Of Bees 'n Blocks

There was once an online group that formed an online bee. All was well the first month or two. And then the hive broke and the bees scattered. But not before I got my share of the honey. Lucky me, yes.

Taking a cue from Marianne Haak (of The Quilting Edge), an enormously talented and fun quilter, I decided I too want to play with shot cottons. Even more so for this, right here, is THE land of shot cottons. We call them Kanchi Cotton here as this sort of weaving originated in Kancheepuram, a small town not far from Chennai. Yes, same place where the world famous Indian Kancheepuram silk sarees come from.

Not happy with just a cue, I decide I want that Marianne Haak look too. I ask Marianne for permission and she very kindly agrees. So I send my bee members scraps in 5 assorted, randomly put together colours with the only instructions being...hop over to 'The Quilting Edge', get inspired, and make me a block! :-)

And make they did! Thank you ladies. I love them ALL. And thank you Marianne, from ALL of us. You have been a great source of inspiration.

Vidya1

Vidya2

Shilpa

Veena

Sandhya1

Brinda

Shruti

Sandhya2

Madhu

Lucky me, yes? :-)

Star of Africa

Anyone remember the time I made gecko soup? Of the lovely comments I got, there was one very mysterious and intriguing one. It said..Love your geckos!! Where on earth did you find this fabric?
Please hop over to my blog, there might be something to interest you :-)
http://maylifeonline.blogspot.de/2012/05/star-of-africa.html .

So hop I did. It was an invite to be part of a very unique bee and I wasted not a moment in signing up. It sounded less like a quilting bee and more like an adventure..a road trip. It is loosely based on the board game Star of Africa. Long story short, I am now one of 16 members of the Star of Africa Bee, my first international bee. We are from different parts of the world and will be making one block each month that is representative of the place we come from and yet stays within the specific requirements of the Queen Bee of the month. This is going to be very exciting. Thanks May, for inviting me over.

 The queen bee of the first month was Patti of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. (She made us say that thrice! Really fast!!)  She was fine with any block, any size, any colour. You wanna make people motionless, give them lot of choice! Nobody moved. They were too petrified I guess, of the vastness of possibilities. So started a barrage of questions to poor Patti who soon realised she had to get a little specific if she wanted the constant questions to stop :-). She narrowed down her block requirement to 8.5", warm colours, dotted border. Whew! 

This is the block I made for Patti using needle turn applique and some simple embroidery. The peacock being our national bird and saffron, white & green being our national colours, I hope this block is representative of India in some small way. I really really hope she likes it and that it will sit well with the rest of her quilt. 

Do checkout the blocks of the rest of the bee on flickr. 

Life is a game. You get to play it just once. So play hard and play well.
Happy playing!

Friends forever

I have a husband. (Ya, I know most women do, but wait, this is a long story and I promise there's a twist in the end) So, as I was saying, I have a darling husband. He has a darling niece. She has a darling friend. And the friend has another darling friend. (What? I did say it was a long story!) The other friend has a birthday coming up and friend1 wants to gift friend2 a special gift - a quilt. So, she tells the niece, and the niece tells the aunt, and ee-ei-ee-ei-o..

With a snip snip here and a piece piece there..here a stitch, there a stitch..ee-ei-ee-ei-Friends-forever-o...

I had terrible bearding with this one. The batting fibers were loose, the top fabric was dark coloured and fine woven. Perfect recipe for a bearding disaster :-(. By the time I put on the binding, the quilt was looking like a sheep. The lint roller saved the day. And the quilt. And the Birthday. Yep, ee-ei-ee-ei-ooooo..

I love my lint roller. My lint roller and I. Friends Forever.

(What? I did say there's a twist !)

Nice squares now

My previous adventure where I played with printed circles and turned squares into curves only whetted my appetite for more such adventure. So I thought why not play with printed stripes and turn triangles into squares. And thats exactly what I did. Came up with this baby boy quilt called 'Star Baby'. Its for my niece's 6 month old son who btw is the ONLY person to have received a second quilt from me so far. Its my wish that I make a quilt for every single person I care about. And my list is loooong. I guess its ok for a 6 month old star baby to occasionally jump the queue. :-)

All the square boxes are from the same printed striped fabric. 

Added a 6" mitred border in coordinated stripes. A first for me. The mitred corners I mean. In 6 inches! Feeling very proud happy about it :-).

A pieced back. Very cherryful..er..cheerful.

So sending the quilt off, bundled with much love and hugs..May the baby have many many happy adventures!