
We must be wired alike because when I saw your fantastic quilt I couldn't help it, I laughed! I especially like the bike with Jack perched on the back. You must be thrilled with how it all turned out.
What a cool quilt! Funny blocks are awesome!
I love it! It will be a great wall hanging! Everyone is so talented and creative!
I am really enjoying FINALLY seeing these tops. I love your Circa 52 inspiration fabric – one of my favourites! Your Teasing buddies created something beautiful for you 🙂
That is one fabulous quilt top, and it will be fantastic as a wall hanging. Love all the blocks, you must be absolutely thrilled with it.
Totally gorgeous and truly one of a kind. Cant wait to see how you quilt it!
It is fantastic!!! What an amazing and creative bee you lot are!!!
This is such a fun quilt!!! All the blocks are fantastic. I love all the creative details everyone added. The herons heading to space is cracking me up too! Your atom shape is the perfect centerpiece. Can't wait to see this one quilted!
Ah, it looks so great!
Too cool – what a great bee! The blocks you received are completely amazing… And then, of course, so are the ones you made. That's going to be a kick-ass quilt!
Love it!
I laughed at loud at you saying you burst out laughing! That caused a weird look from husband since its 12.45am and we should have gone to bed hours ago. You're right it is hilarious, but beautiful and fits your design brief exactly. You're all such lucky girls to have made friends with each other.