Tuesday, 5 August 2014

Helen's Bee Block and Biography

Hi, I am Helen and I have been a member of the Edinburgh Quilt Guild since it was founded earlier this year.

I started quilting in 2011 after stumbling across an open day at Jo’s shop in Morningside where she was launching her craft classes. I immediately enrolled for the beginner patchwork class and entered the shop raffle, the excitement of booking the class was too much for me and I gave Jo the incorrect e-mail address and phone number! When I won the first prize in the raffle Jo managed to track me down and sent me a nice letter through the post informing me I had won the prize of a voucher for a class. 

Needless to say since then I have been hooked, enjoying making quilts and other sewing projects and of course building my fabric stash. Below is photo of the last quilt that I completed, following a Jelly Roll Quilt workshop at myBearpaw which was taught by Fiona Calvert. The other photo is of me with my niece and nephew helping to show the quilt.



The block I have chosen for my bee block is a Whirligig Block which Jo kindly presented to the group because I could not attend that evening.


Whirligig Quilt Block

  1. Cut 2 rectangles of plain fabric 5" by 4.5"
  2. Cut 1 rectangle of pattern fabric 1, 5" by 4.5"
  3. Cut 1 rectangle of pattern fabric 2, 5" by 4.5"
  4. Stack the 4 rectangles horizontally on cutting board.
  5. Line up the centre line of the fabric (ie 2.5") with a vertical line on cutting mat
  6. With a ruler and rotary cutter cut the fabric diagonally 1/2" either side of the centre line. 
    Sew together and trim to give a centre block of 8.25" by 8.25".
  7. Cut a strip of plain fabric 1.5" wide. Sew to top and bottom of block then to the right and left sides. 
  8. Cut a strip of pattern fabric 2" wide. Sew to top and bottom of block then to the right and left sides. 
  9. Do not trim to size, I will do this.
Links to tutorials:

627handworks.com/finished-quilts
http://teaginnydesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/template-free-trim-free-whirligig.html
http://turtlehillquilter.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/charmed-whirlgigs-tutorial.html

Fabric:
  • 2 different patterned fabrics to form spokes of whirligig (fabric to include a one fabric which is either blue/green/turquoise)
  • Outer border to be different patterned fabric
  • Plain fabric to be neutral colour in a light shade

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