How much mess can one block make?

My friend and quilting mentor Mandy (of madewithlovebymandy fame) is actually a real life friend in real life and lives in the same teensy village as me which my sister who lives in London calls "the land that time forgot" because we have no amenities to speak of and are not properly connected by road or mobile phone signal or freesat or digital radio or gas or mains drains, let alone trains, planes and automobiles.  Anyway, Mandy is in a bee and, I was so excited to get started on my bees which don't start until June, that she let me make her month's block.  She even put the fabric in a ziploc envelope so I felt part of the gang or perhaps because she knew that if she didn't it would get left over breakfast all over it although she was very nice about that incident.

It is a string quilt block a la Film in the Fridge.  I was given fabulous silk fabrics in golds, reds and greens and produced the block after about four days of sweating, swearing, sewing, ripping and picking with tweezers.  It's going to be a fabulous quilt but I'm not yet at the level of skill or speed required to produce a whole quilt like this in under five years.  And the MESS?  Have you made one of these quilts?  The mess is incredible.  Bits of paper, corners of fabrics, bits of string, bits of breakfast (sorry about that Mandy).  Anyway, all that aside, here is my pretty block (don't zoom in on points etc, just leave it on dim distant view without your glasses on and you'll see something really fabulous).

Comments

  1. Hey Lynne, I don't know how you date sew with silky stuff - I can't even touch it!!! I found a couple of great flickr quilty/stash groups this morning! Look on my blogs right side bar and you'll see the buttons - Sunday Stash! Justine xx

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  2. i have heard that these make a huge mess, but the result is so worth it.

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  3. Yep, I have made several string quilts and if there is paper piecing involved, it makes things even worse! But yes, the final quilt is beautiful... Thanks for the sneak preview on an upcoming block we will be making.

    Jennifer :)

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  4. too funny! yes, the paper bits are extremely messy - thank god i have a husband who (mostly) takes care of the floors so i don't have to! i think your block looks fabulous and those silks are amazing.

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  5. Has no one yet told you the quilters rule about how things look when you can drive past what you've made at 30mph and it looks fine?

    Or even riding a horse past it at a gallop. Write that down somewhere. *S*

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