Saturday 7 March 2015

Let the season commence....

I've got a new bee suit and I'm determined to use it!!


The temperature hit 14'c a little after noon so the bees were out flying and it seemed the perfect opportunity to get into each hive and check that the queens had made it through the winter and are starting to get laying.

For me, there is also the additional job of clearing out all the remaining brace comb from my school girl error at the end of last year.

So.....no time like the present -  get on and scrape, chip and scoop all that excess brace comb off the top of the brood frames...


nearly gone....




It didn't take too long till I had a trough full of honey comb...


probably because I had some help from 'im indoors....


We had a visit from a Queen bumble,not my best picture ...but you kind of get the scale of her in comparison to the worker honey bees behind...


I remember reading somewhere that bumblebees are never more than 45 minutes away from starvation, being limited by the size of their stomach.  So I figure we can share some of this honey with her. (Isn't she magnificent?)



I've left the trough of honeycomb in the sunshine in the hope that every bee in the area comes and helps itself.  Then I'll be able to make something interesting from the comb.

oh - nearly forgot - yes it looks like all four of my queens have made it through the winter.  Actually only saw two of them but there are eggs and capped brood in all four hives, so I reckon the other two ran away and hid whilst I spring cleaned!

Sunday 1 March 2015

North Country quilting - part 2

I started this quilt back in September at a weekend away in Durham and I've been doing a little bit, of the pieces I prepared up in Durham every now and then, just when it felt good to do a bit more.

I had a bit of a rush at it between Christmas and New Year when I used an almost sunny day to trace some more patterns on further sections...

Tall conservatory doors come in really useful for this.  Simply stick the pattern on the glass, tape the fabric over it and as long as there is enough daylight the window becomes a superb tracing box...


 

I can see the lines.... can you?


even if you missed the pattern lines you may have spotted the plastic "green house" that had taken its third topple over of the winter so far....( I can't be a  very  conscientious gardener as it stayed there for quite a few days!


Inside it was organised chaos as pattern pieces and strips of fabric got folded in and out of piles and draped around the furniture....


But gradually the plan started to come together......


And, if I may say so myself,the quilting is actually looking pretty good.....


 So anyway I made it to this weekend with 5 strips, quilted and ready to join together.

Now among my quilting friends, the joining technique - "quilt as you go" has something of a mixed reputaton (!) Here's a quick summary of how it works....

Pin the backing, and the wadding backwards out of the way of the two edges you want to join together, pin together and machine with 1/4" seam allowance...

 

Finger press the seam open to sharpen and then back towards the darker fabric...


Then unpin the wadding and let it flap over into the gap,  pin the backing out of the way to  avoid nicking it as you cut away the overlap between the two pieces of wadding.  I've come to the conclusion there is no easy way to do this... small sharp scissors and a steady hand seem to be the way forward...

 

With the excess wadding overlap cut away the edges but up against each other.  There is no rule that says they are better off being sewn together, the quilting should hold the wadding in place, but working on the "better safe than sorry" principle I do tend to ladder stitch the edges together...


After that... its a case of flattening one piece of backing and folding the other over and appliqueing a 1/4 " seam to finish the back.

But first I think I need to admire this on the bed (in the guise of working out
how many more strips I need  to make to get it to cover the full width of the bed....


Well the good news is that it may only need another 4 panels to be considered finished width, but I think its also going to need a border to help neaten up that bottom edge...

Now I'd love to stick my nose in the pattern book and get choosing but I've got 4 seams to finish off first.  Thank heavens for a Sunday afternoon of rugby!!
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